(FOX40.COM) — Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper is calling for more school resource officers on campus in the wake of the fatal shooting of a teenager at Natomas High School.

Cooper released a statement on social media Thursday morning emphasizing the importance of a law enforcement presence on school campuses.

“We can have all the conversations we want about policy, philosophy and perception,” he said “But none of that matters when masked men enter a ‘secure’ campus and a student is killed. We send our kids to school for 6 to 7 hours a day with the expectation that they are learning, working hard, and striving to build a better future. The last thing any parent should have to worry about is whether their child is safe at school.”

Cooper pointed to the partnership between the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office and the Elk Grove Unified School District as a “long-standing, proven model built on trust and coordination.”

The office is expanding its campus outreach, adding resource officers to Antelope High School.

Instead of implementing stationary security guards fixed at posts, the deputies on campus build relationships with the entire school community, including students, staff and parents, Cooper said.

Cooper said that protecting the most vulnerable people should be a society’s main goal, and asked the question, “who is more important to protect than our children?”

“Opposing school resource officers might sound good in a school board meeting or on social media, but it does not hold up when real-world violence shows up at a school’s doorstep,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sacramento County District Attorney, Thien Ho said preventative measures need to be taken.

“We have two 16-year-olds that brought two loaded handguns onto school campuses in the middle of the day. And we have a shooting,” Ho told FOX40 on Wednesday. “So we really need to double our efforts of prevention and intervention. But also, how do we get the guns out of the hands of kids?”

Natomas Unified School District confirmed with FOX40 that they submitted a formal request to the Sacramento city manager to reinstate their school resource officer contract. The district’s previous three-year contract expired at the end of 2025 and was not renewed due to a police staffing shortage.

The Sacramento City Manager’s Office said the city and the Sacramento Police Department are working closely as they evaluate the request and determine the most responsible path.

“We remain committed to examining changes made throughout the department while maintaining strong partnerships with our local school districts,” the police department said in a statement.

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