“The SROs build trust with the student body and staff and become a valuable teammate in the overall mission. Green said the SRO helps both the QPD and the QSD. They take good care of us - it’s awesome. “I was very fortunate because it’s a really good department. He’s worked for the QPD for almost six years. The job with the CCJDC was his first law enforcement job, and after a couple of years he applied to a number of different agencies including Quincy. So I did that for nine years, and after that, I was really, like, ‘I want to do what I want to do,’ which was to be in law enforcement,” he said. It’s not what I wanted to do, but I had to put food on the table. Guzman and his wife have been married 15 years and have two children. Guzman grew up in Cashmere, he said, and always wanted to be in law enforcement, but life got in the way. The SRO program has proven successful enough that it’s expanding with a second officer, Jessica Diaz, who will start at the beginning of the 2023-24 school year. The Quincy School District has four elementary schools in Quincy, a fifth in George, Quincy Middle School, Quincy Innovation Academy and Quincy High School. “So it was nice to know I did something right, where she was still able to come talk to me,” he said. The SRO will sometimes transport youths to detention, including a girl who later saw him at school. “I think the biggest thing for me was learning to apply the law, but knowing I still have to at least try and make myself be a friend, and a counselor, and a person that when they get out of juvie, they can still come find me.” Guzman said he’s learned a few things in his first year. You made a bad choice, but it does not dictate who you are, or what you’re going to become,” he said. “So a lot of that was finding common ground, trust, letting them know this was not the end of the world. The young people that came into the detention center were cut off from their support systems, and as a juvenile detention employee, Guzman had to learn how to reach them. He said that experience is valuable in the SRO job. He worked at the Chelan County Juvenile Justice Center before joining the QPD. It’s important to get to know students to help them get past those challenges, he said. “A lot of times it’s small things,” he said. Teaming with counselors to see what’s triggering problems and causing poor decisions helps solve issues more long-term. The key to figuring out how to help kids, he said, is figuring out what’s causing them to go off track.Ĭounselors are very important in schools, he said. Elementary students still need somebody to show them the way. Middle schoolers are still learning what they need to know, he said. High schoolers have a better understanding of the law and the repercussions of breaking it. Whether it be just words of encouragement or something that they need help with, or an incident that occurred, things like that,” he said.Įach age group brings its own characteristics, Guzman said. So they’re comfortable telling you things. Children and teens come to him with questions and sometimes with their challenges. Guzman said the SRO works with school officials to help children and teens who are in trouble, as much as possible, and to try and keep them from getting in trouble in the first place. “I guess I would say I’m a child at heart.” “I just like working with kids and youth - I’m a youth group leader at my church. Guzman said the job interested him because he’s interested in helping children. We look at our SROs as mentors and a positive connection to the schools.” “(School resource officers) have the opportunity to interact with students and staff in a friendly, supportive manner. “The value lies with building quality relationships between police officers and the students and staff members,” Green wrote in answer to an email from the Herald. Quincy PD Chief Ryan Green said the SRO position has proven to be valuable to both the district and the department. Currently, the QPD assigns an SRO for three years. Guzman, an officer with the Quincy Police Department, just finished his first year as SRO in the Quincy School District. He can’t know everyone’s circumstances, he said, so he tries to be a good role model. Guzman said he’s not just there to enforce the law, but also as a helper for the children. I’m not there to punish or lay down the law.” “For me, the school resource officer means being more of a mentor and advocate for our children in our community. QUINCY - Abraham Guzman said the job of school resource officer involves a whole lot of responsibilities, only one of which is law enforcement.
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