Breaking the seal

Between classes and during lunch breaks at Oak Mountain High School, Deputy Thomas Nordyke, the school’s newest student resource officer (SRO), said students have been flooding his office, but it hasn’t been to meet him. 

They’ve been coming to say hello to the school’s first permanent K-9 detection dog, Trace. 

“[Trace] is adjusting well. It’s taken some time, as you can imagine, taking pretty much a puppy, as far as his mindset is, and going from the [training] school to riding around in a Tahoe to an actual school with roughly 1,600 students,” Nordyke said. “But he’s doing great. … He’s excited to be here every time he runs through that door.”

Trace and Nordyke began at OMHS at the start of the school year and eventually, new SRO and Deputy Shanna Young, along with K-9 Kuba, began at Chelsea High School.

“Every time I come in [with Kuba], the teachers are like, ‘Oh my goodness, I want to meet him.’ I mean, everyone wants to meet the dog, and then they start talking to you, then they start asking you questions about him. It’s a fun experience. It opens everyone up, and there’s always a smile,” Young said.

Last year, Sheriff John Samaniego said he and the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office identified the need for detection dogs in the schools and worked to locate a source of funding for them. Over the summer, Indian Springs Village and the city of Chelsea each donated enough money to bring a K-9 and second SRO officer into both OMHS and CHHS.

“At the last high school tragedy [at Parkland High School in Florida], there was only one SRO there, and that was a big building. So I wanted to increase the numbers in the high schools,” Samaniego said. 

Although the school system has used K-9s before for demonstrations, in addition to “drug dogs” that have since retired, Samaniego said, this will be the first time K-9s will be permanently in the school system. 

“[The school administration is] really excited about the K-9s,” Samaniego said, and Nordyke added the administration at OMHS has been proactive about it.

“I can’t express how grateful they’ve been having another SRO in the school. There’s not a single day that goes by that a teacher or even the students [don’t] come by and thank me for being here, and of course, naturally, everyone loves the dog. … He has more or less become another school mascot,” Nordyke said. 

Every day since he first came to the school, Nordyke said, he’s had the opportunity to get to know students and tell them more about Trace, where he came from and his training. Nordyke and Young got Trace and Kuba when the dogs were a little over a year old. The officers speak commands to the dogs in Czech, since both Trace and Kuba are shepherd breeds from the Czech Republic.

Nordyke said each dog completed four to five weeks of K-9 training at the Alabama Canine Law Enforcement Officers Training Center in Tuscaloosa County. Nordyke and Young attended the training and were taught how to safely handle the dogs at schools. The dogs were taught obedience and about detecting over a dozen odors, and both SROs were taught how to continue the detection work training once they were placed in their school. Both Chelsea and OMHS have the same program for K-9s. 

“They teach you how to hide the odors and put the dog on the odors and what kind of behaviors a dog shows when they are in an odor and what to do when that happens,” Nordyke said.

The scents that the dogs search for are not publicized to the students. Though Trace and Kuba are K-9s as their “day job,” they are just pets when they leave the school and have plenty of time to play and relax.

At school, while the SROs do their walk-throughs, they take the dogs with them. When the kids are in class, they are trained in the hallways with odor drills. During the dogs’ off time, they relax in a kennel with a fan on them, which Nordyke said they like since they are den animals. 

Young said it’s “very rare” for her to encounter someone in the schools who is terrified of the dog. Although there have been a couple of instances, she said those have had to do with a bad experience with a different dog prior to meeting Kuba.

Sgt. Nathan Kendrick, who is in charge of all the Shelby County SROs, said the dogs are great as far as a working dog, but they’re “still like a toddler, a big toddler,” which is why all the kids love them and aren’t scared of them. Kendrick said they’ve even brought the K-9s into Chelsea Elementary to meet a special needs classroom, which “really brought [the children] out of their shell.”

Kendrick said it has been extremely beneficial and “a blessing” to OMHS and CHHS to have a second SRO.

“The schools [have] been great in helping us get here and get established, and the relationship we have with them is excellent because we all have the same mission: we want the kids to be safe and give them a good learning environment,” Kendrick said.

Sgt. Denver McCool, who also works with the SROs, said a large number of the students don’t have a lot of contact with the police, if any, minus the SROs.

“With TV and social media and that kind of stuff, they know all the bad things that are happening in the world, so typically a uniform with a gun and a badge standing in the hallway is a reminder of that,” McCool said. 

Having a dog can help students to relax more, he said, and “break the seal” to open up a line of communication. 

This is the community outreach part of being an SRO that is so important, McCool said, because “eventually they are going to be our workers and our residential foundation moving forward in Shelby County.”

“We want for them to come to us for problems. We don’t want them to be afraid of us. … If you’re in trouble, come to us. That’s why we’re here to help you. That’s our profession,” Young said.

Nordyke said he’s even talked to some parents during school events or while they’re traveling the hallways who will ask about the K-9 and always express excitement about them, he said, shaking his hands and saying thanks for being there. So far, he added, everybody he’s been in contact with at OMHS has been “more than supportive” of him and Trace.

“It’s a good icebreaker between [us], and that’s one of the things we try to do here, develop relationships between not only the Sheriff’s Office and the school, but also the Sheriff’s Office and the student body,” Nordyke said. “It’s an easy way for them to just come and talk to me and me to talk to them, because everyone loves the dog.”

Samaniego said over the years, the Sheriff’s Office has seen a culture change, one that started 16 years ago since they switched to a philosophy of engagement at all levels and made it a priority to get rid of the idea that it’s “us against them,” as far as cops and citizens are concerned. 

“We wanted everyone to be together for the betterment of Shelby County. … It’s kind of a really beautiful thing in Shelby County,” Samaniego said.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to one thing, Samaniego said: “we’ve got to take care of our children,” especially by making sure the line of communication is accessible and open. 

“We’re not just a police force, we are part of the school. I’m high-fiving the football players in the hallways ‘cause it’s game day today. I’m down there doing push-ups in the end zone, showing them how to do it right. They love it; they feed off that. They see through the uniform, and they say, ‘That’s Thomas, he’s my SRO, and that’s Trace, our dog,’ and that helps them feel more comfortable if they’re having an issue at home or at the school,” Nordyke said.

To learn more, go to shelbyso.com.