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During a campaign event Tuesday night, Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin said he wants to require all schools in Virginia to have a resource officer.
”When I’m your governor, working for you, every school will be required to have school resource officers on its campus. And let me be clear, they will be on every campus or that school will lose its funding,” Youngkin said in front of a large crowd in Fairfax County. “If you are a school board and you refuse to equip your schools with school resource officers to keep our children safe, you will need to find your funding for your school on your own.”
It is not currently required in Virginia for a school to have a resource officer. It is up to local school districts to make that decision. The powers of school resource officers is outlined in the Memorandum of Understanding between the schools and law enforcement under guidelines put in place by the Department of Criminal Justice Services in 2017.
The Virginia Code defines a school resource officer as a “certified law-enforcement officer hired by the local law enforcement agency to provide law enforcement and security services to Virginia public elementary and secondary schools.”
Youngkin is running against Terry McAuliffe, the former governor that is now seeking reelection four years after leaving office due to Virginia’s Constitution banning consecutive gubernatorial terms.
Making education a key point of his platform, Youngkin said he would name new leadership at the Department of Education immediately if he wins this election. “By Dec. 1, I am going to name a new Secretary of Education,” Youngkin told the crowd in Fairfax. “And by Dec. 1, I will name a new Virginia Superintendent, and they together, will assemble a task force—comprised of teachers, administrators, law enforcement, students and parents.”
Youngkin also called for an investigation into the Loudoun County school board over the handling of two alleged sexual assaults within the school district, annual school safety audits to be conducted in coordination with local law enforcement, and a mandate for schools to report crimes to local law enforcement.
“No more cover-ups, no more keeping parents in the dark. If there is a crime committed at a school, we’re calling the police,” Youngkin said. “Now when we send our children to school, it is the most basic expectation that our child returns home each day as safe as when that student walked innocently through those school’s doors.”
In a statement, the McAuliffe campaign accused Youngkin of pushing divisive conspiracy theories. “Glenn Youngkin’s entire campaign has been based on Donald Trump’s divisive conspiracy theories, and [last night] we saw more of the same — angry Trumpian conspiracy theories and constant threats against public school funding,” said Christina Freundlich, a spokesperson for McAuliffe. “Terry McAuliffe, however, is running for all Virginians and will build a stronger commonwealth that invests in public education and lifts everyone up.”
The latest poll shows a tie between McAuliffe and Youngkin.
In addition to the governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general; all 100 seats in the House of Delegates are up for election this November. Republicans on Wednesday called on Democrats to answer where they stand on these priorities that Youngkin announced Tuesday. “There’s only one right answer to these questions — and you won’t get it from House Democrats,” said Garren Shipley, a spokesperson for the House Republican caucus.
The office of the Speaker of the House did not respond to requests for comment.
Election day is Nov. 2.
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