TUPPER LAKE — On Wednesday, the three candidates to be Tupper Lake Central School District’s new school safety officer were interviewed at a public forum where members of the school community could hear how they would act in the new position and give the district feedback on which candidates they thought would be the best fit.
The candidates — corrections officer David “Haji” Maroun, retired state trooper Mike Kohan and retired Sunmount safety chief Mike Godin — spoke to a small group of town residents, school administrators, police officers and board members, who each filled out a form at the end reviewing their thoughts on each candidate’s responses to the questions.
TLCSD Superintendent Jaycee Welsh said, ultimately, this hiring decision will be made by the school board. But they will take into account the feedback from the public.
Next, the hiring committee will meet with school board members to determine if they are ready to make a decision. Welsh hopes to have an officer before school starts on Sept. 4.
Earlier this month, the Tupper Lake Village Police let the district know that, because of ongoing staffing shortages, they won’t be able to provide a school resource officer as they have since 2019. In the years since, the district went from having two SROs to one as the police department’s staff shrank. Last year, the district had one sworn police officer stationed between its two school buildings during regular hours through a services contract paid by the district.
Now, the district is looking to create a new in-house position to fill this role.
The first round of interviews was handled by district staff. This round included public-submitted questions on mental health, prevention strategies, the change from an SRO to an SSO, how the candidates would deal with students with disabilities having a disability-related outburst and how they would respond to an altercation between students.
Members of the public judged the candidates on their communication skills, problem-solving ability, empathy and de-escalation skills, knowledge of the school and community, approach to student relationships and overall demeanor.
Maroun, a village trustee and a corrections officer for 20 years, said he’d like to become part of the school community. He’s well-known, has a background in safety and is first aid trained.
At the prisons he worked at, he broke up fights between inmates, “which happened a lot,” he said.
For two-and-a-half years, the prison he worked at held juvenile inmates, so Maroun said he has experience working with 16- and 17-year-olds, specifically those with behavioral issues.
He said he’d prefer working with kids more than incarcerated individuals. And he’d like to work close to home, helping his community.
Maroun said he wants to address bullying. It is a big issue for safety, he said.
Maroun said if he saw a fight in progress, he would try to end it first with verbal commands and then physically separate the parties with himself in the middle before waiting for administrators to take over.
He’d like to educate students, the community and staff about safety and how to recognize mental health issues.
He’d have eyes on what happens in school and at school events, and wants to be a mentor and role model for the students. He’s been a coach and feels he has a good rapport with kids. He likes to have fun with them and let them feel safe around him.
It’s important to him that the officer keep the kids’ trust, so they know who he is and see him as a helper, and so he can learn who they are and what their needs are.
A school safety officer is different than a school resource officer in that they are an employee of the district, not an outside resource, Maroun said. He’d like to be involved in school business and offer input on safety practices. He’d also like to get specialized training for the position, focused on working with kids with behavioral issues.
Maroun said he’d like to work with the administrators every day to discuss safety.
Kohan
Kohan spent five years in the Marines, including a deployment during Desert Storm, as well as several years with the United States Postal Service, where he worked some rough routes downstate. He joined the New York State Police in 2003 and retired in 2020.
He has three kids in the district — in grades 5, 7 and 9.
“I’m the school safety officer at home already,” Kohan said with a laugh.
He spoke about how he believes technology exacerbates behavioral problems because it disconnects kids from the real world and instills the idea that things are temporary. One of his goals would be to build camaraderie with students, to remind them that the real world is different than the digital world.
He’d advocate for in-person activities and encourage connection among students.
Since a school safety officer, as opposed to an SRO, does not have police powers and cannot make arrests, he said taking preventative measures is as important as ever. This is easier said than done, he acknowledged.
Kohan said he’d be a calm presence in the school.
“Calm is contagious,” he said.
This might be easier without a uniform, he said. SROs wore uniforms. SSOs will not.
If he needs to de-escalate an altercation, he said he’d intervene without physically involving himself — unless there is an “imminent threat” to someone’s safety. He said knowing the school policy on physical intervention would be very important.
Responding to things as a trooper is different than as a school safety officer, he said. He’d take a calmer approach to working with a kid with disabilities. His goal would be to keep the student who has an outburst safe, as well as others.
He said he’d like to directly report to the principals, who then report to the superintendent.
Kids like consistency, he said, so he would be consistent.
Godin
Godin retired after 36 years of working at the Sunmount State Office for People With Developmental Disabilities facility in 2021. He spent many years as a chief safety officer and said he could bring what he learned there to the school — to teach the “safety mindset” to everyone there.
The district is in a unique, transformative time as the officer’s job shifts from the police to the district. He said it is a good time to capitalize on that and reevaluate school safety, he said. The job would be to worry about safety, find issues and fix them.
Knowledge is important to him. He would want to know all the Individualized Education Program plans students have. Godin also said just because someone is not diagnosed with a mental or behavioral health disability, it does not mean they don’t have one. Often, there are late diagnoses caught in the later years of school, he said.
One of his goals would be to listen — listen a lot. The more he knows the better, he said. He’d want to spend a lot of time on his feet just being around the buildings. He is a believer in having an “open door policy.” He wants kids to be comfortable around people in authority.
Godin described himself as an “easygoing, outgoing” guy. When he worked in Albany, people thought he was strange because he’d say “hello” to everyone he passed.
If he saw an altercation, Godin said he would be stern verbally to de-escalate and then dig down to figure out why the fight happened. He doesn’t believe it when people say a fight happened for “no reason.”
He said the scene of an altercation isn’t always as it seems at first. There’s a lot behind the scenes that isn’t obvious. Godin said he’d pay attention to kids to see if they are having a hard time. Stress at home creates pressure at school, he said.
Godin said his daughters and friends told him to apply for the job. He said he likes helping and believes in doing the right thing.
Godin said he’d like to have weekly meetings with administrators at first, but imagines there would be less need for them as time goes on and procedures become cemented.
Policy
Since the person who ultimately fills the position will be a school employee, as opposed to being directly employed by a law enforcement agency, TLCSD adopted a use-of-force district policy for the authorized carrying of firearms on Aug. 4.
The policy stipulates that the employee must be “properly trained and certified” to carry a firearm and will have to perform the qualifications, at a minimum, on an annual basis with a state-certified range instructor in accordance with state law.
To read more about the specifics of this position and policy, go to tinyurl.com/3t857nh8.