Katonah-Lewisboro School District Names New School Resource Officer

CROSS RIVER, NY — The Katonah-Lewisboro School District's newly named School Resource Officer isn't letting the grass grow under his feet.

From the Katonah-Lewisboro School District

Officer Brett Schlosser started the week in John Jay High School’s AP Psychology class, introducing students to his colleague Detective John Peters with the Westchester County Police Canine Unit. A few days earlier, he could have been found running bases with Meadow Pond Elementary fifth graders during a recess game of kickball. Last month, he was a special guest at Increase Miller Elementary’s Gratitude Assembly.

It's all in a day’s work for Katonah-Lewisboro’s new School Resource Officer (SRO) Brett Schlosser, who was formally appointed at the Board of Education meeting on Dec. 1.

The Westchester County Police Officer’s background includes SRO training and Crisis Intervention Team training, preparing him to manage crises involving people with mental illness effectively. He has been a police officer for the City of Rye and served in the US Army for eight years as a medic and combat engineer.

"I try to get around as much as possible," said Officer Schlosser. "I am in John Jay Middle and High Schools every day, and my goal is to visit the elementary schools two or three times a week. I want students and staff to see police officers as their allies."

Officer Schlosser’s main responsibility is to respond to any emergencies and crises that arise. That includes being a resource for nurses if they require an ambulance as well as coordinating lockdown drills.

One of the first things that Officer Schlosser did at Katonah-Lewisboro Schools was implement a significant shift in the way that the district administers lockdown drills. Instead of teachers and administrators checking the hallways and other rooms, Officer Schlosser and other first responders now handle this responsibility, as they would in a real event.

As part of his emergency preparedness plan for the district, he has brought in Lewisboro as well as Westchester County Police, and has reached out to Bedford, Pound Ridge, North Salem, Somers and New York State Police departments, as well as the police department of Ridgefield, Connecticut. "The reason I have reached out to so many different agencies is that I want them to get familiar with our campuses," said Officer Schlosser. "Not during an emergency. That’s when seconds matter."

Detective Peters closed his time with AP Psychology students by introducing them to Acorn, a frisky black lab trained through traditional Pavlovian conditioning techniques to sniff out various substances used to start fires. Officer Schlosser was happy to have made the connection for the class. He’s already thinking about introducing John Jay’s Forensics teacher to Westchester County Police’s Cyber Investigations dog.