Police presence coming to Letcher County Schools

A Whitesburg Police cruiser sits outside of Letcher Central High School. The department will team up with the Neon Police Department and Letcher County Sheriff’s Office to have a presence in all of Letcher County’s schools for the rest of the year.

Another school district is welcoming uniformed police officers into its schools.

In a message posted to Facebook Thursday, the Letcher County School District announced that uniformed officers will now be in all of the district’s schools. Letcher County Sheriff’s Deputy Sidney Fields said the sheriff’s office is teaming up with the Whitesburg and Neon police departments to cover all of the Letcher County School District school buildings in the morning hours.

Fields said all three agencies hope the presence of officers at the schools will help set parents minds at ease about school safety.

Fields said officers will be in Letcher County’s schools through at least the end of the current school year.

The move comes in the same week that the Pike County School District welcomed uniformed sheriff’s deputies into its schools. The move also follows incidents in Letcher County Schools in which officials responded to threats or potential threats against schools or students. Those incidents resulted in Letcher County Central High School being closed for two days while those threats or potential threats were investigated.

School district officials have said none of those incident yielded any credible threats to schools or students. Deputy Fields said the officers who will work at Letcher County’s schools hope their presence will help prevent any such incidents in the future.

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