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Schools

Officer's job is elementary

Tarpon Springs' three elementary schools get their own police officer, thanks to a federal grant.

By NORA KOCH
Published February 5, 2005

TARPON SPRINGS - Mike Kazouris first walked the halls at Sunset Hills Elementary School as a student in the 1970s.

Now, as a cop at his alma mater, his days include everything from bus duty to fire drills and from counseling a kid who has stolen gum to talking to parents worried about student safety.

Last month, Kazouris became a fixture in the city's three elementary schools when he took a job as their very own police officer. In the halls, children wave hello to the man in uniform whom they call "Officer Mike." Principals call on him to help keep unruly students in line and for safety advice, teachers turn over classrooms for law enforcement lessons, and youngsters aspiring to join the force see him as an inspiration.

Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice awarded the city Police Department a $125,000 grant to hire an officer to assist with traffic, student crime and safety education in the city's three elementary schools. The grant covers the position's salary and benefits for three years, and it requires Tarpon Springs to pay for a fourth year.

Tarpon Springs' elementary schools, which enroll a total of about 1,600 students, are the only elementary schools in Pinellas County to have their own school resource officer, according to the school district. Before Tarpon Springs hired him, Kazouris, 32, had worked the elementary school beat for the Pinellas school district campus police since 1997.

In his previous job, he covered about three dozen schools from Clearwater north, never spending a lot of time in one school. With Tarpon's new program, he can visit each of the three schools every day.

His new job gives Kazouris the opportunity to pursue his vocation in the city where he was raised.

Kazouris, who has a 2-year-old daughter, grew up with kids who are now the parents of some of the children he deals with at the schools. It's not uncommon for those parents to ask him to prod a son or a daughter into better behavior.

"When you wear a uniform and you come into the classroom and you say, "You wear that helmet or you're going to get fined,' it makes a whole lot more difference when it comes from him," said Carol Jean Madura, who works in the school district's Emergency Response Crisis Management department.

In classrooms, he teaches about "danger strangers," "good touch-bad touch" and other facets of law enforcement. He is revamping the three schools' crisis plans and attends meetings of the PTA and other school organizations. Once in a while, Kazouris might even show up at a school skating party.

"We're not there because the kids in the elementary schools are terrible," he said. "We're there to educate, to be a liaison."

Mostly, he sees his role as one of prevention and intervention.

"If we reach our little ones at a young age, maybe we won't have the problems with them that we're seeing today," he said.

Principals at the three schools lobbied the department for their own resource officer about five years ago, said Rory Morris-Richardson, the head administrator at Sunset Hills. After just a few weeks on the job, he is already having an effect on students and daily operations in the schools, the principals said.

On Thursday, Kazouris assisted a detective in the arrest of a 17-year-old school volunteer who was accused of lewd and lascivious molestation of a student at Tarpon Springs Elementary School. The next morning, he helped school and district officials wrangle through a meeting with concerned parents and figure out how to handle the situation.

"I couldn't have done it without him," said principal Leah Pappas, who appreciates the link between her school and the Tarpon Springs Police Department, which is investigating the case.

One of the many perks of having their very own police officer is "real-life character education," said Donna Hoover, principal of Tarpon Springs Fundamental Elementary.

"Rather than give them detention three days down the road, he can handle it right then and there," Hoover said.

For example, when a student swiped some gum from a teacher's purse, Kazouris intervened. He pulled the child aside and explained the law and asked how the student would feel if someone took his book bag.

Before settling into the schools, Kazouris went through the same department training as all other officers. He drives a police cruiser, wears the standard uniform and carries a handgun.

During school breaks, he will be assigned to police and community programs that involve youth and will chaperone kids to activities as rewards for community contributions, like neighborhood cleanups.

"Some people like doing the SWAT thing. Some like doing the traffic thing," Kazouris said. "I enjoy working with kids, being in the schools."

Nora Koch can be reached at 727 771-4304 or nkoch@sptimes.com

[Last modified February 5, 2005, 00:57:15]