Horne: Phoenix Union schools to get safety grants individually

1,000 police reports at district schools in 2022-23

PHOENIX – State schools superintendent Tom Horne has directed Arizona Department of Education staff to directly award a total of just over $1.2 million for school safety grants to the Phoenix Union high schools that applied for funds to have on-campus law enforcement officers.

The schools are Cesar Chavez, Maryvale, Metro Tech, North, South Mountain and Trevor Browne high schools.

Horne explained, “The school safety grants were specifically requested by six high schools; therefore, they will receive those funds individually in accordance with those applications. Our first responsibility is to protect the safety and the lives of students and staff. The worst tragedy would be for a maniac to invade a school and kill students with no police officer there to protect them. In addition, the police officers are there all year, befriend the students, so students view them as friends rather than as the enemy, and the police officers also teach courses.”

Horne also noted that data collected from the Phoenix Police Department during the 2022-23 school year showed a total of approximately 1,000 calls for service at Phoenix Union campuses. These include multiple calls for shots fired, assault, persons with a gun, sexual abuse of a juvenile, stolen vehicles, and numerous other reports to police.

Horne added, “Having armed law enforcement officers on campuses is a necessity today. Just recently it was reported that a student at Phoenix Union’s Bostrom High School brought a fully loaded AR-15 rifle to campus. That student also possessed a device that would have made that firearm fully automatic. Fortunately, a tragedy was avoided, but this points out the fact that dangers exist on school campuses that can only be addressed by armed law enforcement.”

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