The Clark County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) is pleased to announce the return of the agency’s School Resource Officer (SRO) Program.
CCSO will provide one deputy to work full-time at Prairie High School with Battle Ground Public Schools for the 2024/2025 school year. CCSO selected Deputy Chelsea Quiggle to be the Prairie School Resource Officer. Deputy Quiggle has been with CCSO since 2019. She has a background in education, having worked as an educator and taught at schools in Kelso and Longview before joining CCSO.
CCSO’s SRO program was paused in 2020 due to budget and staffing constraints as well as pandemic-related shifts to remote learning for students.
At that time, CCSO had SROs in five area high schools: Prairie HS (Battle Ground Public Schools), Hockinson HS (Hockinson School District), Skyview HS and Columbia River HS (Vancouver Public Schools), and Heritage HS (Evergreen Public Schools).
When CCSO’s new administration took over in early 2023, leadership began conversations with local school district leaders about bringing back the SRO program. SRO programs help build relationships between law enforcement and youth in our communities and help make schools safer.
Then, in 2024, as staffing improved slightly, CCSO committed to providing two SROs to Clark County Schools for the 2024/2025 school year and three additional SROs for two consecutive school years.
Sheriff Horch and CCSO’s Executive Team met with the Evergreen, Vancouver, and Battle Ground school districts to discuss the proposal. The Evergreen and Vancouver districts were unable to proceed due to budget constraints. Battle Ground Public Schools (BGPS) was able to fund the deployment of one SRO for the upcoming school year.
As part of the agreement, CCSO and BGPS split the cost of the deputy’s salary, with the school district paying 80% and the sheriff’s office paying 20%.
"When I became Sheriff, one of my key objectives was to re-engage CCSO in the School Resource Officer program for local school districts interested in partnering with us,” said Sheriff Horch. “I’m pleased that we’ve achieved this goal and look forward to the prospect of expanding the program further if our staffing increases. I also hope to see other local law enforcement agencies join us in this important effort."
Source: Clark County Sheriff's Office