Retired state trooper Paul Favreau (left) is the school resource officer at Windsor High School

By Guy Page

Following yesterday’s news that both Vermont high schools facing school shooter threats this month discontinued their school resource officer programs during the ‘defund the police’ movement, Vermont Daily Chronicle took to the internet to determine which Vermont high schools do and don’t have armed school resource officers. 

The following list is not comprehensive of all Vermont high schools. Some information may be dated. Readers, if you see something (inaccurate or incomplete below), say something. 

Further note: some schools may want to have an SRO, but cannot hire one due to the state and national shortage of police officers. So, school board antipathy towards SROs may not be the only reason a school doesn’t have one.

High Schools Without SROs

Brattleboro Union High School suspended its school resource officer program on March, 2021.

Champlain Valley Union High School in Hinesburg (see news story yesterday).

Montpelier High School (see news story yesterday). 

At Burlington High School, resource officers employed by the district are not welcome on campus unless specifically invited, following an April, 2021 school board decision. 

Bellows Free Academy in St. Albans transitioned last year from an SRO to a non-uniformed SSO, who focuses less on responding to conflict and more preventing them from happening. 

High Schools with SRO’s

Lamoille Union High School hired an SRO in December, 2021 following numerous assaults and school threats. 

South Burlington High School discussed resource officers in 2021 and opted to keep them. 

Winooski High School will keep its SRO at least through the 2021-22 school year, following a long back-and-forth debate among school and municipal leaders. 

North Country Union High School in Newport contracts with the Orleans County Sheriff’s Dept. for a school resource officer. In April 2019, classes were cancelled after the SRO received tips about potential act of violence from a 17-year-old student. 

Fair Haven Union High School not only has a school resource officer, the school celebrates School Resource Officer Appreciation Day. This month, the school announced it would hold emergency evacuation drills. Also, Superintendent of Schools Brooke Olsen-Farrell posted her opposition to S63, banning SRO’s, on the school website. A planned school shooting was prevented in 2018 when an informant provided information to the school SRO. 

Paul Favreau is the resource officer at Windsor High School. 

Victor Milani is the Security Officer at Mt. Anthony Union High School in Bennington. 

Jaime Bressler of the Colchester Police Dept. is the Colchester High School SRO.