With 2,300 ethnically and culturally diverse students and dozens of administrators and staff, Kentridge High School has a larger population than some towns.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like a mini-city here,\u201d says Dave Fowler, the school\u2019s security officer.<\/p>\n
And if Kentridge is like a city, that makes Fowler the sheriff, a prospect that makes him laugh.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have anything too extreme here at Kentridge,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody knows where the line is,\u201d agrees Principal Mike Albrecht.<\/p>\n
Fowler has been holding that line at the high school since 2000, and this year received recognition for his efforts as the Washington State School Safety Officer of the Year for 2008.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty humbling,\u201d said the soft-spoken, but easy-to-smile Fowler. \u201cTo be recognized for what you\u2019ve done: It\u2019s a great honor.\u201d<\/p>\n
As one of the school\u2019s safety officers, Fowler, 39, spends most of his day patrolling the halls and talking to kids, building rapport.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey understand I\u2019m here in their best interest,\u201d Fowler says. \u201cI try to be fair with everybody and the kids know that.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the linebacker coach with KR\u2019s football program and leader of the Kingsmen \u2013 a program he put together to help mentor young black men \u2013 Fowler spends a lot of time getting to know students and gaining their respect.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I try to do is build rapport with the students so when there\u2019s times of conflict and strife in which I am called in, I have laid the groundwork,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
The work allows Fowler to combine his love of sports with his degree in criminal justice from Alabama State.<\/p>\n
On a typical patrol of the school on his way to the cafeteria for the lunch periods, Fowler talks to kids, encouraging them to get to where they are supposed be (hint: it\u2019s not the hallway) and sharing a smile or a joke.<\/p>\n
The students seem to know and respect him and several come up and talk to him, either about the Kingsmen, the football game or just to share a joke.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a constant presence around the campus,\u201d he says of the secret to his job and the rapport he has built with the Kentridge student body. \u201cBeing a role model and mentoring students is just my job, 24\/7.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the letter he wrote nominating Fowler for the award, Albrecht called him \u201cthe best school security officer I have had the privilege to work with,\u201d adding that Fowler is \u201cextremely conscientious, caring, ethical, enthusiastic and hard working.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just outstanding. He\u2019s what you\u2019d want in a security officer,\u201d says Albrecht, whose tenure at Kentridge is only a year longer than Fowler\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Fowler\u2019s proudest achievement is his work with the Kingsmen.<\/p>\n
The group is named as an homage to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: \u201dKing\u2019s men.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fowler says the purpose of the group is to give young black men a place to go to discuss their issues and learn ways to model good behavior to help break through stereotypes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we try to do is instill leadership qualities into these young men,\u201d he says. \u201cWe try to give them ways to deal with different things, different approaches.\u201d<\/p>\n
Devin Topps and Alex Ferguson, both 17, are members of the group as well as football players for the school. Both credit Fowler with being a great influence on them.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s a good guy,\u201d says Topps, a junior. \u201cHe\u2019s been a big influence on me in my three years here at Kentridge.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe keeps us out of trouble,\u201d agrees Ferguson, a senior, adding that Fowler is always there if the boys need someone to talk to.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s my biggest accomplishment,\u201d Fowler says of the club.<\/p>\n
Fowler, who also was the 2006-2007 district safety officer of the year, sad the award was nice, but more importantly, he loves his job and loves being able come to Kentridge every day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m always in a position to help somebody,\u201d he says. \u201cI love what I do and that\u2019s what makes it easy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With 2,300 ethnically and culturally diverse students and dozens of administrators and staff, Kentridge High School has a larger population than some towns.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s like a mini-city here,\u201d says Dave Fowler, the school\u2019s security officer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":223,"featured_media":10918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-10917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10917"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/223"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10917"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=10917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}