GREENFIELD — School Committee discussions on whether to consider stationing a school resource officer in the city’s schools resulted in a 3-3 tie vote on Wednesday, leading the issue to be tabled until the October meeting.

Wednesday’s discussion comes in the wake of recent school shootings, with a shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia last week killing two students and two teachers and a subsequent incident at Northwest High School in Omaha critically injuring a 15-year-old.

Addressing the School Committee during public comment, Police Chief Todd Dodge held up a chart depicting the significant increase in child fatalities from shootings over the years. He noted that the FBI was investigating threats in Greenfield the day after the Apalachee shooting and said Greenfield Police has two officers ready should the committee decide it wants to station them at the schools.

“I want to protect our kids, there’s no other motive behind that,” Dodge said. “It’s real, it’s here, and in the wake of the school shooting in Georgia, the next day the FBI was in Greenfield. It’s here, we’re scared. … I’m just looking to have someone there at the ready in case something happens. It seems almost imminent, as sad as that is to say.”

According to an email Superintendent Karin Patenaude sent to Greenfield School Department staff and parents Thursday morning, the FBI’s presence in Greenfield involved a social media threat against local schools that was found not to be credible.

“The police shared that the FBI determined there was no credible threat, and the department was inquiring about the status of the resident with the schools. This Greenfield citizen is not a registered student at Greenfield Public Schools, and the August social media post in question did not name a specific school nor Greenfield Public Schools,” Patenaude wrote. “As always, we take any information like this very seriously. This is why we review security and safety throughout the year with teachers, staff, and local and state authorities.”

School Committee Chair Glenn Johnson-Mussad, Vice Chair Kate Martini and member Stacey Sexton voted against reopening discussions to station a school resource officer at the schools, while Mayor Ginny Desorgher, who holds a position on the School Committee, and committee members Melodie Goodwin and Ann Childs voted in support of the motion.

Desorgher noted that she chose to put the option of a school resource officer on the meeting agenda after the FBI came to Greenfield to investigate threats against the schools. She said she had concerns for student safety.

Goodwin, who formerly served as principal of Newton School, echoed the mayor’s concerns, noting that schools more isolated from downtown Greenfield might not have as fast of a police response in the event of an emergency.

“I think the world is a very scary place and unfortunately things are happening everywhere. Everybody likes to think it will not happen where they live. We need as much help as we can get to keep our schools safe,” Goodwin said. “SROs are a necessity for today’s world. … Every time there’s a shooting, you sit there and you just hold your breath. I do not want us to be sitting here in tears because children or teachers died.”

After asking Patenaude whether schools could contact the police in the event of an emergency, Sexton said they did not support the stationing of SROs.

Sexton noted that in previous years, the School Committee voted against the addition of two SROs, a decision that Martini said was based on community feedback and should be honored. Martini also noted that the presence of SROs in schools did not stop the Parkland High School shooting in 2018, nor did it stop last week’s shooting in Georgia or the Uvalde shooting in 2022.

“I will not forget from our discussions, the opposition expressed by many of our students and the poignant position of why students would not feel safe having police in our schools,” Martini said. “I worry as much as anybody else about our security.”

Johnson-Mussad, too, expressed his opposition to the motion, but noted that previous requests for an SRO were motivated by a will to build stronger relationships between students and police, and never before as a means of protection against mass shootings.

“The challenge for students of color in particular — Black and Hispanic students — is that the role of the police in these communities has not always been about protecting people,” Johnson-Mussad said. “It could be triggering and inhibiting of learning to have a police presence in the schools on an ongoing basis.”

Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at acammalleri@recorder.com or 413-930-4429.