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School Resource Officers in IWCS: Building Relationships and Making a Difference

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Isle of Wight County Schools is very fortunate to have a School Resource Officer assigned to each of our schools. These sworn police officers are stationed on campus everyday to ready to "respond, defend, detect, and deter" in order to keep all of our students and staff safe. Through their constant presence in the schools, the SROs are able to build meaningful, cooperative relationships with students, staff, parents, and the community to ensure a positive and secure learning and working environment.

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sros are a school resource officer and with that being said I think that's exactly what we are we're a resource to the school to the to admin staff to the coaches to the whole school system here in Isle of Wight County Hey I'm Sergeant Alex Johnson employed with the Isle of Wight County Sheriff's Office Hey I'm Deputy Crawford I'm the SRO here at Smithfield High School my name is Deputy Craun and the SRO for Windsor High School Hi I'm Deputy Cepeda I'm the School Resource Office at Georgie D. Tyler Deputy Paul Krohn School Resource Officer at Smithfield Middle School Hi I'm Deputy Crutcher the school resource officer at Westside Elementary Hey I'm Deputy Phipps here at Carrsville Elementary My name is Deputy Reid and I am here Hardy elementary school elementary Hi I'm Deputy Rios and I'm the SRO here at Windsor Elementary school Hello my name is Deputy Currier I'm the student resource officer here at Carrollton Elementary to me an sro was somebody that is the first line of defense for the entire school the students and the staff member To become an SRO you have to be a sworn police officer go through 40 weeks of training and they teach you different things like how to talk to students and how to interact with students especially conflict mitigation and mediation as well we help educate and help uplift and if there's an issue that arises we typically try to step and lend our guidance and show some positive  just be motivators we're not here to crack down on students or or make them feel like this is not a place of learning that I found our role is to assist the school so that is a safe learning environment for the students and that's first and foremost once the kids are in school we do our basic interior checks we check doors make sure they're secured do an exterior walk make sure there's nothing out of the ordinary and then throughout the day it interaction with the children in letting them know that they're safe give him a safe place to talk. Just having small conversations with the kids that are having relatively a bad day try to turn them around then with the closure of the day I'm making sure of the safety of the children exiting the school from making sure that cars are obiding in the parking lot to making sure kids get in the right vehicle just all-around just being you know an eye for safety for the children in this day and age students are going through different kinds of stresses than before mental health is a bigger issue the ability for a school resource officer to on a day-in and day-out  basis gauge a student's behavior will allow us to to step in as needed to keep the school secure and also as as we partner with the school system the sheriff's department has resources and knowledge that the school doesn't have so when those two are married they provide additional resources that otherwise may have been missed ifthe school resource officer or law enforcement officer isn't present in the schools the advantages of having an SRO in all schools including elementary school is you have an SRO you have a person there every day you get to know the children they get to know you and if something happens you have someone on site immediately to deal with anything you got to encounter that person is always there they're constantly there they're constantly building relationships with admin staff teachers the students where you don't get to do that as much if you're if let's say you have three or four schools to cover all I feel like being here in the school kind of humanizes the badge a little bit and I even have students who were kind of like I prefer to talk to you over this person or I'm surprised that you're so chill as police officer so like being able to be here really does give them that experience To be one on one with us they learn to trust the uniform and they see it as not just a uniform that I'm also a human I eat lunch with my students I go to the park with my students I visit some of them in class there's some that have a hard time with their homework and I'll sit in the hallway with them and we'll go over their school work and they concentrate a little bit better which also makes it easier on the teacher being able to talk to a student who from day one was real nervous around me to get two weeks into it they're smiling give me high fives you know what with the relationships I've built here at Smithfield High School students feel more comfortable coming to me in and saying hey somebody said this or somebody said that where if we didn't have an SRO assigned to every school that student wouldn't have that relationship so it may go on unheard personal story I was in the fifth grade and I had a DARE program and my DARE officer was a lieutenant Duncan who was employed with the Suffolk police department and as I grew up I said I want to become a law enforcement officer because of that school resource officer and that DARE  officer that was in that school showing a positive showing me how to be positive having a positive outcome he has since retired but we definitely stay in touch and he's one of the reasons why I wanted to become a School Resource Officer I think the most rewarding part is making those connections where the students know my name I know theirs and they're happy to see me happy to greet me and asking me how my day is going Probably my favorite part is in the morning when I greet every kid that comes off the bus there are some that they look forward to seeing me every morning I have some that wear badges every day some that want to be Law Enforcement Officers everyday and I look forward to getting the hugs from 580 kids at the end of the day I'm here to provide safety for the students so that they can learn they can not have to worry about what's going on outside the building around the safe environment formed inside the building so that they can be set up for success and learn that's the number one biggest satisfaction that I have also nice chatting with them joking around with them and seeing you know their learning experience is a good one my name is James R. Clarke, Jr. I'm very honored to serve as the Sheriff of Isle of Wight County for any child that matriculates through Isle of Wight County Public Schools it's my goal and my intent that when they come to this school from kindergarten all the way up to 12th grade that they eventually walk across that stage and receive a high school diploma but we do that by having that relationship with our students and our staff and our parents that's why it's important for me to have an SRO in every school to have a person that's able to respond defend detect deter and keep your child safe here in school where they can have a good learning working environment

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School Resource Officers in IWCS: Building Relationships and Making a Difference

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