Shady Cove, Ore — A state of the art security system is on hold at one Jackson County school. This after it was nixed by Sheriff Corey Falls.
The Sheriff says the money can be better spent elsewhere and has brought a third deputy into the city but the move isn’t sitting well with some parents.
In 2013 the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office installed a high tech surveillance and alert system at Shady Cove Elementary, a few years later Sheriff Corey Falls decided not to maintain the system, and that has some parents reconsidering where their children go to school.
“Shady Cove school is known as the safest school in Oregon, it’s a little less safe now,” said Mike Coble
Coble says he chose to enroll his four young daughters at Shady Cove School for one reason.
“The emergency warning system that they have is just over the top, that’s one of the things that drew us there and the small town and the school,” said Coble.
The state of the art system includes door locks, panic buttons and cameras monitored by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, but that system is no more.
“It probably would have been a sustainable thing if multiple schools and law enforcement agencies had put money in the pot for us to monitor that that probably would have taken off to be a system that was great in Jackson County, it just didn’t happen,” said Sheriff Falls.
Jackson County Sheriff Corey Falls says the system, which was originally planned for all schools in the county, failed to catch on and was costing the department 60 to 70-thousand-dollars to maintain, not including the wages paid to the employee who monitored the security cameras.
So JCSO assigned a full time deputy in it’s place.
“For our training and what we do, it would be better to put our training and resources into have training for all our schools,” said Sheriff Falls.
Parents weren’t informed when the system was put on hiatus at the beginning of the school year.
A parent himself, Sheriff Falls says he hopes to resolve the issue with the help of parents and the school district.
“It was my intent that all the parents of Shady Cove would have known last spring, if they didn’t I apologize,” said Sheriff Falls.
That doesn’t matter to Coble is only concerned with the safety of his family.
“I leave my 4 girls there and come to Medford from Shady Cove to work it’s piece of mind.”
Coble says he hopes the County can come to some sort of compromise, what remains to be seen is what will happen to the security situation at Shady Cove Elementary in Shady Cove.
Sheriff Falls says he is happy to address parent’s concerns and encourages families to reach out to him if they have any questions.
© 2024 KOBI-TV NBC5. All rights reserved unless otherwise stated.