Commissioner, school bd. member involved in private schools’ security requests
It wasn’t the sheriff’s idea to put deputies in Worcester County’s private and parochial schools. That request originated with two of the schools themselves – who also got help from an elected county official in making their pitch.
While the sheriff’s office outlined in an Oct. 15 memo how a new protective detail at three local private schools could be structured and what it might cost, that memo was written at the request of County Commissioner Caryn Abbott, according to Sheriff Matt Crisafulli.
“It was first brought to us by Commissioner Caryn Abbott,” Crisafulli told OC Today-Dispatch on Monday. “She had spoken to some residents and that facilitated the idea. Then there were discussions with the other schools, at that point. But the idea came to us this cycle from Caryn Abbott.”
The sheriff’s office told county leaders it would take an estimated $840,000 in start-up costs to get four new school resource deputies hired for the 2026-27 school year. Costs in year two would drop to about $500,000. It would take up to a year of hiring and training before deputies would be ready for the detail.
“I said, if they’re asking and they’re showing an interest, then, you know, my perspective is, I want all our children protected in mandated learning institutions,” the sheriff said. “But there’ s a lot of logistics that have to go into this. A lot of components. We wanted to get the letter upstairs to at least get the idea going. We sent it up early, because, our thought was, if this was something that got approved, we would have to recruit and hire.”