"We’re going to check this car right here because its sitting over here, it’s out of place, my school’s over here and I want to know why it’s there so we’re going to check the license plate.”
Officer Chad McConnell notes the various scenarios as he assesses the situation.
“You just have some tendencies to think, you know, they have car trouble? Possibly, but this is right across from the elementary, so is this a parent who’s looking to go in and swipe their kid, custody issues, is this a pervert that’s parked out here, watching the playground, a lot of things it could be. Or, it could be perfect explanation.”
You may characterize this as a typical day McConnell, the director of police services for Nixa Public Schools. But he says that no day is routine for a cop. And in his position, there’s a diverse set of responsibilities.
“Sometimes you seem to be like you’re almost a counselor, then obviously an officer, a juvenile officer, sometimes a social worker—you wear many hats.”
I spent a recent Friday morning riding along with McConnell as he made rounds throughout the district, which is made up of 12 school buildings.
“Basically we have our own city we are taking care of, because we have 6,000-ish kids in the district this year. And then by the time you add our staff and faculty, our contracted services, our maintenance, food service…so by the time you add in our faculty and staff, you’re adding another 1,000 people to the mix,” McConnell said.
To take care of this “city,” there are two officers at the high school, one apiece at the junior high and elementary buildings, and another that supervises four campuses on the district’s east side.
“The way we have ours set up is kind of geographically, so we have coverage from as far west as we can go, to as far east. So that way if there’s a need at a certain building, any officer can respond and secure the scene, and let the officer who’s assigned to that building go ahead and take care of it.”
Additionally, this year the district introduced a second shift officer, who stays on patrol until 10:30 in the evening.
“Say something happens in the afternoon—a kid gets home and tells parents, ‘Hey this happened in school today but I didn’t tell anyone at school,’ so the parents are trying to figure out how we get in touch with someone at the school. Well all you have to do is call dispatch, and they get the information to my second shift officer. She follows up on it.”
We pull through the parking lot, which is flooded with high schoolers. A student in a bright yellow shirt waves at McConnell.
“On a daily basis we try and split up our day to where we have parking lot patrol—as you can see we have kids coming and going at all times a day. We try to have presence here in the parking lot keep an eye on them, keep an eye on anyone that might not be welcome on our campus.”
McConnell explains that this patrol is especially important during high traffic times—such as drop off and dismissal—and sometimes there’s no choice but to get in the middle of it all, literally.
“So this afternoon from 2:30 till about 3:40 to 4:00 I’ll be standing right here in the middle of Gregg Road directing traffic all different ways.”
We pull into the Nixa Junior High parking lot. I ask McConnell about the differences between patrolling a high school versus a junior high.
“With the junior high age, really from the 5th through the 8th grade, really is where we can see we can make the biggest impact in trying to get any bad decisions or behavior corrected.”
And the best way to do that, he says, is to form relationships with the students.
“With me, I still tend to act like a kid. If I walk past a P.E. class and they’re playing ball—I’ll step in and play a little ball with them. Get on their level. And let them see you as not just someone who wears metal badges and walks around, you know, stiff as a board,” says McConnell.
Getting on their level, as McConnell explains, can also mean taking a walk around the track with a student, sitting on the floor, or even laying on the floor by them.
“I have literally found myself crawling under tables, just lay down and hang out with them.”
As we pull out of the junior high parking lot, McConnell points to the track.
“We go to the sporting events. When these kids see you standing over there and they see you clapping for them or high fiving when they come off the court—or you make it a point to tell them the next day ‘Hey, that was a great shot you made last night’ or like band concerts, tell them ‘Man you guys sounded great,’ you know, just I always like to make sure I give each group some kind of compliment or some part of my time, so they don’t feel like they are left out.”
Establishing that comradery is more than just a way to make students feel good, McConnell says those relationships can be essential in preventing anything from small disruptions to the worst case scenario; an active school shooter.
“We have those kids that might never make a law violation but they still need the help and assistance, because it might be the kid that sits in the corner. And they don’t feel they have any friends.”
He explains that in the case of any type of threat, the officers are trained to take the situation very seriously.
McConnell says gun threats happen an estimated one to five times a year.
“I’m going to be proud to say at this point, we’ve never found a kid to be in possession of a gun on our property—that doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened, it just means we have not confiscated any guns. Other weapons, you know, knives, things like that.”
The most effective safety measures, he says, must be preventative. He encourages parents to make sure their kids stay active and involved in the community.
“To me that’s very big because a lot of these kids who did decide to become a school shooter—gave off many, many signs that everyone recognized after it was done. ‘Well, we did know that was going on. Yeah, we did know they made a video with guns.’”
But it’s not just up to the parents, McConnell adds. He says the schools must take an active role as well, with programs such as Nixa’s “At Risk” teams. These teams consist of teachers, counselors, principals, and officers, who identify students who may be struggling and try to help.
Additionally, Nixa offers a Community Action Team (CAT), a district-wide team formed to work towards solutions for individual students. Once a month, juvenile officers, doctors, psychologists, counselors, and principals, and many others, meet up and present concerns.
“Everyone adds in, okay, here’s what we can do. Let’s see if we can help them from a psychologist side. Everyone’s there for one purpose, which is to help every case that is presented, so that has turned out with some great benefits.”
McConnell has now finished his rounds at the other Nixa Public Schools’ campuses. As we head back to the high school, McConnell explains that although there are bad days and hard situations to deal with as a school police officer, he definitely considers it worth it in the end.
“There hasn’t been a year since I’ve switched over to the schools that at graduation, some student will stop by and grab, or many students will grab me, and say ‘Thank you, because of what you did got me here.’ And that’s rewarding; that’s all I could ask for.”
