There are new faces in the HHS hallways this month: two new School Resource Officers. Both officers are officers from local middle schools who are rotating their time at HHS. Officer Tim Carroll enjoys the relatively more positive reaction when concerning a School Resource Officer rather than any other police officer.

“In the school, it’s more of a positive reinforcement. [Students] can see me everyday. We can talk on more of a level ground where it’s like ‘Hey, he’s a human; he’s a person,’ and it’s more rewarding on top of the [already] rewarding part of helping people because I get to be the nice guy in the uniform… I get to play nice cop instead of mean cop,” Carroll said.

Carroll found his way into the law enforcement career when he discovered his love for helping others.

“I originally was a mechanic when I first had a job and I loved fixing cars and helping people. Over a period of 11 years, I found out I enjoyed helping people more than I did fixing the cars,” Carroll said.

Now, Carroll finds assisting people the greatest part of his job as a police officer and as a School Resource Officer.

“[Becoming a police officer] was very rewarding in the same aspect of instead of fixing the cars it was going to situations and feeling like you somewhat helped someone every time you went somewhere… It’s about helping people,” Carroll said.

Carroll especially enjoys his ability to create personal relationships with the students at a young age through his job. He feels having a police officer in the school allows students to see that cops are not always bad.

“Even in the name, School Resource Officer, you hear more of a resource [rather than the mostly negative connotation in ‘police officer’]. As a resource, that’s the communication level where most people would feel intimidated to talk to a police officer,” Carroll said. “[But] as someone maybe younger in school [who has had exposure to a School Resource Officer], you have that option to say ‘Hey, I know there’s [an officer] at the high school everyday.’ It’s more personal.”

Coming from years of being a School Resource Officer at Skyline Middle School, Carroll is adjusting to the differences that high school brings to the job.

“In middle school, it’s a little easier to get in class. I had more free time. In high school, there’s not enough time to go into classes right away,” Carroll said, “What I do find that is going to be an issue with high school versus middle school is that the fights and arguments that [high schoolers] have are more heated because with age comes a lot more tension… The dangers and threat levels could become more violent in high school.”

Despite the more intense potential negative aspects to the job, Carroll is reassured by the also greater positive aspects.

“It is kind of encouraging to see the older mindsets of the kids and how they operate. It’s pretty interesting. It’s more independant. I do kind of like it,” Carroll said. “I never thought I’d be able to say I went back to middle school and high school at my age, so that’s quite enjoyable, to go back to school and see how I can talk to young people.”

Although Carroll is unsure if his spot at HHS is a permanent one, he plans to continue his time as a police officer and School Resource Officer, whether it be back at Skyline Middle School or continued at HHS.

“My goal is then to probably either to get involved with DARE [Drug Abuse Resistance Education] eventually… to get way ahead of the curve [in terms of drug abuse for students]… But that will take some time. Right now I’m happy with this,” Carroll said.