February 15th was National School Resource Officer Appreciation Day, recognizing the impact these officers have on students and school communities. This year Lincoln Public Schools shone the spotlight on Officer Courtney Quattrocchi. She has been an SRO for one year and is assigned to North Star High School.
She says her job is personally rewarding. “I get to walk the hallways and have conversations about their personal lives, about their little girlfriends and boys friends and fist bump them in the hallways and make a conflict stop before it turns into a crisis,” Quattrocchi says.
According to a recent city and school district report, students report feeling safer with officers on campus, and overall calls for service in schools have decreased in recent years. “I’m here to keep them safe and I’m also someone they can talk to if they wouldn’t normally come up to a police officer on the street.”
Quattrocchi also officers a lot of teaching moments, especially in the parking lot when it comes to student driving. There are currently 2,000 students enrolled at North Star, the size of some small communities.
“Every community deserves to be safe and every high school is it’s own community and getting to be a part of that is pretty important.” Quattrocchi has been with Lincoln Police Department since 2021 and has served as a school resource officer at North Star High School for the past year.