Police School Resource Officer assigned to Ethan A. Chase

By Doug Spoon, Editor

Ethan A. Chase will become the first middle school in Menifee to have a School Resource Officer assigned to the campus full-time by the Menifee Police Department.

The Menifee City Council last week approved an agreement with the Romoland School District for the SRO services at Ethan A. Chase, which is located in the Heritage Lake community. The school district will fund 50 percent of the position, which is estimated to be $209,981 in the first year of the five-year agreement. The City of Menifee is funding the other 50 percent, as well as 100 percent of vehicle costs.

All three high schools in the Menifee area are staffed by an SRO. Perris Union High School District and the City of Menifee reached an agreement in May 2022 to place an SRO at Paloma Valley High School and Heritage High School. An agreement between PUHSD and the Riverside Sheriff’s Department placed an SRO at Liberty High School.

There have been ongoing discussions between Menifee PD and the Menifee Union School District, but so far no SROs have been approved for MUSD’s three middle schools -- Menifee Valley Middle School, Bell Mountain Middle School, and Hans Christensen Middle School – according to Chase Coburn, community engagement specialist for Menifee PD.

Last week’s agreement was the culmination of ongoing discussions between Menifee PD and Romoland School District. The announcement comes less than a month after police arrested an Ethan A. Chase student who they say was found with a firearm on campus. In October 2021, a 13-year-old student at Ethan A. Chase was arrested following an assault on another student.

A request for information on the agreement from Romoland School District was not immediately returned on Tuesday.