The Quakertown Community School District has built its security model based on four cornerstones:
- Critical Incident Planning Committee
- Critical Incident Command Team
- ALICE training for staff and students
- School Resource Officer (SRO) program
WHAT IS AN SRO?
SRO stands for School Resource Officer. SROs are sworn certified municipal police officers contracted by the school district. QCSD employs two officers; Officer Lee from Quakertown Borough Police and Officer Hendrzak from Richland Township Police. Officer Lee is stationed at Quakertown Community High School and Officer Hendrzak is stationed at Strayer Middle School. Both officers also divide their time between the Sixth Grade Center and elementary schools.
An SRO is a specialty selected officer who must complete a 40-hour course from the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) designed to teach educational law and create positive relationships with students. The concept of an SRO focuses on a triad model of law enforcement duties:
- Keeping the school safe
- Teacher, guest speaking roles in a classroom
- Informal counselor, problem-solving/mentoring students
Officers Lee and Hendrzak are firm believers in following the “triad” concepts of school-based policing. By training law enforcement to educate, counsel, and protect school communities, the men and women of NASRO continuously lead by example and promote a positive image of law enforcement to school children and school communities.
OFFICER LEE
Officer Bob Lee started the School Resource Officer program in 2015 shortly after another tragic school shooting. A grant was awarded by the Department of Education to fund the program. Officer Lee was hired in 2004 by the Quakertown Borough Police Department. He is a certified instructor through ALICE/Navigate teaching schools lockdown drills. He is a certified safe school assessor through the PA Commission on Crime & Delinquency (PCCD), which conducts assessments to make schools safer. He has been trained through the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) in Bucks County to de-escalate behaviors in mental health. Officer Lee is a per diem instructor at Temple University Police Academy.
Officer Lee can be contacted at 215-529-2142, or by email, [email protected]. His Twitter account is @OfficerLeeSRO.
OFFICER HENDRZAK
Officer Brian Hendrzak is a Police Officer with Richland Township Police and is one of the Quakertown Community School District’s SROs. Officer Hendrzak has been with RTPD since 2006 and with QCSD since 2018 when he was certified by the National Association of School Resource Officers. Prior to coming to QCSD, Officer Hendrzak served as an operator on SWAT and as a sniper for eight years along with other roles including, sworn Bucks County Narcotics Officer, ALICE instructor, and liaison to the Youth Aid Panel. Officer Hendrzak also graduated from Delaware Valley University with a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice and is active in the community where he has been a youth coach for the past nine years.
Officer Hendrzak can be contacted at 215-529-2345, or by email, [email protected].