By Katy Savage, Standard Staff
It was a couple days before Thanksgiving break and a Windsor High School student was about to beat up another one over a Facebook post. Until Officer Jen Frank changed his mind.
Frank saw the post over the weekend on Facebook and pulled him into her office Monday.
She gave him a fist bump as she walked him out the door.
“Chuckle head,” she said, after he left.
Frank tries to identify the real issue and alternative ways to solve it. “What’s your goal?” “What are you trying to achieve?”
She reasons with them. Your girlfriend will be mad. You won’t graduate high school.
“One of the biggest challenges with this age range is helping them to see long term beyond the moment,” she said.
Officer Frank is the new school resource officer. She’s been in the school regularly since the start of the school year. And in that time, she’s dressed as a judge for a history class that was learning about the Boston Massacre. She’s worn a pink mustache to raise awareness for breast cancer. The other day, she helped students in the fifth and sixth grades bake bread for a project.
She gets paid to stay to 3 p.m., but it’s rare for her to get to her home (an hour away in New Hampshire) before 9 p.m. But it doesn’t bother her, she says. Windsor is her home.
Frank is assigned to Windsor Schools, a K-12 school and works at Albert Bridge School in West Windsor if needed.
On a typical day, student cadets help her direct traffic on State Street before the first bell rings.
Frank has started a handful of afterschool clubs and activities. There’s an afterschool homework club and a self-defense class for senior women. She goes to students’ games and their plays. This fall, she organized a teacher hockey tournament.
She’s put together two cadet programs — one for high school students and another for kindergartners.
“The good thing about this is this creates relationships down the road — when they need something they feel comfortable reaching out to you,” Frank said. * Frank knows the students — who they are dating and who they drive to school with. She can pick up on anything out of place; anything that could suggest a student is having a problem at home — anything that could lead to a student committing a crime.
This is the level of commitment that’s required if she’s going to make an impact, she said.
“The kid you help with their homework, who chooses to stay in school, doesn’t drop out and then end up with an issue of vandalism mischief or drugs because they’re in school with the rest of their peers,” she said.
Her students want to make her proud.
When one of her students hit his parents, he told one of the Windsor police officers: “Whatever you do, don’t tell Officer Frank.”
I would have expected more out of you, Frank told him.
Students go to Frank like they would a counselor. They sit on her couch; talk about relationship issues or their parents. They go to her about their “creepy” text messages and their school problems or concerns about a suicidal friend.
Frank has more than 4,000 connections on Facebook and is on social media as much as her students.
“They’re generally more comfortable reaching out on Facebook first,” Frank said.
One teen, who was pulled over on the side of the road by another Windsor officer earlier this year, immediately texted Frank in a panic.
I need your help right now. What’s going on? the student texted.
Frank opened the school to the community last weekend after an accident on a train track in Hartford left one former Windsor High School student dead. She wanted to be there if students needed to talk.
They’ve had school resource officers in the past — but Frank is different.
“Officer Frank is like the rock star of our community,” said middle school social studies teacher Keighan Chapman. “Every school needs to have an Officer Frank.” * Frank is a whirlwind of energy that never seems to subside. She works weekends and holidays. She worked a double shift last weekend.
She was a teacher before she became an investigator at Plymouth State University.
She does it all in addition to earning a Ph.D. in educational leadership from Plymouth State University.
She travels the country teaching social media safety for students and teachers. That’s how she ended up at Windsor High School. Frank presented there twice before she became the school resource officer. She spoke to students about Facebook safety and then spoke to faculty about using Facebook as a relationship tool with students.
Frank does push-ups and pullups with students for fitness. She can somehow arrest her students or pick them up for speeding down roads and be their friend at the same time. She fist-bumps students in the hallways or gives them a high-five.
“This is a unique job. If you’re going to commit to this job you have to commit to the community at large,” Frank said. “It’s not just the 7-3 school day.” * Last Monday at school, younger students screamed when they saw her, mesmerized by her badge and eager to show her their artwork and tell her about their weekends. The older students talked to her like they would talk to one of their friends. They took selfies with her.
One student offered her some jelly beans.
“Oh wait are those the Hogwarts ones? Do they taste like throw up? Alright, I’ll try one, surprise me,” Frank told him.
A group of students swarmed around her and debated what flavor they’d make her try. “Dog food?” One student asked, as they laughed.
Frank ate a rotten egg flavor and then made a face as students erupted in laughter.
She walked down the hall to stop for high-fives with the students, casually talking about the ones she pulled over during the weekend.
“Ran into your boyfriend this weekend,” said Frank to a high school student as she passed her in the hallway. “Did he tell you? I think he got pulled over for a headlight or something like that. He was like, “I just came from Makenna’s house.’ I’m like, ‘get out of here.’” “Yeah, he dropped me off.” Makenna said.
Frank carries badge stickers in her pocket. She hands them out as prizes.
“You’d be amazed. These little stickers are like gold,” she said. “I’ll give them one and say now you’re a police officer you have to remember to keep people safe.” * At a time when there’s national mistrust of police officers, Frank (who wears a badge and a gun) seems to bypass that.
“Some students, when they see police they’re a little bit anxious about that. She’s done a great job bridging that gap and helping them realize she’s actually their ally,” Windsor Principal Tiffany Cassano said.
On Monday there was manila folder full of paperwork for a number of downtown businesses that were broken into by a 12 year old and she needed to do the police report.
“She’s solved a lot of crimes that have occurred there,” said Windsor Police Chief Bill Sampson. “She’s really taking it to the next level.”
This article first appeared in the December 3, 2015 edition of the Vermont Standard.