In December, Boothbay Region High School welcomed their first ever School Resource Officer in Dec. 2009. Shortly before that, and in the following three months, the school saw three bomb threats and a student that brought a gun to school.
The school, and School Resource Officer Larry Brown, hopes that his presence will help prevent incidents like these in the future. Brown will be on hand part time at both the high school and Boothbay Elementary School.
“It’s a proactive job, not a reactive job,” both Brown and Principal Dan Welch said on separate occasions. The addition of a resource officer had been in the works long before the recent problems at the school, Welch said.
Brown “brings a lot of expertise to the position,” Welch said. “It’s nice to have someone with his skills at the school. For now, we’re at the point of, ‘Let’s give it time.'”
A former Lewiston Police Officer, Brown served for 29 years until his retirement as a sergeant in 1997. With the Lewiston department, he did a little of everything, he said. He was a patrolman for 11 years, he was in charge of bicycle unit, he worked as a hostage negotiator, and he finished his career there as a supervisor.
The seven-and-half years he enjoyed the most were the years he spent working at a junior high school in Lewiston – in one of the earliest programs in Maine to place a police officer in a school, he said.
“I like working with the kids, forming relationships with them,” Brown said. “When a police officer knocks on your door, it’s usually not good. This lets the kids see a police officer in a different environment.”
When he retired to Boothbay in 1997, he and his wife opened a bed and breakfast, The Linekin Bay Bed and Breakfast.
He’s also been an active member of the Boothbay community since his arrival.
Brown served on the board of the Boothbay Historical Society, the Boothbay Region Land Trust appointed him the steward of all 30 miles of trails they oversee, and he was active in a committee that raised money to put lights on the athletic fields at the Boothbay schools. He also hosted a program on local access television called “Around Town With Larry Brown.”
“Down in Lewiston, there were so many people, that sometimes you wondered if you could really change anything,” Brown said. “In Boothbay, it’s a community, I can really get to know the kids, and feel like I’m making an impact.”
He left retirement and entered the Boothbay police force at the request of Boothbay Police Chief Rob Hasch.
“He’d see me at football games and say, ‘If you want to come in, we’ve got a little work for you,'” Brown said. “I’m still trying to figure out what his idea of a little work is.”
His work in the Boothbay schools is in its infancy, and the nature of his role is still in development. For now, he’s focused on meeting the kids and their parents, and getting the staff accustomed to having an officer on the premises.
“My entrance couldn’t have gone any better,” he said. “The reception from everyone has been phenomenal.”
The school is working on securing a federal grant to help pay to make his position full time. Brown is currently working a little more than 20 hours per week, “putting mileage on [his] shoes,” as he put it, getting to know students and teachers.
In the future, Brown plans to tackle several programs.
Brown will run a school bus safety program that teaches kids about behavior on school buses and runs evacuation drills. This is great chance to meet all the kids, grade by grade, he said.
One his major focuses will be drug and alcohol prevention. A program in this vein he’s working on now is a drunk driving prevention program that highlights the dramatic increase in the cost of car insurance for teenagers with violations on their record.
“Even with teenagers, when you hit them in their pocketbooks, it really hits home,” Brown said.
Brown also participates in a program he calls “Cop on the Spot.” He visits classes and answers questions prepared by the teacher. Then they give the students time to ask questions.
“It lets me answer the questions the kids have, instead of just telling them what I think is important,” Brown said.
Outside of those programs, a big part of his role is just being present at the school. This is what he thinks will have the biggest impact on preventing future incidents like the bomb threats.
“There’s more people and more going on in these two schools than anywhere else in Boothbay,” he said. “Just being here is important: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
Brown encouraged anyone with questions or suggestions to call him at either of the schools. The Boothbay Region High School phone number is 633-2421; the Elementary School phone number is 633-5097.
However, he’s walking the school more often than sitting at his desk, so callers can expect to leave a message.
“I want to talk to the community and get to know what they want me to do, so I’ll get back to them,” he said.
