LYNNWOOD — Snohomish County deputy sheriff Rebecca Lewis walks the halls of Lynnwood High School with a friendly smile and an eagle eye.
Earlier this year, she persuaded a troubled teen to turn over a knife he brought to the campus. Two weeks ago, she tracked down four teen-aged suspects, including two students, hours after an arson fire at a home near the school.
In education-speak, Lewis is known as a school resource officer, the law enforcement front line in a school emergency who gets to know students each day in an effort to prevent potential crimes before they happen.
Most large high schools in Snohomish County either have a deputy or a police officer on their grounds. That might not be the case next fall at the Edmonds-Woodway, Lynnwood, Meadowdale and Mountlake Terrace high schools that serve more than 6,000 Edmonds School District students.
Budget cuts have forced the district to consider dropping its school resource officer program, which would save $200,000 in next year’s budget. It is among $6.7 million in budget reductions that Superintendent Nick Brossoit is proposing to the school board.
“These are tough times,” said Ken Limon, an assistant superintendent. “I have met with all of the jurisdictions. This is coming at a time when they are struggling to meet their budget goals as well.”
Sheriff John Lovick said officers make a big difference on high school campuses.
“Eliminating the school resource officer will put a lot of pressure on the staff in those schools to deal with difficult and dangerous situations that the resource officer could handle routinely,” he said.
If the school positions are eliminated, the deputies would be reassigned, said Rebecca Hover, a sheriff’s office spokeswoman.
The Everett School District has police officers assigned to each of its high schools and that will not change next year.
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