OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — A resident task force, which came to fruition after a controversial video went viral in January, met for the last time Thursday night. The video was a cellphone recording showing a student getting slammed to the ground by a school resource officer at Liberty High School in Poinciana.

JaMice Lewis is a mother of two and also a probation officer. For the last few months she’s taken part in a Citizens Advisory Board honing in on the role and responsibilities of school resource officers.

“We need to build the bridge between the community and the kids,” she said.

The task force approved nearly 20 recommendations like:

• Getting body worn cameras for all SROs
• Having SROs teach a class to students (drug abuse/gang related)
• Making the 40 hour basic SRO training (that is now voluntary), mandatory

Osceola County School Board Member Julius Melendez pushed to make the task force a reality.

“But at the very minimum they deserve that transparency, they deserve the reasoning, they deserve to know why we make the decisions that we do,” he said. “And I think thats fair game and that’s where we hold our elected officials accountable for their actions.”

But emotions ran high Thursday evening when the group talked about using guardians instead of SROs at charter schools. Guardians are security guards or armed school employees not sworn officers. The superintendent and law enforcement had a private meeting to discuss the change.

During the meeting, Kissimmee Police Department Chief Jeff O’Dell said, “In a perfect world we would have a cop on every corner and we wouldn't have to worry about crime.”

All task board members disagreed with the idea of a Guardian program. One of them said, “Where does it stop? It starts with the charter schools and then we continue on with the elementary school?”

O’Dell said SROs use up more than 10% of his agency. Both O’Dell and Maj. Dan Weis with the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office explained to the task force that their agencies have been feeling the impact of servicing every school in the area for the past few years and thought having a guardian program would be a good compromise.

“When somebody is off training, doing all the normal things officers do, we have to pull from patrol, investigations, traffic, to cover the school and it’s just a huge impact on our agency,” O’Dell explained.

Lewis said that for the sake of her two boys she’s hoping the group’s suggestions get implemented. “My hope moving forward is that the bridge is built between the SRO, the children, the community,” she added.

The group recommended a study to look into the possibility of using a “limited” guardian program. There will be a workshop on May 6th at 8:30am where board member Melendez will present the conclusions to the rest of the board. The school board as a whole will decide if any policy changes will be made.