Tacoma police officer Bryce Clother makes his Monday morning rounds at Lincoln High School. He approaches several knots of straggling students and herds them toward the door, while reminding others to put out their cigarettes.

It’s been a mercifully quiet weekend – no incidents involving Lincoln students on police reports. So Clother is having a relaxed morning as he greets students at the start of another school week.

“Uh-oh,” says one girl, looking unhappy as she approaches the main entrance and notices Clother standing there.

Her reaction is exactly the attitude Clother wants to reverse in his new role as Lincoln’s school resource officer, or SRO.

“I’m the guy who’s here to enforce the law,” he said. “But I’m also the guy they can talk to if they have been the victim of a crime.”

Clother is one of five on-duty city police officers assigned to patrol each of Tacoma’s large high schools this year: Lincoln, Stadium, Mount Tahoma, Wilson and Foss.

In past years, Tacoma schools employed off-duty police officers. But this year, the district will pay for five on-duty officers to work exclusively in the schools. Each officer is assigned full time to a particular school. The goal is to encourage each officer to get to know a school and its students.

That’s how Clother approaches his job at Lincoln. He hopes his presence will not only help prevent violence, but also help students develop a positive image of law enforcement.

“We want to build relationships that can carry on into their adult life,” Clother said.

TRAGEDY SPARKED ACTION

The new school resource officer plan grew out of a tragedy. On Jan. 3, 2007, 17-year-old Samnang Kok was gunned down at Foss High School. Classmate Douglas S. Chanthabouly was sentenced to 23 years and four months in prison for the killing.

Although the idea of placing on-duty officers in the high schools had been discussed before, the Foss shooting provided the impetus to move forward, said school district secondary education director Miguel Villahermosa.

Discussions between the city and the school district about SROs in high schools began within days of the 2007 shooting. But at that time, City Manager Eric Anderson said it might take up to a year to hire and train the officers needed.

The school district set aside $300,000 in its 2007-08 budget to pay for SROs at all five high schools for a year. But the city wasn’t able to immediately staff the program because of a shortage of police officers.

In January of this year, the school district and city signed a contract in which the district allocated nearly $400,000 to pay for SROs for 11/2 years.

Two began working at Lincoln and Mount Tahoma last winter. But it was not until this school year that all five officers were in place.

While campus police previously intervened when incidents occurred, the hope is that the new SROs will work more on preventing school violence.

“Pure suppression really hasn’t solved the problem,” Villahermosa said.

City police officers work with school district security workers, whose ranks have been reduced in recent years due to budget constraints, Villahermosa said.

In addition to the high school SROs, each of Tacoma’s 10 middle schools has a campus security officer employed by Tacoma Schools. Eight security officers rove throughout the district responding wherever they are needed.

GETTING TO KNOW KIDS

At Lincoln, co-principal Greg Eisnaugle likes the idea of Clother’s consistent presence.

“He’s developing relationships with kids, and developing respect,” Eisnaugle said. “It’s easier when the officer knows kids by name. This is a way for kids to see an officer as a living, breathing person who cares about them.”

Clother’s role as a caring adult is evident as he approaches a lone student in the hallway at Lincoln. The lanky, long-haired young man seems nervous about something.

“I’ve got to find Eisnaugle,” the boy says, a sense of urgency in his voice.

“I’ll show you his office,” Clother promises, calmly walking the student to the doorway.

Clother later explained that the student was angry at a teacher and wanted to transfer out of the class.

“I convinced him to go back to class,” Clother said. “I told him that the worst thing he could do would be to go back to the classroom and cuss out the teacher.”

Clother is a five-year veteran of the Tacoma Police Department who previously worked as a patrol officer in the South End.

He grew up in Tacoma, and he comes from a family of Lincoln alumni, although he graduated from Mount Tahoma. In college, he considered both teaching and youth ministry before deciding on police work.

“I thought I could be out there helping the kids who needed help,” he said.

Some Lincoln students say having Clother on campus makes them feel safer.

“I see him all the time,” said freshman Marchelle Goodman. “It’s good that he’s here.”

Other students say Clother is a “cool guy,” but that the presence of a uniformed policeman at school creates a heavy-handed image.

“There’s a level of paranoia among students,” said sophomore Hank Cornett.

Clother said he primarily allows school officials to deal with students who break school rules. He gets involved if there is criminal activity suspected.

MULTIPLE MODELS

Tacoma isn’t the only Pierce County school district with police officers in schools.

Clover Park schools contract with the City of Lakewood for off-duty police officers to patrol middle and high schools. The district has 25 to 30 officers rotating through the patrols, paid an hourly rate by the school district. This year, the district has agreed to spend up to $235,000.

While the program does not assign officers to specific schools the way Tacoma does, it does have other advantages, say school and police officials.

“We don’t have one officer per school,” said Lakewood assistant police chief Mike Zaro. “But we have more officers going through the schools. They are still getting to know kids and staff, only there are more of them doing it.”

He said feedback from officers has been positive. Clover Park spokeswoman Kim Prentice said principals also say they they’re pleased with the police.

FRANKLIN PIERCE HAS SROS TOO

The Franklin Pierce School District has used SROs from the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department for more than 10 years. At one point, the district was able to employ two officers, but when funding from a federal grant was depleted, the district cut back to one. Franklin Pierce spends a little more than $87,000 on the program.

“A lot of folks in the community will say $87,000 is a lot of money for one deputy,” said district spokesman Willie Painter. “But it’s our position that there’s absolutely no way to quantify the successes of an SRO who prevents potential disasters.”

Pierce County Sheriff’s Deputy Rob Smith is the sole SRO for the Franklin Pierce District, which includes two traditional high schools, Washington and Franklin Pierce, as well as two middle schools and eight elementary schools.

“I found a niche and I enjoy it,” said Smith, who has been working as an SRO for 11 years. “You’re there (at school) all the time. The kids see you and get comfortable with you. You can develop a good rapport and get good information that can enable you to solve crimes because people trust you.”

Smith said he deals with such issues as fights and theft. Although some students are involved in gangs, he said, the problem manifests itself differently now than in decades past. Schools have come down heavily on gang activity and don’t hesitate to suspend students who create graffiti on campus or wear gang attire to school, he said.

Smith said some of his most positive relationships have been with students who got into trouble repeatedly. He tells them they’re accountable for their actions, but that they can change.

“Yeah, they messed up,” Smith said. “But that doesn’t mean they’re a loser, or that anybody hates them.”

He’s a big believer in giving kids second chances.

“I like to plant fruit,” he said. “Sometimes it’s going to blossom.”

Debbie Cafazzo: 253-597-8635

debbie.cafazzo@thenewstribune.com