Resource officer increases peace at Mount View

A typical day last summer for Waldo County Sheriff's Deputy Gerald Lincoln meant restoring peace at domestic disputes, responding to car accidents and investigating burglaries.

These days, the school resource officer makes sure classrooms, hallways and parking lots at Mount View complex and other Regional School Unit 3 schools are safe for students, staff and community members.

The new full-time job is still evolving, Lincoln said.

"It's new to the school, it's new to students, it's new to me and there's a new principal. There's a lot of newness," he said.

One recent day, Lincoln talked with middle school students about cyberbullying and first-graders about Halloween safety.

The retired Air Force lieutenant colonel also secured entrances at the three-school complex in Thorndike, greeted students when they entered and left, checked in with youth who have approached him with problems and prepared remarks for guest lectures.

Lincoln also assists, when requested by staff, with on-site issues ranging from drug infractions to fights.

Dressed in a brown uniform and equipped with a utility belt, which includes a pistol, Lincoln, arrives at 6:45 a.m. on school days in his Dodge Charger cruiser. He reviews the prior night's police reports to see if law enforcement personnel were involved in situations that might have had an impact on district students.

Then he goes to the lobby to greet students as they arrive.

As the job title indicates, Lincoln said he is a resource for students, educators, guests and the entire school community, including parents.

"I'm here to help," Lincoln said. "No student at school should feel unsafe."

The price tag this year for Lincoln's services is $70,000, which includes salary and benefits.

Superintendent Heather Perry said discussions for a school resource officer began early during last year's budget discussions and included researching how other districts used their officers.

"We liked that we could tailor the position to our needs in a unique way," she said, adding that the Unity-based, 11-town district would focus on preventing drug and alcohol abuse and preventing bullying.

She said the district had lost a drug and alcohol counselor, guidance counselors and other nonteaching staff because of recent tight budgets.

"We saw a school resource officer as focusing on prevention ... and could impact the lives of students at school and outside of school," Perry said, adding that law enforcement personnel are well connected with multiple organizations and services geared to helping youth.

Waldo County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Jeff Trafton said Lincoln is "a conduit to all kinds of other services that kids need."

In 2002, when Trafton was a Maine State Police lieutenant, he helped forge an agreement with the rural district to have then-Trooper Tom Ballard work as a school resource officer for 16 hours a week.

It was a pilot project and was provided at no cost to the district, Trafton said.

In 2003, Ballard was promoted to sergeant and Trafton said the program ended because the troop did not have enough staff for another trooper to continue the program.

Trafton said he understood that some people might have concerns about a uniformed officer with a gun in a school setting.

"The government, it seems, is involved in every facet of our lives," he said. "But I'm a trained (school resource officer) myself and the basis of the position is to serve and support the students and staff."

It's imperative that the school resource officer have good people skills, he said.

"They have to be completely approachable or students are not going to connect with them," Trafton said.

Trafton said Lincoln is professional, competent and approachable. "And if he needs to take decisive action, he has the knowledge and training and ability to do it," he said.

Lincoln was a flight instructor in the Air Force and said the school resource officer position is a good fit for his personality and interests. "I understand the importance of it and the need to build rapport and trust with the students."

During his military career, Lincoln also worked at Bangor International Airport, where he was responsible for air refueling missions for military aircraft bound for Europe and the Middle East.

After retiring from the Air Force and after a brief stint as a first officer with Northwest Airlines, Lincoln joined the Waldo County Sheriff's Department.

In 2009, Lincoln was oldest person in his basic law enforcement training program at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy, where he graduated the 18-week course third in the 53-cadet group.

"It was a good motivator for me in a lot of ways," he said. "In other ways it was very humbling."

Lincoln was elected president of his class and academy personnel in Vassalboro selected him for the Professionalism Award.

Tom Lynch, Mount View High School vice principal, said Lincoln epitomizes an ideal school resource officer "in terms of personality, presence, knowledge and experience working with kids."

"He has an ability to keep things very professional," Lynch said. "He has a way about him and kids accept him and listen to him. I think that's why we're seeing such early success."

Perry said youth have approached Lincoln with both practical and personal problems, from how to properly take care of a speeding ticket to how to handle an argument with a girlfriend or boyfriend.

Staff, Perry said, can use Lincoln as a sounding board when legal issues arise.

Lincoln's office in the high school guidance suite has a window from which he can see Route 220, the parking lot and school entrance.

Thank-you cards dot the bulletin board behind his computer.

The vice principal said Lincoln has helped make the school safer in a variety of ways -- from student behavior to reducing motorists speeding through the parking lot.

Lynch said having Lincoln at the rural complex gives him peace of mind in the event the unthinkable were to happen.

"At any given time, there are about 1,600 people, including staff, students and visitors here," said Lynch, adding that sheriff's deputies and state police troopers can be miles away.

In April 1999, Columbine High School high school seniors Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris murdered 12 fellow students and one teacher before they turned the guns on themselves in Littleton, Colo. It is the nation's worst school shooting in history.

In October 2008, closer to home, Randall Hofland took a fifth-grade class hostage with a handgun at Stockton Springs Elementary School. Maine State Police Detective Jason Andrews talked Hofland out of the classroom and took him into custody. No students were physically harmed.

Those incidents have made school staff hyper-aware of safety.

Lincoln, who has been with the sheriff's office for about three and a half years, said it can be difficult to measure incident prevention, but he said educators have told him that they can focus on educating when students are better behaved.

High school English teacher Tanya Hubbard attested to that.

"I find his presence to be encouraging," said Hubbard, who added she has seen many changes during her 36-year teaching career.

"This addition is a good one; everyone needs to feel safe. I feel like I can go to him with any concerns, behavior, students or referrals. He's professional and important to our system. He's authoritative and pleasant, together."

Lincoln, a 1982 graduate of Nokomis Regional High School, said he hopes students will use him for any number of reasons, from needing help with a domestic situation to pursuing a law enforcement career.