Watching over South Adams

Surveying students as they walk hastily past from class to class, Officer Scott Dailey looks content with what he sees. For the last day before a break, it seems to be turning out to be a tame day. So far.
With his position as South Adams school resource officer, Dailey never knows what a new day will entail. From finding truant students to breaking up fights to simply watching camera footage, it’s always a toss up as to what might happen on a given day.
But in light of shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012 and Sparks Middle School in Nevada last month, his position that is sustained by federal grant money and school funds is seen as vital. In recent months, the school system has been in a scramble to find money to continue the school resource officer position after a local donor pulled its funding. In the interim, the school system agreed to pay for this year’s wages and then look for a more sustainable solution for the next school year and beyond.
Dailey watches over the South Adams Elementary, Middle and High School, which are all on a single campus, from 7:15 a.m. until almost 5 p.m. throughout the week to ensure the safety of its staff and students, in addition to working part-time as both an officer with Geneva Police Department and Adams County Sheriff’s Department.
Having served as the schools’ SRO for more than four years, watching over more than 1,400 students each school year, Dailey has dealt with legitimate threats such as bullying, vandalism, suicide and drug abuse. It’s getting through to the students before they feel the need to go to drastic measures that will make the difference, especially those in the middle school age range.
“There are sick people all over the world. I mean, in Berne you hear, ‘Nothing’s going to happen here. Nothing’s going to happen here.’ You know what, Sandy Hook, they said the same thing; it’s a little town, nothing’s going to happen here,” said Dailey. “But there are signs you look for for these kids. … If you see that sign, I jump on it right away. I have no problem with contacting the parents, sending them to behavioral health to get evaluated.”
These signs can include cutting, bullying, drug abuse and isolating behavior. Dailey has dealt with all of those things, but helping children is something he’s always seen himself doing.
“I always wanted to be a juvenile probation officer. It’s kind of what got me going with this. A lot of people think I’m crazy because I’m helping juveniles. Talk to other officers, they wouldn’t come into the school,” said Dailey. “Right now, I can say that I have three boys here at school. I would do anything to protect them and any other student. I hate to see kids get hurt.”
And the students can feel this protection when they see him observing the hallways.
“It does make a difference because having him there, somebody in the building standing there, you have a part of the force in the school to save you,” said junior Makayla Fosnaugh.
To ensure the students’ safety, Dailey makes rounds during the school day, which include walking the halls, watching live camera footage, checking that doors are locked and visiting the homes of students who have failed to call in their absence.
Any time a student doesn’t show up to school and there’s no reason given for the absence, Dailey has to track down the student and bring them in, which takes up the better part of his morning. Most of these truancies are the result of parents forgetting to call in, but Dailey sees it as a serious matter because parents can now be charged with a Class B misdemeanor for not calling in their child’s absence.
He also takes it very seriously, because any time he makes a trip to a student’s residence is a chance for him to see if there are other issues preventing the student from getting to school or affecting their work while at school.
“With me being in the school, I can get in places regular road officers can’t get into,” said Dailey. “They let me in because I say, ‘Okay, I’m from the school. I need to figure out why your student’s not here.’ They open the door and let me in, most of the time. Anything I see in plain view can go against them.”
This advantage of using reasonable suspicion, as a school employee, versus probable cause, as an officer, allows Dailey to find out information more easily, which can lead to more flexibility in finding guilty parties.
“If someone comes up to me and says so-and-so has drugs, and I go talk to the principal, as long as he looks at me as a school employee at that time, I can go and I can search a locker, I can search the person, I can search their vehicle, their bags,” said Dailey. “But if I was on the road working, and if somebody tells me that, it’s just hearsay. I don’t have any reason to believe that. That’s why I can get a little further here.”
Sometimes this flexibility has led to angered parents, but Dailey sees this as a small price to pay for the results, the students he can see a change in.
“I have more and more that I can see a change in for the best,” said Dailey. “There are a handful of them that just don’t care and that test my patience. … If I talk to somebody, and I actually sit down and talk to them with their parents here and work with them, I can tell a change … but you’ve got to want to help yourself.”
Open communication is what South Adams High School principal Trent Lehman sees as the real objective of having the SRO.
“I think it further opens the line of communication between law enforcement and schools,” said Lehman. “When you have someone who works for both law enforcement and the school, those conversations just happen more frequently. He’s aware of what’s going on out in the community that could affect safety at school.”
Dailey keeps open communication with students, offering his office to them any time they need someone to talk to, and this relationship can spill over to his time as an officer on the road as he recognizes students’ addresses and is ready to assist officers when he knows the family involved.
But this constant pull to help students comes with difficult situations, such as families being separated.
“The worst part of this job that I’ve had to deal with would be when (Child Protective Servies) comes to take kids away from their parents,” said Dailey. “Every day you see them, and then they’re pulled away. That’s the hard part.”
Dealing with other serious situations such as suicide attempts and car wrecks, and taking the job home with him, can be heavy to deal with, but if it helps deter future tragedies, Dailey sees it as a worthy cause.
“Just having my police car sitting out in the parking lot is making people stay away if they want to do something,” said Dailey. “But if you get the ones really sick in the head, they’re going to come in no matter what, and I’m going to be the first person to go after them.”[[In-content Ad]]