MANALAPAN – Freehold Regional High School District Superintendent of Schools James Wasser came before the Township Committee recently to talk about his campaign to see a police officer stationed in all six high schools in the FRHSD.
Known as a school resource officer (SRO), Wasser said today’s world dictates that each school should have an SRO. He referred to this type of officer as the administrators’ “first line of defense” when it comes to matters ranging from drugs and violence to peer pressure problems.
An SRO is a uniformed member of the municipal police department who is placed on regular duty at a high school.At present there is an SRO assigned to Manalapan, Marlboro and Howell high schools. There is no SRO at Colts Neck, Freehold or Freehold Township high schools.
Manalapan High School had an SRO for seven years until officer Jonathan “Herc” Suydam, an armed services reserve member, was deployed to serve in Afghanistan a few months into the 2007- 08 school year.
Wasser, who addressed the governing body on April 9, said he has “been beg- ging” for an officer to be stationed atManalapan in Suydam’s absence. He said he has been informed that the police department cannot afford to put another officer at the high school to replace Suydam in his absence.
Manalapan Police Chief Stuart Brown was not present at the April 9 committee meeting.
“Since Herc has been gone, we’ve had a deficit. We are in dire need of an SRO at Manalapan,” Wasser said.
According to the superintendent, while the police department’s decision to currently send officers to patrol the high school on daily “walk-bys” is greatly appreciated, nothing beats the hands-on involvement an SRO provides through daily interaction with a school’s students and staff members.
Wasser said the SRO becomes a necessary resource who nurtures mutually beneficial relationships with the staff members and students and who serves as a deterrent to crimes that might be planned from within and from outside the school.
He said Suydam also taught classes in safety awareness and techniques to students and staff members and had become a respected and necessary asset to everyone at the high school. He said the school is suffering due to the officer’s absence, and that is why he is asking for a replacement.
Noting that he has been in school administration for more than 30 years and saying that “although kids are still kids,” Wasser said, “Thirty-seven years ago we never imagined such a thing (a police officer being required in a high school), but things are different today. A police officer with a gun in the building is a deterrent. That’s what this is all about.”
Wasser said he, as superintendent, is “concerned that a disservice is being done by not having the officer there as residents and the town have changed and pressures have increased.”
He said at present, security at Manalapan is the province of two unarmed security guards who monitor the inside of the school, the parking lots and the perimeter of the building.
Wasser told the Township Committee members that the SRO program was started in 2000 with the help of grants. He said Manalapan, Marlboro and Howell kept the SRO after the grant ended. The officers are paid out of the municipal budget. He said it is so important to have an SRO that the FRHSD is proposing to give $20,000 to each municipality toward the cost of an SRO.
That way, said Wasser, the towns that are already paying for an SRO will receive “extra help.”
In trying to get the members of the governing body to see things his way, Wasser joked, “You get a $20,000 commission if you comply with my begging.”
Committeeman Andrew Lucas, who has been working with the Manalapan- Englishtown Regional School District Board of Education for more than a year to formulate soon-to-be-implemented shared services agreements, told Wasser he would love to see shared services started with the FRHSD.
However, Wasser was in no way joking when he stated, “We’re facing a crisis and we need to pull together. It’s going to get worse, not better.”
Speaking after the meeting, Wasser said he was referring not only to tragedies such as the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999 or at Virginia Tech University in 2007, but also to such mundane things as domestic matters involving custody disputes.
During his presentation to the committee, Wasser told officials the schools are facing two additional enemies today: cell phones and computers.
“We can use the computer as a tool or as a weapon,” he said, explaining that no matter how old a child is, parents must remain vigilant about who their children are communicating with online and who and what they are text-messaging on their cell phones.
“Cell phones are becoming the biggest problem in drug dealing,” he said, adding that the FRHSD’s policy is that it will confiscate any student’s cell phone that is caught being used in violation of the policies already in place.
Wasser said the policy is a start, but not enough to make a dent in the problem. He said although he wishes parents would support a ban on cell phones in the district’s schools, he knows that will likely never happen and said the district can only continue to enforce it confiscation policy.
Brown was not available by press time Monday to speak about Wasser’s assertions during his presentation to the committee and to a reporter after the meeting.
In a related matter, information was sought on the FRHSD’s new policy relating to student parking privileges at the six high schools.
In September, the FRHSD instituted a policy that states that student drivers who commit motor vehicle violations off school property can lose their school parking privileges. The suspension is for a period of time that increases with subsequent violations.
According to public information officer Ilse Whisner, as of last week a total of 107 students had lost parking privileges since the beginning of the 2007-08 school year as a result of motor vehicle violations that occurred off school property.
According to Whisner, the numbers break down for each school as follows: Colts Neck has had 18 drivers’ parking privileges revoked; Freehold has had six drivers’ parking privileges revoked; Freehold Township has had 20 drivers’ parking privileges revoked; Manalapan has had 25 drivers’ parking privileges revoked; Marlboro has had 32 drivers’ parking privileges revoked; and Howell has had six drivers’ parking privileges revoked.
However, Whisner noted Howell had about 16 more drivers who lost their parking privileges due to violations of the number of passengers permitted in a vehicle, over and above the actual moving traffic violations that led to all of the other parking privilege revocations.
Wasser defended the policy when some parents panned it at the start of the 2007- 08 school year. The superintendent said administrators had the right to implement the policy because parking is a privilege and not a requirement of the educational system.

