Schools across south central Kentucky celebrate SRO’s

SOUTH CENTRAL KY.-We entrust them with the safety of our children each school day. 

“We have one goal in mind: to keep our kids safe,” said Warren County Public Schools Safety Director Steve Chappell. 

Wednesday is school resource officer, or SRO Appreciation Day. 

“First and foremost is the safety of the school. I mean I’m here to make sure that the students, faculty, staff are all safe while we’re here at school. A good safe learning environment,” said WCPS Mike Waldrop. 

“A lot of times the kids will talk to the SRO before they talk to anybody,” said Chappell. 

WCPS SRO’s have over 310 years of service combined. A lot of them are former police officers. 

“On patrol, you don’t always get to see what you put into something. So as years go by and you see students mature, graduate and come back and say hey you helped me with this, that’s kind of rewarding,” said Waldrop. 

Across south central Kentucky, Metcalfe County Schools are also celebrating their SRO’s… a humble group that says they don’t do it for the spotlight! 

“Most of us don’t do this for any kind of favor or anything like that. So it’s just the gratitude of knowing that you’re helping somebody,” said Metcalfe County Schools SRO Adam Avery. 

They want their students to be able to come to them with any problems. 

“When mom and dad go off to work, we’re kind of like a parent, maybe a big brother or big sister to a student,” said Metcalfe County Schools SRO Michael Taylor. 

And the students definitely feel that support. 

“It’s not just feeling safe at school, if you need help at home or other things outside of school, they’re here,” said Warren East High School senior Chase Carver.

“He’s [Waldrop], seriously a person that we all trust and love and care about and we’re not scared to be around, he’s a person we can go to if there’s a crisis at home or going on at school, he’s somebody that is always there for us,” said Warren East High School senior Zoey Rackovan.