Returning to school on Aug. 10, veteran Danville High School students were greeted by a new visitor to the home of the Admirals: Officer Chase Broach.
The policeman wandering the halls of DHS is here to help.
“We’re behind the game here,” said Principal Ed McKinney at this year’s senior class meeting. “Most schools have a security resource officer.”
McKinney went on to ensure students that Officer Broach is not here to “look at you with a microscope to see if you’re in trouble all the time.” McKinney also mentioned that extra security isn’t the only benefit of having the officer around. Not only is Broach a DHS grad, but he also played safety for the Admirals football team. The principal seems hopeful that Officer Broach will bring a new positive relationship and renewed school spirit to students’ lives in the building.
“It’s just like shrinking my patrol beat,” said Broach amid calls coming over his radio. The cop discussed his excitement at taking on the “new challenge” of interacting with the young adults at DHS. “Juvenile law is a whole different game.”
Officer Broach said that both DHS principal Ed McKinney and Danville Schools Superintendent Dr. Carmen Coleman were behind the idea of adding the security resource program this year because the programs have become common practice at schools across the state.
Student response to the school’s new addition has been largely positive. Hamani Ingram, a DHS senior who transferred to Danville Schools from Somerset High School in 2009, was unconcerned regarding the cop roaming our halls.
“It’s not really any different, honestly. Every school I went to had a security officer besides this one,” Ingram stated when asked how he felt about the officer here. “I think my elementary school even had one.”
Junior Phoebe Ross remarked, “Him [Officer Broach] being here is fine. I had an officer in my middle school when I went in Tennessee. It was a safe neighborhood.”