It seems that my brethren are going through training. I got recertified in June.
Long-time readers of this blog know that I am an SRO at a school in Alexandria. I don't normally talk about law enforcement in this blog, except in a broad-brush manner. While I'm happy to talk about the career and I'm happy to tell stories from my past, I don't talk much about the job at hand for the same reasons I don't talk about the day to day activities of a marriage. I'm too close to it to be objective.
However, the Town Talk covers it, and these guys do one of the most thankless jobs in law enforcement. You won't find an SRO being named LEO of the year. You won't find an SRO getting a promotion for doing the job. It ain't blue lights and high speed chases. Most of the time, the job is fairly low-key.
It's like being a sheep dog. Watching a herd. Knowing that you can sit on that hill all year, overlooking the herd and have nothing happen, but that without warning you might be in the fight of your life because someone is trying to hurt your sheep. No one is going to hurt my sheep. Not on my watch.
The training is important, not so much for the skills that are imparted but for the mental activity that accompanies it. Some call it wargaming, some call it brainstorming, I call it "What If?". What if someone gets out of their car waving a gun? How will I respond? What if someone tries to take the principal hostage? What a goblin is just around the corner with a baseball bat? I spend a good portion of my day playing "what if" as I walk the halls. It's a good mental exercise and the training helps me understand the appropriate response.
I'm glad that the guys and gals are going through the training. It's a blessing for them and a blessing for the kids they'll be watching in another six weeks.
Who is the bigger threat? Someone who would do harm to the students, or the students themselves?
ReplyDeleteThat's a hard question, Scott. First, you have to define the threat. Someone who would do harm to the students is the threat, whether that person is a student, as was the case at Columbine, or if the person is an outside influence, like the guy in the Nickel Mines school shooting.
ReplyDeleteOur goal is simple. No one gets hurt on our watch.
Bless the protectors of the flocks, for they are truely just in the Lords eyes....
ReplyDeleteThanks Dennis and please thank the new SROs and any other you happen to met.
SROs might be made fun of by "regular" LEOs, but they are the first line of defense for our children. They have a thanksless job, taking heat from the school kids and the public.
Jerry in SI, still casting boolits!