Do you feel safe in school?

You should.

Ever since January of 2014, our school has been watched over by our new Student Resource Officer. Many students know Officer Rich, who makes a point to get involved with the student body and has collaborated with Greenwood’s SADD chapter. He is known for his open, caring attitude towards students and for always being there to help.

However, not too many students know Officer Rich’s full story.

Born and raised in Bowling Green, he attended college at Western Kentucky University after high school, majoring in computer science, but eventually a family tragedy forced him to drop out and pursue various jobs to help support his family. Among these jobs was a commercial sales associate at AutoZone here in Bowling Green.

It was then that a friend of his, the current Student Resource Officer at Warren East High School, introduced him to the field of law enforcement. For twelve years, he served as shift commander with the WKU Police, eventually making the rank of sergeant. In 2010, he began working with the Sheriff’s Department, starting with completing training for the Department of Criminal Justice through the police academy in Richmond, Kentucky, as well as an extra three weeks of training at the Leadership Academy.

Currently, Officer Rich holds the position of Road Deputy, meaning that when Greenwood has snow days or vacations, he is on the streets doing patrol duties, a fact that surprises some people. It’s a common misconception to think that Resource Officers are assigned only to the school and have no other duties, but in reality their main title is Road Deputy and they are also assigned to protect the school during school hours.

Officer Rich makes use of his proximity to students to set a good example for them. In recent years, law enforcement has been portrayed in an increasingly negative light by the media.

He can remember one incident when he was spotted by a parent with a misbehaving child and the parent told the child that if they did not start behaving, Officer Rich would “get them”. However, Officer Rich feels that this is a very bad thing to teach children, since it will foster a distrust of law enforcement in them, even if they were to need the help of a police officer.

A personal policy he has is to not judge the entire student body by the misdemeanors of the few students who break the rules, and he hopes that the students will return the favor by not assuming all law enforcement officers are bad just because of a negative story they may have seen on the news. “I try to give [the students] a positive look towards law enforcement,” he says. “I want them to feel like they can come up and talk to me, not be afraid of me.“

Drawing from his experience as a Road Deputy, Officer Rich has seen the importance of teaching students safe driving behaviors, and so he has done extensive work with Greenwood’s newly formed SADD club. SADD, which stands for Students Against Destructive Decisions, strives to help students make good choices in their lives, and that includes those they make behind the wheel.

In this past year, Officer Rich has organized various events to help the SADD club educate students. One event involved setting up a driving course in the parking lot and having students drive it in a golf cart, then having them try it again while wearing a pair of goggles that distorts vision in a similar way that alcohol does.

Another event was an elaborate mock crash that was performed for Greenwood students. During the simulation, emergency services were called to rescue the passengers, who were student actors, and to transport them to receive care. Although this was a very difficult event to get together, Officer Rich would like to do it again sometime in Greenwood’s future.

Not only does Officer Rich enjoy being involved with students, but he also has a passion for animals as well. He is actively involved with the Bowling Green-Warren County Humane Society, and has even rescued several animals from there, bringing them into his own home. He is willing to help with whatever they need, whether it be bringing in supplies or finding abandoned animals and transporting them to the shelter. He is married, and although he doesn’t have any children, his hands are certainly full enough. As he says, “our pets are our children.”

Even in the short time that he has been serving our school, Officer Rich has spread both knowledge and trust to the student body. He has ambitious goals for the future and we wish him the best of luck to accomplish them.