Yelm Community Schools’ (YCS) two student resource officers, Averie Ford and Dustin Stephan, are working to support students in the district despite YCS cutting one position as a cost-saving measure.
The City of Yelm Police Department (YPD) estimates that the officers respond to an average of 10 minor incidents per day, which amounts to roughly 1,800 calls for service through the school year. The SROs also handle about 12 major incidents throughout the school year.
Minor incidents include disruptions in class and fights, while a major incident could be a threat of a bomb or a gun. The SROs handled multiple fake bomb threats last year, including one at Yelm High School in November that led to the arrest of a juvenile in New York.
Stephan said that a big part of the SROs jobs are to provide students and staff with a sense of safety and security, as well as being a role model for students.
“It’s anything as simple and basic as disruptions in class. Sometimes the school is limited in their resources, and so we get to fill that gap and help be a good partner to them,” he said. “I’m able to bring a student into my office, as an example, and use it as a teachable moment and have a real heart-to-heart. I’m kind of the outside party, so I’m able to de-escalate and reengage the student back into a classroom environment.”
Yelm Police Sgt. Anthony Sparkuhl, who is responsible for the two SROs, said the police department is “doing a little bit more with a little bit less” after the district cut one of its three positions that it had last year. Ford covers the high school while Stephan rotates among Yelm Middle School and Ridgeline Middle School.
“For the most part, I think what I would like the community to know is just the amount of effort that the SROs put into their day-to-day function — to have a good, positive interaction with the students, to be mentors and to really help them be successful and be good stewards and good citizens within our community,” Sparkuhl said.
While the SROs are primarily operating within the secondary schools, they, or other YPD officers, would respond to the elementary schools if necessary. But a third SRO is not in the budget for the school district at this time due to its ongoing cuts.
“It would be very beneficial to have a third SRO. It would help to have that extra body for sure, but I think it’s important for the community to know that the SROs are not there to necessarily push arrests and push charges,” Stephan said. “The old concept of the school-to-prison pipeline is not our philosophy as a police department, as an SRO speciality unit or as a school district. That is the furthest thing from what our role is. We’re really there to be more of a preventative measure before we get to that.”
While the SROs cannot provide a constant presence at the elementary schools, Stephan said each building has “top-notch” security protocols that have been implemented in recent years to keep students and staff safe. He added that the department is having conversations on a weekly basis to see how it can improve and provide the best security possible for the schools.
“Just a couple weeks ago, we did a panic alarm test at all the schools to make sure that all the systems in place are working properly,” Stephan said. “We’re constantly evaluating the hows and the whys and the when we are going to implement these things.”
Stephan is working on a challenge coin program, in partnership with local businesses and the police department, that incorporates and rewards good citizenship for the students. He said the details are still being determined, but that it will be announced soon.
The district historically had just one SRO and hired a second shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic, but that dropped back down to one during COVID before jumping to three in 2022. While the district has one fewer officer than the last couple of school years, Sparkhul said the unit is “just as active as we ever were in the schools.”
“We love the partnership with the schools and the open communication with everybody at the school district. I think that aspect makes it enjoyable every single day to come to work and do our part in making the next generation of kids. We could do more with more, but I don’t think that there’s any world where we wouldn’t be able to have that really good partnership with the school district, no matter what it looks like.”
