By SHAWN JARRARD
Swarming the halls between classes at Clarke Central High School, hundreds of teenagers “cut up” with each other, stop off at their lockers and eventually make their way to class. Gliding among them is a watchful guardian.
No, not Batman — this guardian has a real heart for the students, and doesn’t need a mask to affect the community within which he works.
“You get one or two kids that are normally going to drop out of school, and you get them to graduate,” said senior police Officer Tommy Barnett. “And you see them go across the stage. I think that’s my reason for coming back year after year after year, because I’m always hoping I can save just one more kid, one more kid — that’s the reason I wake up every morning and come here.”
Athens native Barnett is a school resource officer at Clarke Central High. Having been there for nine years, he knows well his role in the school.
“I think I’m a liaison between the police department and the teenagers, and also teenagers to the police department,” said Barnett. “I try to break down some of the barriers and not be so macho, or so rigid, but try to talk to the kids and get an understanding of what they’re going through, and why they’re acting the way they act.”
Each of the four middle and two high schools in the school district has a resource officer, with each high school getting an additional police officer from the Athens police department.
“It’s always exciting for me to play a part in a young person’s life,” said senior police Officer Chris Brogden, school resource officer for Clarke Middle School. “Something maybe that I said somewhere down the road maybe touched them to where they wanted to go out and do and make something of themselves.”
For a resource officer, it’s all about being there for the students.
“I got cereal for kids who are hungry, I got yogurt for kids who are hungry. I know I got kids coming here that are coming from a pretty crappy environment in life, and [I] try to give them some kind of stability. And if I know a kid’s hungry then I’ll sit there and shoot them some cereal or, ‘Hey, got some yogurt. You need anything?’”
There is a clear line, however, between the schools and the resource officers.
“Pretty much I leave everything up to the school, because it’s the school district — I’m here to just help them out,” said Brogden. “I help out in the hallways — you know, ‘Hey kids, y’all need to get to class.’ They see me in that role as somebody who will joke around with them, who will go in there and shoot ball with them. But they know I’m going to do my job, too, when it comes down to it, regardless of who it is.”
A resource officer doing his or her job “when it comes down to it” involves some pretty serious business.
“Having someone in the schools with the power to arrest and carry a firearm is important these days,” said Major Carter Greene, a superior officer in charge of the school resource officers. “You never know what is going to happen one day to the next. It can
also prevent and reduce the likelihood of another Columbine shooting.”
Becoming a resource officer has everything to do with finding the right fit for each school, and applying officers really have to show their interest.
“The SRO position is a voluntary decision on the part of the officer,” said Greene. “We open it up to any officer who is then interviewed by the school principal. The decision as to which officer is chosen is strictly up to the school administration.”
Although the resource officer acts as an authority figure, they don’t actually discipline students. If an officer finds a kid breaking schools rules, they get that student to an administrator, according to senior police Officer Barnett. It is up to the school to come up with a proper punishment.
The school district’s Code of Student Conduct contains 28 individual guidelines for addressing “prohibited behavior,” which encompasses “what students must not do.”
Discipline for violations range from detention to long term suspension or expulsion. If the principal or assistant principal recommends the latter, the matter is turned over to the district’s disciplinary hearing officer.
“The hearing officer is a neutral party who listens to the evidence given by both sides and decides whether the student has broken the rules and what disciplinary consequences, if any, are needed,” said Sam Preston, who fills the position for Athens’ school district. “I find the work very rewarding because I get to use my skills and experience as an educator to help students get the most benefit possible from what our district has to offer.”
The school district wrote the student code with the help of lawyers, and although the whole disciplinary process may sound technical and wordy, one of the main goals of the code is quite clear: “to ensure an environment for learning which is protected from interruption and harassment.”
It is this code, along with a lot of heart and understanding, that resource officers use to do their jobs.
“A lot of people like to say it’s a sign of the times, and kids are bad,” said Clarke Central’s Barnett. “But that’s not the only service that we provide, to be here to stop fights. We’re here actually to provide a safe environment for the kids to learn.”
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