Newport
A few minutes later, Beaudet, 37, and interim Assistant Principal Patrick Dowsett arrived at the small building that houses an alternative short-term program for middle school students. The boy was inside, sitting quietly at a table with a classmate.
Beaudet and Dowsett talked with the teenager for a few minutes, and the trip to the suspension room was scrapped.
As they left, the boy called out a cheery goodbye. “It’s good to see you, Beaudet!”
Such interactions make up 90 percent of his day, the Newport police officer said.
A school resource officer’s role varies from community to community, but nearly two decades after Newport’s program started, the officer’s primary goal is still the same: have positive interactions with students while maintaining a safe educational environment, said James Burroughs, Newport’s police chief.
The position is intended to offer a resource for school employees, students and parents, Burroughs, who was the district’s original school resource officer, said in a telephone interview. “You truly are that link between so many specialized services and … points of contact.”
Like most school resource officers in New Hampshire, the Newport job requires national certification. It includes traffic detail at Newport Elementary School, lending a hand with special events, and giving classroom presentations, such as a talk on drug and alcohol abuse. The bulk of Beaudet’s work is at the high school and middle school.
“It’s really the social aspect … that drives (most) of the problems we deal with in this building,” said Beaudet, who spends a good deal of time spotting brewing conflicts and helping students resolve them. “Kids can be really mean to one another.”
Being a pivot point among the schools, police department and community enables him to stay on top of issues that could spill over from one setting into another.
Earlier this month, for example, he heard from the officer who had responded to a call about a possible fight at the town library. Apparently, two girls had exchanged words, and other students had egged them on to fight, to no avail. Beaudet gave Dowsett a heads-up, and the next morning they checked in with the teens involved.
“We don’t want it to escalate,” Beaudet said.
There are times when he writes a ticket or makes an arrest, most often when a visitor has been asked to leave the school but refused, he said. But as a school resource officer, his job is not to be a police officer.
While he deals with the occasional fight — usually a shoving match — rather than punishing students or “pointing fingers,” he aims use those incidents as learning experiences for the kids, Beaudet said.
With the goal of diffusing or averting blow-ups, he’s been known to take a lap around the building or shoot hoops with a student who needs a few minutes to cool off and, perhaps, talk.
They’re mad at Dad or Mom or their boyfriend, kids might tell him. “They need wiggle room,” he said.
Dowsett and Beaudet work closely together, with the assistant principal taking the lead on disciplinary issues. But even if Beaudet doesn’t say a word in a given situation, he imagines his uniformed presence has a certain effect. Would certain conversations have gone differently “if I hadn’t been within eyeshot?” he asked.
Like most of the town’s police officers, Beaudet is from the area, specifically, Newport, and he has roots in the schools. His mother was a paraprofessional at Richards School; his father taught in Sunapee. A 1998 Newport High School graduate, he earned his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Norwich University. After graduating, he served as a Lebanon police officer for five years before joining the Newport department in 2007.
Being a Newport native gives him “instant credibility,” said Burroughs, himself a 1993 Newport High graduate.
He can say to students, “I’ve been where you are. I’ve been in this classroom. I’ve had the same teacher,” he said. “He can relate to them unlike anybody else.”
Looking back on all the school resource officers she’s known, the interim principal at Newport Middle and High School said Beaudet is “tied for first.”
“He’s really low-key and doesn’t get too rattled,” Suzanne Boyington said in a telephone interview. “He cares about the kids and they know it. And they take him seriously when it’s time to take him seriously.”
A veteran school administrator, she’s a big proponent of school resource officers.
“Having (a school resource officer) is such a crucial piece of how we do safety at our school and for our students,” said Boyington, who moved to this area from Texas, where, in one school, she was required to carry a gun.
“We were so far away from any police we had to have concealed carry,” a great burden that is not to be taken lightly, she said. “Yet, I wouldn’t want to not be prepared to help save my students … from an intruder.”
Partly funded by the school district, which enrolls about 1,000 students, the school resource officer position offers regular hours in an informal setting. But it isn’t for everyone.
“You’ve got to be a people person,” said Beaudet, who makes a point of being in the hallways between classes.
Kids fist bump him and say hello as they pass. He asks a student whether he’ll apply for the cadet academy, a program for high school students that mirrors the police academy.
The student said he’d already filled out an application.
“Cool,” Beaudet said. “Spread the word.”
Kim Thompson, the student assistance program counselor, stopped to check in with him about a drunken-driving prevention program she hoped to bring to school before the prom and graduation.
Beaudet liked the idea, and Thompson said she’d pursue it. “I wanted to get the police department stamp of approval.”
Back in his office, Beaudet said students often drop in to say hello. He’s decorated the small space with personal items to help them connect with him: a charcoal drawing of him made by a student, a mounted ring-necked pheasant, photographs of his golden retriever, Finnley, and Remi, his black Lab. Sometimes conversations about hunting, fishing or sports can serve as a doorway for students to broach weightier, personal subjects.
And when he’s covering vacations or doing other police department work, personal connections can make a difference.
“If it helps in any way to get cooperation or get someone to open up,” he said, “I’m all for it.”
Beaudet, who’s now in his fourth year as school resource officer, says he’s happy with the job.
Working out in the community, he commonly responded to fights and domestics, break-ins and burglaries, he said.
In the schools, “I almost feel like I can be more helpful.”
Aimee Caruso can be reached at acaruso@vnews.com or 603-727-3210.