Two dozen school security officers complete Knoxville TN training
Knoxville TN Aug 2 2018 Two dozen school security officers fresh off nine weeks of training waited with jitters to take the stage at South-Doyle Middle School and graduate into the next step.
As the district prepares to open classrooms back up to its more than 60,000 students on Aug. 8, the lineup of security personnel it has assembled falls in line with a statewide initiative to deploy more officers to schools as part of a response to a recent string of school shootings that claimed student and teacher lives across the country.
Within moments under the beams of stage light last Thursday, their nerves softened, replaced by the steely resolve they’ll need for that next step — joining the first line of defense at schools across Knox County.
The officer recruits, dressed head to toe in black, will bring the district’s cadre of school security officers up to a full staff of 105, with at least one stationed at all 88 schools.
The district will also welcome four additional law enforcement officers from the Knox County Sheriff’s Office this year, for a total of 29, along with a team of 14 school resource officers that the Knoxville Police Department provides.
The 24 new school security officers comprise the district’s ninth graduating class of recruits and the first class of 2018, according to district spokeswoman Carly Harrington, who said the district typically honors one graduating class per year.
School security officers, law enforcement personnel and school resource officers all point their efforts toward the same mission — to reinforce school safety. While security officers don’t have the same kind of arrest powers as school resource officers, they do have more bandwidth when it comes to questioning students and conducting searches, Harrington said.
Even with the monumental responsibility of protecting administrators, teachers and students looming ahead, graduate Nate Gardin is glad his nine weeks of training are behind him.
“Everything that I’ve learned, I’ve been taught, and along with all of my classmates, we get to go and actually put it to use,” the 29-year-old recruit said.
Gardin, who brings five years of service in the Navy along with experience as a firefighter, emergency medical technician and police officer to his new post, sees his job as a multifaceted one, serving as both a role model and as “a safety net for the kids.”
He was drawn into school security “knowing that children are our future and our assets” and being able “to be here and be able to be in a position to influence and protect them.”
Like his colleagues, Gardin hadn’t yet learned of his school assignment, but he emphasized the importance of being a leader students can talk to and giving them positive interactions with law enforcement.
Knox County Schools Superintendent Bob Thomas credited the officers as a key factor in the district’s goals of increasing student achievement, building a positive culture and eliminating disparities.
“If our students and our staff, they don’t feel safe, then the learning environment’s not really what it needs to be,” Thomas said during an address at the graduation ceremony.
Despite the high-profile incidents of school violence across the country this year, Gardin isn’t concerned about his own safety inside the school he protects.
“We’ve been well-trained, so I don’t fear for my safety one bit,” he said, though he declined to delve into the details of the training he completed, simply noting that it set his class up to be successful.
As Scott readies to begin the school year as a guardian over one of the district’s campuses, she wants parents and students to know that she and her colleagues are more than “a badge and a suit.” They’re people too.
“(I want them to know) that we have families and we have children and that we’re going to do what our job is described (as),” she said. “We’re going to care deeply about each and every person that we come in contact with.”
Knox News
