MIDDLESBORO — Students from Middlesboro High School (MHS) made their plea before city council Tuesday night to have a Middlesboro Police Officer put back in their school full-time.

The officer was removed from MHS on Jan. 29, according to the students, because of scheduling conflicts at Middlesboro Police Department (MPD).

”By removing this officer from MHS, we feel we have lost a sense of security and well-being at the school,” said Ronnie Johnson, Senior Class President of MHS. “Just the presence of a police car at the door and a police officer in the school might deter anyone from coming in to cause trouble or harm our student body. I realize that you don’t have the power to schedule the officers. But the students at MHS want an explanation as to why this officer was removed.”

Johnson quoted Hickman’s letter to the Daily News on Dec. 5 citing that the city is in “stable financial condition.”

“If the question is funding to replace the officer, and if the city is in good condition, funds should already be in place in the budget,” stated Johnson. “Is money the issue or is the safety of the students more important? Ask the parents.”

Jane Cambron, Language Arts teacher at MHS, came before the council with representatives from the student government. She clarified that she was not representing teachers at MHS and also her intention was not to “slam” MPD for their decision.

“We fully appreciate the fact that we’ve had a police officer and it’s been at the expense of the police department for the past four years,” said Cambron.

But Cambron said the decision to pull the officer in the middle of the year has been difficult for the school.

“We can’t possibly get funding to hire somebody for the rest of the year.”

Cambron said the school’s budget is too tight to get a replacement.

“We feel safer with that police car sitting out in front of our building,” said Cambron.

“We have a high drug rate in this county and in this city. Unfortunately, it does spill over into our schools,” added Cambron.

Police Chief Jeff Sharpe stepped forward to try to explain the situation.

He said that the full-time officer was entirely funded by the Middlesboro Police Department for the four and a half years he was there. Sharpe said MPD had tried to keep the officer there for as long as possible, but they just couldn’t keep doing it.

“Right now, we’ve just come to the situation where... We’re short four positions that just can’t be immediately filled,” said Sharpe.

“I knew we were already short-handed when we put the man up there and we would not be able to guarantee this position,” he added.

Sharpe said he’d spoken with Superintendent Dr. Rita Cook and told her he intended to get the program reinstated “as soon as possible.”

Sharpe explained to the council that money wasn’t the overriding issue in the situation, but keeping the force staffed in order to protect the entire city.

“We simply had to have that man. We couldn’t keep him up there full-time any longer,” said Sharpe.

He said it took a long time to get qualified officers, and that was one of the problems they were short-handed.

Sharpe said that prior to the placement of the full-time school officer, there was a park-and-walk program where an officer would come by as much as possible. He said MPD would go back to that for now, until they could get an officer back in the school.

Council members discussed several options with Sharpe and the representatives from MHS, but none were decided upon.

Sharpe said his officers would continue to patrol the school when possible and he hoped to eventually get a full-time officer back there.

Council member Gary Mills thanked emergency officials for their work during the snow storm during the regular meeting.

“I think we should congratulate city employees for getting out under difficult conditions and doing a good job to keep the city moving,” said Mills.

A safety meeting is scheduled on Feb. 16 before the next council meeting.

Council member Rob Lincks was absent from Tuesday’s meeting.

Stephen Woodward is a Staff Writer for the Daily News. He may be contacted at swoodward@middlesborodailynews.com.