Officer Church Protects and Serves as S.R.O.

By Hannah S., junior, and Hunter C., sophomore
 

Students may have noticed that J.I. Burton has a new school resource officer this year. Zack Church, a hard working police officer, has been on the police force for about three years but was just recently appointed as an S.R.O.

Officer Church wakes up every day at  7 a.m. to be at the school by 8 a.m.. He works long hours and although his job may not look hard sometimes, he never knows when he might have to deal with a very difficult situation.

Although the job can be difficult, he says it is worth the sacrifices that officers have to make for others. Certain situations can be difficult to handle,but they make him a better officer at the end of the day. An officer may handle many different situations in a single day. Some are more difficult than others, but almost none are easy.

At our school, he tries his best to make a connection with the students. He believes that he is not just here as a police officer; he is here to get to know all of us. He talks to students as much as he can to get to know them personally. He isn't only our resource officer here at the school; he is a friend to anyone that may need one. In this way, his presence at our school could even prevent situations from escalating into violence.

Some examples of how he is trying to get to know students are talking to students in the hallways, playing games in the gym with students, and participating in classroom activities. He likes to be  involved in school as much as he can.

When students in an English 11 class were writing argumentative essays about the issue of police brutality that has been in the national media, he visited class as a guest speaker to provide a law enforcement perspective on the issue.

Officer Church says that "one of the biggest challenges is dealing with tragedies and trauma." One such example is a stabbing that just recently happened in Norton when he was called from the school to respond.

He said the craziest thing that he has gone through as an officer, which happened before he became an S.R.O.,  is getting shot at. He couldn't tell the details of what exactly happened, but he claims that it was "very scary".

As far as his life outside of work, Officer Church's hobbies include "anything outdoors". He loves and owns a Jeep, loves classic cars, and also likes to go off-roading with his kids. He has two boys, a five-year-old and a two-year-old, and a girlfriend whom he loves very much.