AUBURN - After six and a half years on the force, Auburn police officer Chris Major readily admits he wouldn't accept a detective position if it was offered to him tomorrow.
“I'd say ‘no' as long as I knew this program stayed in place,” he said as he walked the hallways at Seward Elementary School in Auburn, making sure each entry into the school was locked and secure.
As a school resource officer, Major said people are often surprised to see him at the elementary level.
“Parents a lot of times are like ‘my son is in second grade, why do they need a cop in the hallway?'” he said. “I was the first to say the same thing before I came. But I'm busy, so many kids come in with so many different issues.”
At the beginning of the year, Major said he wore his police uniform for the first few weeks as a way to symbolize who he was and what he stood for. Now he wears a less-intimidating green Auburn Police polo shirt and throws on the uniform only every few weeks.
“It's amazing how much more (the students) will talk when I'm dressed like this,” he said. “There are kids this young that come in already hating police. They learn that from home.”
With only about two weeks left of his first year in the schools, Major has settled into his routine in which he rotates between Owasco, Herman Avenue and Seward elementary schools. He spends a half day at two of the schools every day.
Unlike high school, where instances like fights can breakout in the hallways, Major said a lot of his job is working with a support group consisting of teachers, a support staff, social worker and the parents.
“When a child is acting out, we need to figure out what is causing it,” he said. “A lot of the time is that there's bigger issues at home. We'll call the parents and get the parents involved, and we come up with a plan.”
The beginning of the school year, right after the summer off, Major said he saw a lot more problem cases.
“For the first month, I felt like I was on the phone and with the social worker all the time,” he said.
Working closely with him is Casey Carey-Dixon, a social worker in the elementary schools who also gets involved to determine causes and solutions to a child's problems. At such a young age, the goal is to try to get as few people as possible involved for the child's sake. Major said the students have gotten to know him and have built a trust with them.
“The best part of the job is they feel comfortable talking to you,” he said.
Walking through the halls at Seward Elementary Thursday, students ranging from the little ones in kindergarten to the fifth-grade rulers of the school were waving and telling him stories as he passed. In the cafeteria, he even received a picture a young girl colored from him.
His day at Seward started with a meeting with Kathy Phinney's kindergarten class for a talk on bike safety.
“I'll go in to talk about bikes, and they'll ask 'why do you have a gun?'” Major said adding that he has to work especially hard with the kindergarteners to hold their attention on the topic at hand. “Especially the younger ones they are fascinated with the gun.”
Sitting down in a small made-for-a-5-year-old chair, he asked the class to give a show of hands on who was planning to ride a bike this summer - hands shot up. After a discuss on the importance of wearing a helmet correctly, he asked about the proper attire and bike maintenance.
“It's the law if you are under 14 (to wear a helmet). Everyone here's under 14 right,” Major asked to a chorus mixed yes and no answers.
“Oh, well I am. I'm 13,” he said and reminded them that he'd be patrolling their neighborhoods this summer and will be very upset to find anyone without a helmet on.
Later in the day, Major and Carey-Dixon met with Loretta Brazak's third-grade class to talk about bullying.
“Different types of bullying happens in each grade,” Carey-Dixon said. “So we try to determine what is happening at each level and address it.”
The two showed the class a film and talked about how it feels to be bullied - physically and emotionally.
“We're realistic,” Major said. “Kids will do mean things, but it's somewhat of a prevention.”
His day at Seward Elementary was tame. Not much happened in the way of problems. Major talked with a young girl in the office about why she was there, as he did with a boy in the time out room. He asked them both if they thought it was OK to act the way they did with hopes that they would realize it wasn't and change their behaviors.
Had a major instance occurred, he can always call for backup. And other SROs in the district can do the same. Because of the relationships he's built with the students, Major said he probably would not be involved in any sort of arrest, if it was necessary.
“These kids know me. I would probably call in a juvenile officer,” he said. “A situation like that rarely would occur at this level, however. It would be doing (the child) more harm to put them through something like (an arrest).”
He is prepared for anything, however, and attended an SRO school in Rochester and goes to training sessions throughout the year on Internet smarts, drugs and anything that relates to a school, Major said.
“Fourth grade is about where instant messaging starts,” he said. “So I did a thing with them on instant messaging to tell them all those are stored and can be found. They won't say mean things to each other, but they'll type it. I tell them they are hiding behind a computer.”
By the end of the day, Major sits and documents anything that happened during the day. It goes into an SRO database that the officers can access any number of years down the road to find a student's history.
“Every school is so different,” he said. “I've been spit on, hit, but what are you going to do? They're kids; they don't know any better.”
It's obvious as he popped his head into any number of classrooms just to say hello to the students that they enjoy seeing him as much as he does them. He hopes that working with students at such a young age and using intervention to catch problems before they become worse that he's changing the stigma surrounding police.
“Safety rocks,” a young boy in the hallway yelled to him as he walked by.
Major laughed.
“I see 1,500 kids between the three schools I go to,” he said. “I see them everywhere - Wal-Mart, McDonalds, you name it, and they're there saying hi and talking to me.”
Staff writer Laura Boyce can be reached at 2532-5311 ext. 236
As a school resource officer, Major said people are often surprised to see him at the elementary level.
“Parents a lot of times are like ‘my son is in second grade, why do they need a cop in the hallway?'” he said. “I was the first to say the same thing before I came. But I'm busy, so many kids come in with so many different issues.”
At the beginning of the year, Major said he wore his police uniform for the first few weeks as a way to symbolize who he was and what he stood for. Now he wears a less-intimidating green Auburn Police polo shirt and throws on the uniform only every few weeks.
“It's amazing how much more (the students) will talk when I'm dressed like this,” he said. “There are kids this young that come in already hating police. They learn that from home.”
With only about two weeks left of his first year in the schools, Major has settled into his routine in which he rotates between Owasco, Herman Avenue and Seward elementary schools. He spends a half day at two of the schools every day.
Unlike high school, where instances like fights can breakout in the hallways, Major said a lot of his job is working with a support group consisting of teachers, a support staff, social worker and the parents.
“When a child is acting out, we need to figure out what is causing it,” he said. “A lot of the time is that there's bigger issues at home. We'll call the parents and get the parents involved, and we come up with a plan.”
The beginning of the school year, right after the summer off, Major said he saw a lot more problem cases.
“For the first month, I felt like I was on the phone and with the social worker all the time,” he said.
Working closely with him is Casey Carey-Dixon, a social worker in the elementary schools who also gets involved to determine causes and solutions to a child's problems. At such a young age, the goal is to try to get as few people as possible involved for the child's sake. Major said the students have gotten to know him and have built a trust with them.
“The best part of the job is they feel comfortable talking to you,” he said.
Walking through the halls at Seward Elementary Thursday, students ranging from the little ones in kindergarten to the fifth-grade rulers of the school were waving and telling him stories as he passed. In the cafeteria, he even received a picture a young girl colored from him.
His day at Seward started with a meeting with Kathy Phinney's kindergarten class for a talk on bike safety.
“I'll go in to talk about bikes, and they'll ask 'why do you have a gun?'” Major said adding that he has to work especially hard with the kindergarteners to hold their attention on the topic at hand. “Especially the younger ones they are fascinated with the gun.”
Sitting down in a small made-for-a-5-year-old chair, he asked the class to give a show of hands on who was planning to ride a bike this summer - hands shot up. After a discuss on the importance of wearing a helmet correctly, he asked about the proper attire and bike maintenance.
“It's the law if you are under 14 (to wear a helmet). Everyone here's under 14 right,” Major asked to a chorus mixed yes and no answers.
“Oh, well I am. I'm 13,” he said and reminded them that he'd be patrolling their neighborhoods this summer and will be very upset to find anyone without a helmet on.
Later in the day, Major and Carey-Dixon met with Loretta Brazak's third-grade class to talk about bullying.
“Different types of bullying happens in each grade,” Carey-Dixon said. “So we try to determine what is happening at each level and address it.”
The two showed the class a film and talked about how it feels to be bullied - physically and emotionally.
“We're realistic,” Major said. “Kids will do mean things, but it's somewhat of a prevention.”
His day at Seward Elementary was tame. Not much happened in the way of problems. Major talked with a young girl in the office about why she was there, as he did with a boy in the time out room. He asked them both if they thought it was OK to act the way they did with hopes that they would realize it wasn't and change their behaviors.
Had a major instance occurred, he can always call for backup. And other SROs in the district can do the same. Because of the relationships he's built with the students, Major said he probably would not be involved in any sort of arrest, if it was necessary.
“These kids know me. I would probably call in a juvenile officer,” he said. “A situation like that rarely would occur at this level, however. It would be doing (the child) more harm to put them through something like (an arrest).”
He is prepared for anything, however, and attended an SRO school in Rochester and goes to training sessions throughout the year on Internet smarts, drugs and anything that relates to a school, Major said.
“Fourth grade is about where instant messaging starts,” he said. “So I did a thing with them on instant messaging to tell them all those are stored and can be found. They won't say mean things to each other, but they'll type it. I tell them they are hiding behind a computer.”
By the end of the day, Major sits and documents anything that happened during the day. It goes into an SRO database that the officers can access any number of years down the road to find a student's history.
“Every school is so different,” he said. “I've been spit on, hit, but what are you going to do? They're kids; they don't know any better.”
It's obvious as he popped his head into any number of classrooms just to say hello to the students that they enjoy seeing him as much as he does them. He hopes that working with students at such a young age and using intervention to catch problems before they become worse that he's changing the stigma surrounding police.
“Safety rocks,” a young boy in the hallway yelled to him as he walked by.
Major laughed.
“I see 1,500 kids between the three schools I go to,” he said. “I see them everywhere - Wal-Mart, McDonalds, you name it, and they're there saying hi and talking to me.”
Staff writer Laura Boyce can be reached at 2532-5311 ext. 236
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