Officer Jim gets a promotion
Officer James Green was originally hesitant to take on the role of security director for Butler Area School District. He’s so ingrained into the Broad Street Elementary community that he didn’t want to leave the students he’s with every day.
“It’s good for the soul. These kids are good for you,” Green said. “They’re just great. There’s guys that really enjoy being at the senior high with the older kids and there’s guys that enjoy the elementary schools. There’s some that don’t care, but I always liked the connection that you can have with the elementary school kids, where everything is fun for them. The holidays are fun. Every day is fun.”
Green, known throughout Butler Area School District as “Officer Jim,” was hired as the new district security director, but only after he was told he could still be based out of Broad Street, where he’s been since 2016 dedicating his time to helping and supporting the students.
Green was chosen after the former director of security, John Stepansky, informed the district that he wanted to return to his full-time school police position at the intermediate school. His background includes time spent in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and as a state trooper.
Green was recognized last school year when the district and community leaders celebrated his reception of the national “Recognizing Inspiring School Employees” honor, or “RISE award,” from the U.S. Department of Education.
Green still sits at his hallway desk near the front entrance of the elementary school, near framed drawings students ask him to make and other decorations he’s added to lighten the environment. But now, he spends much of his time taking calls from people at other schools, while students still come up to talk to him frequently.
“The students are great. The parents are great. Just getting to know all of them and be there for everybody, that’s the nice thing about being in a smaller school setting,” Green said. “I deal with extra things on my schedule, (get) hammered with calls all day, but I still get to where my Hawaiian shirts on Fridays.”
Green said he still goes about his job the same way he always has: Treat the students like they’re “one of our own,” and make sure they go down the right path.
“They’ll come up and talk to you about anything. Sometimes they’re just looking for an adult to listen to them and anything they have to say,” Green said.
Green’s transition into his new role was quick. He started in August, when faculty and staff have to go through various safety training, such as active shooter drills and making sure his firearms are registered to be on him inside the school.
With the year starting up, he has been in frequent communication with all the school buildings in the district. He took particular care to coordinate things on the first day, to make sure things were running smoothly, and cameras and alarm systems were working properly. He said he’d be going back to all the different school buildings in the next couple weeks and doing more evaluations, and to talk to the principals and officers to see what their issues of concern are.
Green said the district’s buildings have been regularly evaluated and that state police security assessment teams have been to all of the schools and made recommendations. Despite all of the hypothetical scenarios he has to plan for, Green expressed confidence in his team of officers to protect the students and faculty.
“As far as preparation for the worst case scenario, such as a violent criminal, a violent incident, all of our guys have at least 25 years experience. All our guys that are retired state troopers,” Green said. “Each one of us has all this experience. 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.”
In preparing the district’s security, “physical security” is only half of what he said he’s doing.
“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.”
