photo by: Lawrence Police Department

Officers Dean Kemppainen and Lindsay Bishop

Updated at 5:21 p.m. Friday

The Lawrence Police Department is adding two school resource officers to its current team of four, LPD announced Friday.

As the Journal-World reported in August, LPD offered to add two SROs back at no cost to the district, which would allow the district to return to having an SRO assigned to each middle and high school.

In its news release Friday, LPD said there would now be a full-time officer at each middle and high school every day. The new SROs are Officer Lindsay Bishop and Officer Dean Kemppainen. The two have undergone a training and certification process for their new roles.

“I know the SROs positively influence kids,” said Lt. Myrone Grady, who supervises the SRO program, in LPD’s news release. “Adding an officer who is solely dedicated to each middle school where mentoring impacts outcomes, makes perfect sense. Policing directed toward growth and understanding, and where we can clearly see long-term improvements, is just about as good as it gets for us as officers.”

Bishop will report to West Middle School starting Monday. Bishop is a University of Kansas alumna with a degree in social work. She investigated child abuse and neglect cases for the state before joining LPD nine years ago. She has been a juvenile investigator, is a member of LPD’s Crisis Response Team and helps co-workers who experience trauma as part of LPD’s Peer Support Team.

“It’s an honor to be selected as a resource, educator, and mentor for the staff and students at West Middle School,” she said in the release.

Kemppainen will report to Liberty Memorial Central Middle School on Oct. 17. He is a Lawrence High School and Haskell Indian Nations University alumnus, and he has been with LPD for 11 years. He is a U.S. Army Reserve staff sergeant and served in Iraq, South Korea and Panama. He is also a member of LPD’s Crisis Response Team.

“I welcome the opportunity to become a positive influence on young minds and a role model to my community,” he said in the release.

LPD will now have SROs at Lawrence High School, Free State High School, Billy Mills Middle School, Southwest Middle School, West Middle School and Liberty Memorial Central Middle School.

In 2001, the City of Lawrence received a grant to place six SROs in Lawrence public schools, and each of the district’s four middle schools and two high schools had one SRO, according to a district memo. In 2005, the grant funding for the positions ended, but LPD and the City of Lawrence continued to provide SROs to the district at no charge. In 2012, due to budget cuts and reorganization, LPD cut two of the SRO positions. The remaining four SROs were assigned as pairs at each high school, with additional support provided as needed to the middle and elementary schools.

Lawrence Superintendent Anthony Lewis, who served on the Governor’s Commission on Racial Equity and Justice, said the SRO program “aligns with the district’s strategic plan’s focus on safe and supportive schools.”

When LPD proposed assigning two additional SROs, Lewis presented a report to the school board on Aug. 8.

“We recognize that there have been differences of opinion as it relates to SROs and police officers in schools so we wanted to be transparent with the board and community and keep you updated before making plans,” Lewis said in that report.

“As I have shared before, as a Black man, I am keenly aware of concerns shared by board members and the community, and am closely monitoring this program,” he added.

He also noted that “SROs are not school disciplinarians.”

“They are passionate about serving students,” Lewis said. “They want to be in our schools and help make sure students are safe.”