School districts within Pearl River County are working to ensure the safety of its campuses by building positive relationships between students and local law enforcement officers.

In October, a video went viral showing Senior Deputy Ben Fields in South Carolina flipping a student backward and throwing her across the classroom floor when she refused to surrender her phone during class, according to the Associated Press.

Picayune City Manager Jim Luke, former director of safety and security for the Picayune School District and chief of police for the city of Picayune, said the situation could’ve been different had there not been an audience watching the exchange between the officer and student.

“If a student is acting out, I think it would’ve been smarter to evacuate the room, in my opinion, since the student was acting up in front of their peers. It’s not because you’re trying to hide anything, but without an audience, the kids would be less likely to act out,” Luke said.

The Picayune School District has employed school resource officers since 2002. He said the school district asked the department and city officials to draw a contract in order to hire school resource officers to keep the campuses within the district safe.

Luke said the best way to ensure a school’s safety is to build a strong relationship between students and the school resource officers.

“If you’ve got an officer on campus and they build relationships with students by getting to know them by name and having conversations, it becomes a ‘them and us’ situation to a ‘we’re all on the same team’. Since the students want to be safe on campus and trust the officer, they’re more likely to let the officer know if there’s a gun, drugs or a theft occurred on campus,” Luke said.

Before working on campus, officers need to receive certification in order to become a school resource officer, Luke said.

Picayune Memorial High School Principal Kent Kirkland said the school resource officers bridge the gap between the school and the community.

“They’re there to assist administration. And if a student doesn’t comply, we ask for assistance,” Kirkland said.

Kirkland said he’s been principal since 2003 and there have been a handful of minor instances over the years where officers had to intervene in a student situation.

“Anytime you have a presence on the campus, it makes for a safer school,” Kirkland said.

The Pearl River County and Poplarville school districts also have school resource officers.

PRC Campus Police Chief Brandon Herrin said in an interview for a story in August that his team is constantly patrolling the schools to “make sure students stay safe.”

Besides resource officers, schools within the PRC district, including the elementary schools, utilize safety features and procedures to promote the wellbeing of their students. This includes the use of surveillance cameras in every school and faculty and staff are equipped with two-way radios to communicate in case of an emergency. Additionally, everyone on each campus must undergo emergency drills mandated by the Mississippi Department of Education.

School officials and officers within the districts say they hope to continue providing a safe place for students to learn for many years to come.