LAWRENCE, Kan. — It takes a team to get kids back to school, from the bus drivers to the teachers.
But for some starting new positions, they’re learning too.
KSHB 41 Megan Abundis spent Thursday with a new school resource officer in the Lawrence Public Schools district.
“We have kind of determined, I will be 'Officer A,'” said Ofc. Dan Affalter II, school resource officer at Liberty Memorial Central Middle School.
It was his first day of school, too.
“Walking around so far, I’ve been getting high fives, fist bumps — some kids want to come up with a handshake," Affalter said. "Checking on kids, getting them where they’re supposed to be going."
Children around Central Middle School are already getting familiar with Affalter.
“Officer A — I know he works here, he protects everybody from danger. He's a great guy, he’s cool, I high fived him,” one Central Middle School student said.
Affalter was born and raised in Lawrence and attended the district.
He graduated from Kansas State University before he enlisted into the U.S. Army, where he was deployed to Iraq twice.
He then turned to law enforcement, like his family, all of which are first responders.
Affalter’s mother worked in the school district for more than 30 years, his dad was a police captain for more than 30 years, his sister in the U.S. Air Force and another sister is a nurse.
There are also firefighters and social workers in their family too.
Affalter is now on the active shooter instruction team at the same department where his late father was a captain at.
“He had a phrase he lived by, 'Not on my watch.' So much so, it’s on the walls of the department,” Affalter said. “I’m not going to let someone take advantage of someone else on my watch, I will always be there for them.”
Affalter said that's especially true at the school.
“We will run to whatever crisis is happening, whether it’s the fire, or the scariest thing anyone can think of,” Affalter said.
That’s exactly what Lawrence police officers did last May when they responded to a school threat that was determined to be a hoax.
But until then, he says he’s not looking for crime, but to be a trusted adult and the students will soon pick up on that.
“Just kind of mentoring those kids figuring out who and what they wanted to be and being a part of that is one of the most rewarding things a person can do,” he said.
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