Officer Jim an example to follow
We learned in the Friday, Aug. 29, edition of the Butler Eagle about a well-deserved promotion for Officer James Green, better known as Officer Jim.
Green was recently made head of security for the Butler Area School District, after years as the school police officer at Broad Street Elementary School. He’s an excellent choice for the position, for a variety of reasons.
First, there’s his decades of experience as a trooper with the state police. That makes him, along with the district’s other officers, well-prepared if a violent incident should occur at a school.
“Each one of us has all this experience,” he said. “We’ve all been on those critical incidents. We’ve been on barricaded gunman together. We’ve been on hostage. All that stuff, it’s nothing new to us. It’s just a different kind of setting. We were thoroughly trained in the state police on how to handle our responses. We’ve kept up with that.”
That experience and training is a comfort for parents who rightly worry about the safety of their children in a nation where school shootings have become distressingly common.
But another reason Green is so well-suited for the job is his attitude about what makes a school safe.
“It’s not just physical security. It seems like all our guys have excellent relationships with the students and staff. It’s so much better to have a nice relationship with them so they feel comfortable telling you something: If something’s wrong or something bad’s happening,” Green said. “And we need to know that kind of thing, so we can do what we need to do and get them the help that they need, make sure appropriate action is taken.”
Those relationships are just as important as the physical security concerns, and it’s excellent that Green understands that.
We wish him the best in his new role, and are sure he’ll do great work.
— JK
