The change in the girl’s behavior was huge. The 13-year-old Oklahoma child had previously been friendly, outgoing and talkative. She often chatted with her middle school’s school resource officer (SRO), Deputy Jody Cooper of the Leflore County Sheriff's Office. Her clothes were always clean, and her hygiene was good.
She never caused trouble. That is, not until she stole $50 from another student’s locker one day in 2019.
Cooper brought the girl into his office. Because of the relationship he had already built with the child, Cooper knew immediately something was wrong.
“She was not clean and neat, she had obviously lost weight and she was not her previous happy and outgoing self,” Cooper told NASRO. “I knew something else was going on.”
Relying upon the relationship Cooper previously established, the SRO told the student he knew that theft was unlike her and asked if there was another problem.
That’s when the girl revealed to Cooper that she had become a victim of abuse by her stepmother. She told Cooper she was getting no dinner, was forced to sleep on the floor of a closet and allowed only 10 minutes a night for bathroom use starting when she got home. The student reported that the night before the theft the stepmother had grabbed the girl by her hair, threw her to the floor and then kicked her.
Cooper contacted the state’s Department of Human Services (DHS) and arranged for the student to receive a physical exam and forensic interview at the local child advocacy center. The SRO drove the child to the center, where a nurse practitioner documented bruises and malnourishment. Next, Cooper accompanied a DHS worker to the girl’s home for an examination of living conditions and interview with her father and stepmother. That same day, DHS removed the victim from the home and relocated her to the home of her biological grandmother (the student’s biological mother had died in a motor vehicle collision eight years earlier). Cooper attended subsequent DHS meetings about the case at the victim’s request, because the girl trusted Cooper to protect her.
A prosecutor filed criminal charges against the child’s stepmother, which resulted in a conviction, probation and loss of unsupervised parental contact. The stepmother also lost her job teaching preschool children at a different school.
Cooper told NASRO that had the school lacked an SRO, it’s possible that school officials would have disciplined the girl for theft and might have failed to see it as a cry for help. Cooper’s involvement, however, facilitated a team effort involving the school, the sheriff’s office, DHS and the child advocacy center to rescue the child from abuse.
“I am very proud to say that every day I get to see the person this young lady has become,” Cooper said. “She is holding down a part-time job, making good grades in school and keeping a close eye on her little sister, who was also removed from their father’s home.”
Do you have a similar SRO success story? If so, contact NASRO PIO Jay Farlow, [email protected].