Adia: What brought you into law enforcement, and how long have you been a police officer?

Officer Hanna: What brought me into law enforcement…I originally went to school to be an athletic trainer, so I have a Bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology, but I always had an interest in law enforcement as well. It wasn’t my initial plan, it was kind of a backup plan, and when I realized it was kind of tough to get to the level that I wanted as an athletic trainer, I went with my backup plan, so that’s how I got into it. And I’ve been an officer for 13 years. 

Adia: Okay, so do school resource officers have a school email or phone number that students can use to contact them?

Officer Hanna: We have an email, we don’t have a phone number, but we’re easy to reach through the school. But, yeah we have a email that we can share, the students can contact us anytime. 

Adia: Do you have a favorite aspect of Norman North so far?

Officer Hanna: I definitely think everybody’s pretty friendly here, I’ve enjoyed it so far, I mean students, teachers, admin, everybody’s just been very welcoming and very friendly, and so far I just think there’s a very overall positive environment here. 

Adia: Has there been a difference in how you approach students to build relationships or kind of like make yourself seen as kind of a person available to talk to?

Officer Hanna: Approachable?

Adia: Yes, approachable.

Officer Hanna: Yeah, I mean I just, my body language, and I try to smile when I, when I approach people, and so I think that that helps people, you know, feel they can come to me and talk to me, and lots of kids do about all kinds of stuff, so, I think that just by giving off that friendly demeanor, happy demeanor that people are, find me, more approachable that way.

Adia: Has it been harder to do so with middle schoolers or high schoolers in like the way that they feel comfortable with you? 

Officer Hanna: It’s just different, it’s a maturity thing, and you know middle schoolers are fun in the fact that they are just, they’re not as, I guess, focused on the future at that point as high schoolers are, so they’re just more light-hearted and kind of goofy in a way, so my approach to them is just a little bit different. I just more, I try to come down on their level, if that makes sense, a little bit, so again, they feel like they can approach me from that aspect. But, then now that I’m at the high school, I’ve changed that, and I have more adult-like conversations and interactions with students, which I really appreciate. I’ve been five years at the middle school and really enjoyed it, but I felt like it was time to change things up a bit.