News release - Weld County School District RE-1

Weld RE-1 School District
14827 WCR 42, Gilcrest CO 80623
News release
(970) 737-2403
Date: 4/22/15
Contact: Analisa Romano, RE-1 spokesperson: 970-352-7404 ext. 2722
Student Resource Officers in Weld RE-1 are more than an extra set of eyes
It’s easy to spot Weld County Sheriff’s Deputy
Brandon Ong at Gilcrest Elementary School during
lunchtime.
Ong, who makes it a habit to spend time with
students in their own environment, stands several
feet taller than the elementary students in the cafeteria’s lunch line.
As he waits patiently for his lunch, 4th graders clamor to tell him stories of their mornings and
ask a myriad of questions about the gadgets on
his belt. Some students give him a wave hello.
Once Ong has his lunch tray, the students scooch
to make room for him to sit at the end of their kidsized table.
Idelia Magallanes, who works in the front office, said during lunch duty that the kids love
Officer Chris Cruz plays catch with the students at Pete Mirich Elementary School in LaSalle.
hanging out with officer Ong. They usually invite
him to sit at their table, and those who were once intimidated by the idea of a uniformed officer at school now chat with
him regularly.
Ong’s counterparts, deputies Dana Oakes and Chris Cruz, share similar stories of success in Weld RE-1 School District. Last fall was the first
time the school district placed the three Student Resource Officers, or
SROs, in its schools, with one contracted officer with the Weld County
Sheriff’s Office for every two schools.
The addition of SROs was one of a handful of initiatives that district
officials took this year to enhance safety in Weld RE-1 schools. The district
has also conducted evacuation, reunification, lockout and lockdown drills,
secured front entrances and installed school panic buttons, and provided a
training to all licensed staff on responding to active shooters on campus.
Magallanes said she feels safer with Ong on campus, definitely. But
he and the other SROs have come to represent a great deal more to the
schools they serve and the students in them.
Ong, Oakes and Cruz, who respectively work at at Gilcrest Elementary School and Valley High School, Platteville Elementary School and
South Valley Middle School, and Pete Mirich Elementary School and North
Valley Middle School, act as much more than an extra set of eyes on campus.
For the middle and high school students, the SROs are mentors.
Ong said he assumed that might be his role when he first started as an
SRO. He said he chose to be an SRO so that he could help kids make the Officer Brandon Ong eats lunch with the students at Gilcrest
Elementary School.
right choices.
After a walk through Valley High
School following the lunch bell, Ong said
he often hangs out in the library so that
he is available to visit with students.
The conversation ranges from casual chatter to legal questions to advice
about healthy relationships and domestic violence.
“The job definitely gives you insight
into what is going on,” Ong said.
It helps to know specifically what is
going on with the students at Valley High
School to better help the entire community as a police officer, he said.
Oakes echoed Ong’s comments.
Although Oakes plans to go back to patrol duty after this school year, he said
his experience as an SRO showed him
Above: Officer Dana Oakes helps a student with math at Platteville Elementary School. Below: Officer
the backstories of many Platteville famCrhis Cruz talks to students during recess at at Pete Mirich Elementary School.
ilies. If he ever encounters a student or
parents in the future, he now has an
understanding of those families and
their situations.
For Deputy Cruz, that understanding is especially deep because he grew
up in LaSalle. As he stood on the playground at Pete Mirich Elementary
School, Cruz said he had once been a
student at that school. As a matter of
fact, he had Deputy Oakes’ father as a
teacher.
“It really helps to know the parents,” Cruz said of working with the
students in that community.
The three SROs said they regularly keep in touch, especially when one
family stretches across multiple
schools.
Spending so much time face-toface with students has also given Ong a few ideas about how to improve safety for the Weld RE-1 community.
Ong said he hopes to organize a race at Bandimere Speedway as an alternative and safe place for teens to drive
their cars fast. The race would be open only to students who meet certain requirements, such as attendance and not
having any tickets or other disciplinary issues with the school.
With so many relationships blossoming in high school, Ong said he has also mulled something like a Q&A session
to educate students on the signs of a dangerous or abusive relationship.
And he has been approached by a few teachers wanting to know if he could present to their classes on civics issues, such as Fourth Amendment rights.
“There’s many hats to wear, for sure,” Ong said of his job.
“If you asked me one year ago if I wanted to be an SRO … I’d tell you that you were crazy,” he said. But things have
changed.
Back in the Gilcrest Elementary School cafeteria, a group of fourth graders respond that of course they know who
the uniformed man in their school is.
“He saves the school!” exclaims 7-year-old Addison Harding from her lunch table.
It’s Officer Ong, obviously.