CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va — Chesterfield Police recently removed one school resource officer (SRO) from Meadowbrook High School, a department spokesperson confirmed to CBS 6.
The school used to have two SROs and now has one. According to Chesterfield Public Schools' website, the standard is that all middle and high schools have one assigned SRO.
Police spokesperson Paul Siddoway said police made the decision to remove an SRO from Meadowbrook over this past winter break partly due to "declining incidents" at Meadowbrook and all schools in general.
Siddoway did not share specific numbers of those incidents, but said from 2024 to 2025, incidents at Meadowbrook dropped by 28%.
Publicly available data posted by the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) showed that student behaviors that pose safety concerns and endanger self or others have indeed decreased at Meadowbrook.
However, VDOE data showed overall behavior events, including those that impede school operations and academic progress, have considerably increased. From 2024 to 2025, the total number of behavior events rose from about 1,500 to about 2,600 — a roughly 70% increase.
Siddoway said there were "some other schools" that had two SROs and now also have one. He did not identify those schools and said he was still working to confirm whether the changes happened at the same time across all schools.
Siddoway credited the school system for implementing extra safety steps like installing weapons detectors, hiring security officers at every school, and setting expectations for student behavior.
He added he would not speculate as to whether an additional SRO at Meadowbrook would have impacted the outcome of Monday's incident, in which a student was assaulted by another student and suffered life-threatening injuries. The student who committed the assault has been charged with aggravated malicious wounding, police said.
Watch: Student suffers life-threatening injuries at Meadowbrook High School; second student charged
Police said a school resource officer responded to the incident and initially requested EMS for a medical emergency but then determined the incident was an assault.
In the aftermath of the assault, police said it increased presence at the school "to ensure the safety of students and staff."
CBS 6 reached out to school officials for comment for this story. School board members referred CBS 6's questions to district spokesperson Shawn Smith, and Smith referred questions back to police.
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