Vernon's First Female School Resource Officer Starts At RHS

VERNON, CT — It hasn't taken new Vernon School Resource Officer Allison Lawrence long to get comfortable with her new assignment.

"It's only my fourth day here, but it already feels like I've been here an entire school year," Lawrence said in an interview with Patch Thursday at Rockville High School.

She said she gladly applied for the SRO position when Greg St. Pierre was penciled in as a new sergeant. Lawrence is also the first female officer to hold the position.

She joined the force in 2017 and before that was in the National Guard as a security forces augmenter. One of her jobs was to fill in while others were deployed. She even had a tour of deployment herself in Jordan in 2019.

Lawrence said that time in the military prepared her for a career in law enforcement. She also said she feels lucky to have landed where she has.

"I applied to a number of departments and Vernon was the first to call me with an offer," she said. "I couldn't have gotten luckier. It's a great department with a lot of great people. The school resource officer opportunity came very early in my career and I looking forward to it."

Lawrence said one key to the position is balancing making the students "comfortable enough to come to you, but also being respected enough to listen to you."

She said, "The school resource officer needs to be approachable," while maintaining authority.