10.17.22 MEETING MINUTES - Laserfiche WebLink

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Minutes of the Regular Meeting of Council Monday, October 17, 2022 Page 9 kids. He made them feel welcome. He plays with them. He does art projects with them. He helps them with their cutting. He was such a positive influence on my students. I just wanted to say I teach 3 -5 -year-olds. My students had a wonderful relationship with him and looked forward to his visits. As soon as he walks in, they are all high-fiving him. He knows all of the students' names. They miss him right now. They haven't seen him in days. They realize that he's gone; that he's not there. They might not know that he's not in the building, but they know he hasn't been in their life for a couple of days. I think it's important for young children to feel that police officers are our friends and come to be a part of their lives. Not all my children have fathers or grandfathers or uncles and he is the male figure in their home. He has helped the preschool with many situations with the parents. The one 1 can think of is we had a parent that refused to put his child in a car seat and Officer Stuart every day went out there and I knew that little child was safe because Officer Stuart kept talking to that father to put him in a car seat, explaining why it's important. Personally, I feel that Officer Stuart keeps our building safe. Without him, I feel that it will not be as secure. I feel that the new SRO in my personal opinion will not give the time to the school that Officer Stuart did. He or she will need time to develop a relationship with the staff and students. I really would like you to reconsider the removal of Officer Stuart. Not only has he been a great friend to me and my preschool students but people who have been mentored by him. Ted Wetzel 6180 Hemingway Road CW Mayfield Village 44143 It's really hard to top what was just said. I do think that I want to thank all of you for your service in trying to do the right thing. Renee works at the high school and if I have to say one thing about, if I can only say one thing, it would be that Renee feels safe and she works 20 feet from Stuart and sees everything. They started on the same day 9 years ago. But we realize things are kind of complicated too in a day and age where our childrens' safety is questioned like a lot. Their safety is really important including who provides that safety. We realize this is complicated. It's also complicated by what is community policing, right? Community policing is like we want our police officers to be friendly and supportive and not just shows of force and adversarial. So, is looking at pictures crossing the line of friendliness? I don't know. Maybe. Can we learn something in today's day and age? Are we allowed to make mistakes? Are we allowed to apologize? Can we be wiser because of having made a mistake? These are tough issues. Thanks for wrestling with it. Officer Stuart, it sounds like, needs to be back at the high school. Mayor Bodnar stated, thank you all for coming out tonight. I appreciate all of your comments. At this point, I am going to ask Chief Matias to give us some facts about the situation. Thank you. Chief Matias stated, thank you, Mayor. I appreciate everybody coming out and I think it's great showing your support for Officer Galicz and the things you said. And I agree, he's done a fantastic job over the past nine years. But it's important to understand, the School Administration brought some concerns to my attention. That's how this started. When I looked into it, it was time to make a change. Whether you believe me or not, when I considered this, the best interests of the school, the department and the kids is what I looked at. Again, after considering everything and looking