Lafayette High School is a place where everyone wants to feel safe. So many important people aren’t appreciated enough for protecting our school every single day. Every day students see them, but has anyone ever thought about what they do for students? Lafayette is a big school with an insane number of possibilities. You never really know what could happen, so some amazing people keep Lafayette protected from those possibilities in our school’s law enforcement. The Times interviewed Officer Kiali Jelinek, and she explained just how important they really are.
The police officers of Lafayette don’t just work with the law. They work with the kids. Many people throughout the school have a strong bond with each of them because of how kind-hearted they are.
The Times asked Officer Jelinek what her favorite part of the job is. She answered, “Seeing the kids come through the door, and being able to joke around with them. And seeing the laughs, the smiles. It makes it so much easier to get up and come to work every day.” Police officers’ main motivation is to get up and see the kids and to create trust between one another.
These officers still have a very tough job protecting the school. With that, they have to make hard decisions that can make their job even more difficult. Officer Jelinek rarely uses her handcuffs because “protecting the school does not mean putting kids in handcuffs in most cases.”
Officer Jelinek said, “When you’re breaking up a fight or filing a charge against a kid. In seven years of working here, I have put a kid in handcuffs four or five times. In seven years, because I just don’t like it.” Detaining kids is never gonna be the main part of the job, but to Officer Jelinek, it’s definitely the worst.
The police officers at Lafayette are usually not appreciated enough for all they do to protect our schools. They do things that are fun and not so fun, but overall, they keep our school safe. So many students have developed a close bond with our officers, and it makes going to school much more enjoyable for students around the building because they can have comfort in having kind adults protect our school.
School Resource Officers are not meant to be scary but to be a support system for kids. Many students see them as a source of support. The police officers are people students can lean on because they are caring and supportive.
