Passion for children and safety inspires Fowler
There will be a school resource officer at each of the five campuses of the Pea Ridge School District beginning with the 2023-24 school term.
Pea Ridge Police Sgt. Mindy Fowler addressed the Pea Ridge School Board during their regular monthly meeting Monday, July 10.
“Working in the schools is vastly different than working patrol,” Fowler said, explaining that she has 30 years working in law enforcement but believes she learned how to be an SRO on the job.
“This is my 30th year in law enforcement. I specifically came to Pea Ridge to be an SRO,” she said. “My personal feeling is that an SRO should be a lot more than security presence on campus. They need to build relationships, provide education.
“Thank you for investing in these positions. It’s important to have a program instead of just armed security,” she said.
Fowler said there was no specific SRO training program before although each police officer went through a 12-week FTO (field training) for all patrol.
“I’m working on creating an onboarding checklist for new SROs,” Fowler said, explaining that for the first six to eight months on the job, there were many things to which she had access of which she was unaware. “I want to make sure nothing slips through the cracks… Currently, I’m the only certified instructor to teach civilians CRASE (Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events) course.”
The CRASE resources are free through CJI — Criminal Justice Institute and were designed and built on the Avoid, Deny, Defend (ADD) strategy developed by Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid
Response Training (ALERRT). It provides strategies, guidance and a proven plan for surviving an active shooter event.
Fowler said she is working on a presentation to develop a more standardized assessment as personnel is not doing everything in the same way in each building.
“The biggest change is moving from not just being police officers, but teachers. We want to be in the classrooms, in front of the students, and sharing important topics with them.
“I’m working on what that curriculum will look like, putting that content together and will work with the principals to implement into the school schedules,” she said, explaining that she is working with Amanda Shackelford, school district social worker. She said that in addition to orchestrating the classroom work, she hopes to bring in experts, with school approval, such as personnel from the Benton County Women’s Center about healthy relationships for older students.
“Law enforcement has changed so much since I first started,” she said, explaining that attitudes in law enforcement to SRO programs has also changed.
“I feel like the three (SROs) we have want to be there,” she said. “I would like to see ways to incentivize that.”
Fowler is the only SRO contracted for 12 months, according to school superintendent Keith Martin.
“She is there helping us with camps and any time we have kids on campus. The ability to impact our kids is great,” he said.
The five school resource officers this fall will be, in addition to Fowler, Rick Helmer, Janice Wilson, Charles Snyder and Breanna Jonasson.