People nationwide are thinking about ways to keep schools safe, especially in the wake of the deadly tragedy that unfolded in a Texas school this week.

In New York, law enforcement has rapidly adjusted its presence in schools.

Oswego County Sheriff Don Hilton has said implementing effective school safety measures is one of his top priorities.

Sheriff Deputy Michael Gaita oversees the department's School Resource Officers (SRO) program launched in 2019. It has 13 officers to cover Oswego’s nine school districts, but want that number to increase to cover all of Oswego’s school buildings.

“What these guys do and what we drill into them is, basically, building relationships. You want to build a relationship," Gaita said. "You want to provide security and peace of mind. And when you do those three things, now you start to humanize the police. They approach us. They hug us. We walk to lunch with them.”

While Hilton said having armed SROs in every building is one of his top priorities, it’s not an easy feat in such a unique county.

“We have an extremely large county," Hilton said. "We have two central cities in here, the city of Fulton and the city of Oswego. The sheriff’s department works with the city police in Oswego, and we cover the SRO program there. We cover the more rural schools, and there are some that we want to put additional staff in.”

In addition to having enough SROs for every school building in the county, Hilton said he's made additional innovations to increase student protection.

”We’re working on a policy that will enhance the school districts, or the SROs, in the school districts. I'll be seeking funding from both the schools and from public funding to bolster this program,” he said.

“What we'd like to do is we'd like to really expand the physical site security, because as you see walking through the hallways, he's really busy and there's a lot of kids to tend to and lunches to rotate through," Gaita said. "So, a separate individual working out physical-site security.”

If approved by the Oswego County Legislature, officers would be dedicated to ensuring doors are secured and grounds/buildings stay safe. In the meantime, the sheriff’s department has stepped up policing at all the schools.

"So, everybody's increasing patrols and everything, but when the county increases the patrols, then that's an overtime hit to their budget," Gaita said. "This is a way to alleviate that problem in the schools. We have, again, great relationships with them, and they're totally on board."

If approved, Hilton wants the new officers in schools by September.

“It’s just to protect the innocence of the kids," Gaita said. "No one wants to see what happened in Texas happen anywhere to 7, 8, 9-year-olds, and that's why I do what I do.” says Gaita. Questions?

Check with the Oswego County Sheriff's Office.