Cop C ampus

School resource officer wants to make 'positive impact'

By Sara Greene

LITTLE ROCK — The sight of Bruce Childers may give pause to seventh-graders arriving for their first day of classes at Bob Courtway Middle School in Conway.

With his no-nonsense military haircut, dark-blue uniform complete with Kevlar armored vest, and his sidearm holstered at his side, Childers is a member of the Conway Police Department.

He is also the school resource officer at the school.

On Monday, the first day of classes, the faculty and staff of the school are introduced to the students during an assembly. Childers said he has a good idea of two of the questions he will be asked.

"The first question students ask me is 'Have you ever been shot?' and the answer is no. The second question is 'Have you ever shot anyone?' and the answer to that is also no," Childers said.

Childers was involved in a standoff once. With a goose.

"There was this goose standing in the middle of the bus lane, and the buses would honk. He'd honk. I approached the goose, and he started hissing and stretching his neck out, so I backed off," Childers said.

Animal control officers arrived, and the grumpy goose was herded into the foyer of the school, where it was netted and relocated to Beaverfork Lake.

He also serves as the school resource officer at Raymond and Phyllis Simon Intermediate School and Florence Mattison Elementary, where he presents programs such as the consequences of violence, drug and alcohol abuse.

"I think most students have a negative or stereotypical perception of law enforcement. I hope they see me as a real person.

What has amazed me is the students here have been tremendously forthcoming when it comes to talking with me, the teachers and counselors about problems at home or in their neighborhoods," Childers said.

Some of his peers in law enforcement refer to school resource officers as the 'kiddie cops,' but Childers said they don't understand what all the job entails.

For Officer Bruce, as he is known at the school, an average daystarts with doing traffic control, ushering children off the school buses and to their respective buildings. There's no loitering on the sidewalk or sitting on the campus' verdant lawn.

"Monday will be busy. We'll have a lot new parents dropping off their children for the first time, and I'll be keeping the bus lane clear of cars and doing a lot of traffic and pedestrian control," Childers said.

When school starts, Childers walks the hallways between and during classes. He patrols the cafeteria during lunch and the courtyard as more than 800 students step out to get fresh air. After lunch he goes back to patrolling the halls and classrooms before working traffic control again, making sure students get safely back on the buses for the return trip home.

"The last thing I want to do on this campus is be a policeman, but students lose their rights when they interfere with the rights of other students to get an education," Childers said.

He tells students and parents alike he carries a gun because he is a police officer, not because the school is unsafe.

"School is safe because the students chose to make it safe when they chose not to participate in bad behavior such as verbal or physical violence," Childers said.

Besides working 40 hours a week at the school, school resource officers such as Childers often spend about 20 hours a week at after-school activities such as athletics.

"That's harder because there are more people on campus, including visitors from other communities. Everyone at the school works to make sure a friendly rivalry doesn't turn into a conflict," Childers said.

If parents get out of control at a sporting event, Childers said the coaches and administrators warns them that unless the behavior stops, the parent will be escorted from the event.

"Even the dress code is enforced at our event. We tell the visiting schools these are our home rules to be observed," Childers said.

He said just having a presence in the school is a deterrent to negative behavior.

"The most common thing I see with children at this age is verbal conflict. I tell them verbal abuse precedes physical abuse and help them understand that if you're depriving someone of their self-esteem, then you are victimizing that person with your words. You can verbally destroy a person to the point where they act out violently," Childers said.

When students have a verbal or physical altercation, they are brought into the school resource office to talk about their conflicts. Childers said they leave the office with an " agree-to-disagree" attitude, agreeing to respect each other's boundaries.

"Cyber bullying has been spreading, predominately among girls trying to destroy other girls' reputations. Bullying is where it starts. It starts as bullying and becomes violence. We explain to the students how words can inflict harm and pain," Childers said.

He recalls having a good childhood growing up, but he remembers a lot of bullying. He remembers laughing when students teased a girl named Sarah, who happened to have big ears.

"They called her radar ears. They'd tease her at the bus stop and at school, so she endured this constant teasing all day. I was sitting across the aisle from her on the bus one day and the kids were spitting spit wads into her hair. I looked over and her head was down, but I could tell she was crying. I was ashamed of myself and still am. It hurt me because I was a coward. I didn't ask an adult to intervene and help her. That little girl was brave, but I wasn't. I don't know what happened to her, but I know when we destroy someone's self-esteem, they tend not to go far in life," Childers said.

He said school resource officers first began appearing in school hallways in the late '50s in Flint, Mich. It was a threeprong approach of teaching prevention methods, providing a police presence at the school,and informally counseling and mentoring the students. He said it wasn't until 1973 when legislators noticed the success of the school resource officer programs and recommended that all school start such programs. In 1991, the National Association of School Resource Officers was created to provide guidelines and training for the program.

Childers went to a two-week course where he learned crimeprevention techniques, conflict-resolution techniques, how children learn, how to handle children with disabilities and how to manage a classroom like a teacher.

"I just love these kids as if they were my own. I feel like I'm making a positive impact in their lives, and each and every adult at this school has genuine care and concern for our students," Childers said.

Born in Upland, Pa., Childers started his law enforcement careers with the Air Force in 1985. After separating from the Air Force after eight years, Childers was trained as a campus police officer for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock. Three years later, he joined the Conway Police Department where he has worked for the past 12 years.

"I believe we have to give something back to our communities. My uncle was a policeman, and that had a lot to do with wanting to be one when I grew up," Childers said.

River Valley Ozark, Pages 129, 138 on 08/17/2008