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More than cameras: How one SRO built a culture of safety at Seneca High · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: More than cameras. One SRO built a culture of safety
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  at Seneca High. Written by Brian Hoxey, this article is
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  being read by an automated voice brought to you by Everlett.
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  For Seneca High School resource Officer Ken Sangston, there is
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  one clear cut responsibility that is above all others in
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  his position. The number one goal for me is that
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  when a parent has a child on a bus or
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  drops their child off here at the school at any
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  time of the day, they know their child is safe.
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  Sangston said that goal is also instantly as good as
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  they asked. The staff around you and the staff around
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  me here is just as strong and believes in what
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  I do. We are all on the same page. I
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  owe it to this community to do the best job
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  I can do and for the community to know we've
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  got this. Sangston was born and raised in Streeter. His father, Kenneth,
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  was the police chief in Streeter for many years, and
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  his older brother, Kevin, is a former chief of police
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  in Spring Valley. I really didn't make a conscious decision
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  to be a police officer. I just knew I was
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  going to be one, Sangston said, watching my dad all
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  of those years growing up just the importance of the
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  job and the meaning behind what he did. It was
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  the path I wanted to follow. Sangston, who is now
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  in his thirty fourth year in law enforcement, began his
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  career in emergency medical services, where he trained as a
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  paramedic before transitioning into law enforcement. He was a twenty
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  six year member of the Marseille Police Department until twenty seventeen.
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  I was a captain at Marseilles in early twenty seventeen
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  and I was getting toward the end of my career
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  as a police officer. I had a couple of irons
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  in the fire of what might be next for me.
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  I received a text message from then Seneca teacher now
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  Superintendent Dan Steckin that they were going to have an
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  SRO the following school year. Sangston said, I kind of
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  just brushed it off. Then later that year, at a
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  school board meeting, former superintendent doctor Jim Carlson asked if
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  I'd like to become the SRO, But again I said,
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  I appreciated the offer, but I had some other things
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  in mind. Then three months later he asked me again
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  and added, I want you to really think about this.
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  I did, and I guess I just realized this was
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  something I really wanted to do. He accepted the SRO
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  position in March twenty eighteen, put his notice in at
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  Marseilles in July, and started his new journey on August
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  first that same year. His dedication to student safety has
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  led to major improvements, including updated security systems, advanced ID
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  check in procedures, and a proactive approach to school safety.
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  I was asked when I took this position, how do
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  you foresee this in your mind? How do you foresee
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  this going? What do you think we need to do
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  to implement different things? The one thing the administration said
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  to me was we'll spare no expense when it comes
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  to the safety of the kids, Sangston said. Sangston has
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  lived in the Seneca area for many years and raised
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  three children who attended Seneca schools. He was a member
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  of the Seneca Grade School Board for sixteen years, including
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  ten as president. He has also helped coach wrestling in football,
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  often drive school buses to student events, and makes himself
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  available during study halls. That presence has a real impact
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  students who might otherwise view an officer as distant or
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  hard to approach. Instead see him as part of their
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  everyday lives. They talk with him, trust him, and understand
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  that if something comes up, he's someone they can turn to.
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  That trust is essential in his role and it's something
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  he has deliberately built over the past eight years. School
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  culture and relationships are big things, Sangston said. You can
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  have all the technology in the world, hundreds of cameras
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  throughout the school, and every safety mechanism in place, but
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  it's about how everyone inside the school interacts with each other.
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  Does everyone know this is a place we want everyone
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  to know? The answer to that question is yes. We
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  have other school districts reaching out to us to see
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  how we handle certain things. For me, that just validates
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  that we are on the right track and doing things
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  the right way. It also validates this is where I'm
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  supposed to be and what I'm supposed to be doing.