Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Daily News is doing a series of features on some of the new and returning School Resource Officers (SRO) to let people get to know them as the new school year kicks off. Our next story features new Hollis Hand Elementary School SRO Jordan Burgin.

For new School Resource Officer Jordan Burgin, helping protect Hollis Hand Elementary School just makes sense.

As a former elementary school teacher herself turned police officer, going back to project the school where her own children attend was an opportunity she couldn’t turn down.

Burgin has been with the LaGrange Police Department for just over a year, but this is her first week as an SRO. She said she previously taught school while living in Florida.

“My goal has always just been to be a safe haven for kids. I want to help them grow and nurture them. And being an SRO, I feel like I can do that for multiple children,” Burgin said. “I’m not secluded to one classroom, and I can kind of make a difference by showing them what it looks like to have integrity, to show love, show acceptance of others, and just kind of strive to be that role model for them, if they may not have that one at home.”

Burgin said she already has some experience connecting with the kids at Hollis Hand and has been a face at the school as the mother of two children.

“I worked with the reindeer shop last year, s some of them are kind of familiar with me, and then some of them are my son’s friends,” Burgin said.

Burgin said she plans to continue connecting with the students by reaching out and talking to them.

“I sit down and I eat lunch with them and just have a conversation. I see them in the hallway, give them high-fives, give them hugs or just allow them to come to me in the space where they need me if they need me as a friend and say, ‘Hey, I’m here to be your friend,’” she said.

Burgin said she also wants to be a role model for the students.

“I can represent what it means to make smart choices and when decisions get hard, what they need to do,” Burgin said. “There’s a few kids that have some behavior outbursts. I’m not here to reprimand them, but I am here to educate them on making better decisions.”

Burgin said that as an SRO her primary role is to protect the kids, so SROs don’t typically get involved with discipline.

“I don’t want them to think that police are just here to discipline them. I actually hate whenever there’s a parent that’s like, ‘Hey, if you’re bad, I’m going to call the police,’ because that’s not what we’re here for. In the community, we’re here to be of service,”  Burgin said.

“Maybe they’ve only seen police whenever something’s going wrong. In their neighborhood, and now they can see, ‘Hey, that’s not why she’s here. She’s here to help me. She’s here to give me some grace and be a shoulder to lean on and be here if I need advice,’” Burgin said.

Burgin said as an SRO she wears multiple hats.

“My role is to keep the children safe, and that doesn’t only mean physically, and obviously, not only the children. I’m keeping the school safe and that’s what I hope to do, to be here as a preventative measure. My car is in the parking lot, therefore it’s a deterrent for crime already, Burgin said. “The teachers need me, the students need me to keep them physically safe, but also mentally and emotionally and so I can be kind of an impromptu unlicensed counselor, if you will. To be whatever they need me to be. I’m trying to be that for them.”