School Resource Officers Across The State Meet For Training

School Resource Officers are learning how to keep kids safe at school this week for the Oklahoma School Resource Officer Association Conference. 

"How to be an SRO, how to relate with the kids, also threat assessment, which is one of the big topics in today's society," said President Bervis Littles. 

President of the Oklahoma School Resource Officer Association Bervis Littles says this week of training is crucial to make sure school officers know the latest trends and understand the importance of building a bond with students.

"To have them relate, and to have them know we're not here to write them tickets, or arrest them, we are here to be a positive role model for them," he said.

The officers will spend the week in sessions learning how to look for signs of students who are struggling and will have active shooter training as well. Tulsa County Sheriff Vic Regalado says the job of a school official has changed over the last decade. 

"We're teachers, we are mentors, we are facilitators of partnerships, and we are also that person that steps in when someone is in an active shooter situation," he said. 

Regalado says it's a community effort to keep schools safe, especially because of social media, and it takes everyone to make sure kids are safe in the classroom.

"I can't think of another entity that is more important than the protection of our children, they are our future generations, they are our future reporters, our future sheriffs, our future mayors, and we have to have an invested interested in protecting that," he said. 

The conference will wrap up on Friday.