WTOL.com: News, Weather and Sport for Toledo, OhioOregon school board meetings eliminate security

Oregon school board meetings eliminate security

OREGON, OH (WTOL) – Oregon school board members decided on Friday that meetings will no longer be staffed by police. The issue has been discussed since the last meeting.

Police presence was requested at meetings last year, when there were several issues causing heated debate at the meetings.

Some board members were receiving threatening emails, and a year ago, a man shot at a school board superintendent in Florida before killing himself.

With those types of issues at hand, school board members felt that they were no longer safe. After that, an officer or two staffed each meeting.

Recently, the city told the district that it can no longer take police off of the streets for meetings if there isn't a threat, and one of the board members agrees.

 "I know the people here. Are they passionate? Yeah. Do they care about the schools? Yeah, but what I love about it. I think it sends a bad message. You start sending a message that maybe they're there to silence them or to control the crowd, and I don't think we've ever needed that in the city." P.J. Kapfhammer explained.

Members were either going to have to foot the bill, or go without police. Even though the decision was made to go without on Friday, the option to bring security back, if necessary, is still there.

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