Sioux County School Resource Officers went on a recent Daily Grind to talk about their work at the local schools and how they keep kids safe.
As school starts back up this week, School Resource Officers are preparing to get to know the new students, and educating people on how to stay safe at school and outside of school. Sioux Center Schools Resource Officer Kyle Munneke describes his experience when he first started as an SRO.
“When I started as an SRO, a lot of kids were pretty hesitant and big eyed seeing you come down the hallway and now it’s hard to get out through the hallway without a kid hugging your leg or wanting high five or a fist bump or something like that.”
Now graduated students are comfortable enough with Kyle to ask him questions about the law.
“I’ve had kids reach out to me after, once they graduated and outside of school, and just have questions about their driver’s license or whatever it may be. And just know that, hey, I know Kyle, I can reach out to him, I can ask him a question, I got his number.”
One of the major topics in school safety is deescalation in the case of a conflict. SRO Jessica Dorhout lays out how she deescalates a situation.
“Working with the school officials and working with teachers and making sure those kids know that they’re safe. Right? Like we’re a safe people and, we’re going to keep them safe. And they are able to, and we’re able to then communicate with them in a, in a certain way that allows them to come back to a more calm state.”
Officer Munneke explains how he navigates the struggle of deescalation.
“It’s just always trying to meet people, whether they’re adults or kids, just where they’re at the best we can get on their level and just be listening and not letting them, telling them what they need to do and have to do and sure, to pick it up. We just meet them at their level and be a voice or be an ear for them and, just try to advocate for them and help them. I always tell kids that I’m, I’m not here to back up the principal, I’m not here to back up the teacher. I’m just here to help everybody.”
Munneke describes the transition of school safety from a school responsibility to more of a law enforcement responsibility.
“Maybe twenty years ago a lot of that responsibility fell on the school, and law enforcement respond if there’s an emergency. But over time that gradual push and now it’s ‘How can we train together?’, ‘How can we be prepared ahead of time, not just respond to something?’, ‘How can we prevent something and how can we just be more prepared?’.”
Across all of Sioux County kids are using scooters to spend time with their friends and even to get to and from school. The School Resource Officers remind parents to educate their kids on scooter use and to ensure they enforce their rules to help keep their kids safe.
