Bend Police are upping security through Bend-La Pine schools following last Sunday’s deadly shooting at a Bend Safeway.
“I feel like I didn’t want to take my kids to school,” Reno Nelson said, a parent of a child attending a Bend- La Pine school this fall. “Somebody needs to be armed in case some vigilante comes in and wants to try to take lives.”
Bend Police say they hope the uptick in security will put minds at ease before the new school year begins.
“People all over town are taking this incident at Safeway to heart and it’s a scary time,” Bend Police Communications Manager Sheila Miller said. “So any opportunity for us to be out in the community, just being present and making sure people know we’re around is important.”
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Julianne Repman, Bend-La Pine Director of Communications and Safety, says the schools are also making security increases of their own.
“We are increasing our online behavior tracking to make sure we have an eye on that,” Repman said. The district is also looking at different ways of how it can respond to psychological first aid and how to ensure school perimeters are safe.
Bend-La Pine schools begin the school year next week.
