Newton’s School Resource Officers see themselves as guardians and mentors woven into the fabric of the City’s public schools. Overseen by Lieutenant Amanda Henrickson of the Newton Police Department’s Community Services Bureau, the four-officer team – two monitoring the high schools and two covering the middle schools, while assisting elementary campuses – serves roughly 11,000 students.
“We want children to look at our officers as people they can go to as trusted adults,” Henrickson said. “But not taking up too much space.”
In addition to standard police instruction, each school resource officer completes a forty-hour certification and annual recertification through the state’s Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission. Henrickson said the training emphasizes crisis intervention, child-abuse investigations, and trauma-informed communication – preparing officers to navigate the sensitivities of working with children and families.
Officers wear “soft uniforms” – polo shirts with embroidered badges – to maintain approachability as they work with students from elementary school through high school.
Comfort and Support
Officer Zoi Lazarakis, who has worked as a school resource officer since 2018, told Fig City News she knew from the start she wanted to work with kids. She now covers Oak Hill and Charles E. Brown Middle Schools.
“I stayed with the middle school kids because I believe there are more mentoring conversations that can be had during that time,” Lazarakis said. “It’s a good time for growth.”
Julian Turner, assistant principal at Brown, said Lazarakis knows how to build trust with the students.
“She takes a very empathic approach to children,” he said. “She tries to relate to them by sharing her own experiences as a parent.”
Turner said she attends the school’s safety-drill days, joins faculty meetings to help teachers understand emergency protocols, and sometimes simply drops into the cafeteria to check in with students.
Turner said that when patterns emerge – such as repeated cyberbullying cases in a particular grade – the school turns to Lazarakis for grade-wide presentations. He said these are known as tier-one interventions.
“It’s easier to talk to them as a whole group and then answer questions rather than to discipline individual kids who did something from an uninformed place,” Turner said.
Impact of social media
Lazarakis said the rise of social media has transformed student life. She prioritizes teaching kids how to recognize risky behavior online and think before they post.
“Social media is a huge problem for our youth,” she said. “It’s caused a lot of anxiety and depression. There are also a lot of crimes being committed. It’s just a very dangerous platform, and they have access to anything and everything.”
One topic Lazarakis often discusses with students is the permanence of what they share online.
“If you take a picture of yourself and you’re nude, then you’re technically in possession of child pornography, which most kids don’t even understand,” she said. “Then the person that you sent it to is now in possession of child pornography.”
Many issues begin outside school hours, but the emotional fallout often reaches classrooms, where teachers and counselors call on the SRO team to help students in distress.
Officer Isaiah Jellinek has been an SRO for just over a year. He covers F.A. Day and Bigelow Middle Schools on the North side. Growing up in Newton, he was mentored by Bussy Adam, a now-retired SRO and his lacrosse coach, who made a lasting impression. Jellinek said Adam looked out for Jellinek from seventh grade to his senior year at Newton North High School.
Jellinek, who has dyslexia and dysgraphia, said that academics were never his strong suit. He much preferred playing sports, but Adam encouraged him to “put in the work” so he could stay on the field.
“He was just a great guy who kept an eye on me,” Jellinek said.
That early mentorship, he added, shaped how he approaches the role today.
“Every one of the SROs down here has a story about a youth officer coming into their life when they needed it,” Jellinek said.
Wearing many hats
Since Jellinek joined the team, he has realized how multifaceted the work can be. One day, he said, might include a talk to middle schoolers about crushes and healthy boundaries or a visit to an elementary school with the comfort dog, Officer Leo, while another might involve writing a search warrant for someone’s phone.
“Wearing multiple hats is not something I expected to quite the extent I’m doing it, and I love it because you switch tracks very quickly,” Jellinek said.
Jellinek said the School Resource Officers communicate with each other constantly as well as with patrol, detectives, and community partners.
SROs work closely with outside agencies, including the Department of Children and Families and the Middlesex District Attorney’s Child Protection Unit, when a case involves child abuse or neglect.
Henrickson added that SROs are expected to understand both state criminal law and school policy so they can navigate child-abuse investigations.
“Those [cases] don’t happen between 7:30 and 3:30,” Jellinek said. “They might get reported to school guidance counselors, who are the best resource, and it’s great to have a working relationship with patrol and patrol supervisors who can make the call to bring us in.”
Restorative measures
Henrickson said Newton has not made an on-campus arrest in many years. If problems arise such as fights, bullying, or off-campus conflicts that surface at school, officers aim for mediation rather than punishment.
“These are kids,” Jellinek said. “One poor decision shouldn’t define their whole life.”
Turner said administrators like himself often handle consequences at the student level while SROs like Officer Lazarakis handle crisis-mitigation on the parent level, and in more serious cases, file a police report.
Turner said Lazarakis plays a central role in restorative conflict-resolution when families want police involvement. He recalled a case in which two students fought, and both families wanted to press charges. Lazararkis spoke with both families and deescalated the situation.
Community Outreach
Outside of investigations, Jellinek said some of the most meaningful parts of the job come from simply showing up – whether that means attending school dances, PTO events, or coaching at the city’s annual Cops & Kids summer program.
Jellinek said it’s a great feeling to build relationships with kids early on so they can feel comfortable around the officers. He said he loves when kids come up to him saying they knew him from attending camp.
Henrickson hopes to expand to hire more SROs.
“In an ideal world, we’d have one SRO for every middle school,” she said. “That’s what we found is such a transformative spot for our young people. ”
