When I was in high school, we had School Resource Officers (SROs) in all of the schools. These were uniformed police officers who were on duty at school all day every day. If there was any kind of threat, they would take care of it.

At my first high school, we had consistent bomb threats. When I say consistent, I mean a monthly basis, sometimes multiple times a week. Each time, the School Resource Officer jumped into action and worked to make it as safe as possible. He would take charge of getting all of the students out of the school, walking through potentially dangerous hallways to inform all of the classrooms of the threat, and make sure that the police and bomb squads were there to get everything cleared so that we could get back to our days, most of the time before lunch time.

After all of these bomb threats, the School Resource Officer along with the school instituted searches when students would enter the school. Once again, the School Resource Officer did everything he could do in order to make sure all of his students were safe, even when he caught backlash for it.

In my second high school, we didn't have nearly the amount of safety issues that my first high school did. We had a couple issues in the two years that I was there, but once again, the School Resource Officer handled them with the ease that only a trained police officer could.

Recently, though, the county that my first high school was in decided to eliminate this vital position from their schools. Yes, the school district with consistent bomb threats, mandatory TSA-style searches every morning, and gun issues is the same school district that decided to eliminate having armed, trained police officers in their schools. Not the school district who mistook a drum pad with an explosive device, which was the closest to a bomb threat that school got.

The trained police officer in my school made me and my other fellow students feel safe. He made us feel like we had a bit more security as we were studying in our classrooms, but our county decided to take that away. Instead, they are replacing the School Resource Officers with security guards. Yes, the same type of people that check for fake IDs at college frat parties.

To reiterate, they are replacing armed police officers who are trained to deal with bomb threats, school shootings, and other potentially dangerous situations with people who check fake IDs and have questionable training. How will the students in that school feel? I know I would not feel nearly as safe.