The 16-year-old Pennsylvania high school student was determined to harm another student. She was so fixed on her goal that she didn’t end the attempt until two police officers took her to the floor and handcuffed her.
School resource officer Mary Novak of the Horsham Township Police Department was in her office in the school when the incident began on a late morning in December 2022. She knew she needed to respond quickly when she heard a call for help on the school’s two-way radio.
The call came from a staff member in one of the modular classrooms behind the main building, which school staff call, “the mods.” One of those units serves as a kind of on-campus alternative school for students with various behavioral issues.
“When a call about a problem comes in from the mods, I take it seriously,” Novak told NASRO.
She immediately got up, grabbed her gear and headed that way.
Shortly after the SRO stepped into the hallway outside her office, she heard a second radio call for help. She started running and within a minute arrived at the school’s exterior door that led to the modular classrooms.
Novak would later learn that something had triggered a rage in one of the students in the modular classroom. The girl was taking her anger out on a male student, throwing things at him. To protect the boy, an aid grabbed him, took him into the main building, and told him to run for safety. The boy chose to run to an emotional support classroom in the building.
The SRO didn’t know any of this yet as she headed toward the modular classroom. As she stepped out of the main building, she saw a female student who she knew by name pass her in the opposite direction. When Novak got to the modular classroom door, a security guard immediately told the SRO that she must stop that girl, because she was looking for a boy she wanted to fight.
Novak hurried to catch up to the girl who had just entered the main building, calling out her name.
“She finally stopped, turned around and came at me aggressively,” Novak said. The SRO knew that the student was not fond of police. In fact, police had previously arrested the girl for assaulting officers in a neighboring township. Novak called for patrol assistance.
As the SRO tried to verbally de-escalate the situation, the girl got close to the SRO but stopped. A moment later, a school administrator came around the corner and began talking to the girl. The student calmed enough to walk with the administrator to the school office, while Novak followed from just enough distance to avoid upsetting the girl further.
For several minutes, administrators tried to help the girl overcome her anger in the office while Novak stood nearby. They were not successful. The teen bolted out of the office and down a hallway, with administrators behind.
The student was a court-ordered resident of a group home for teens, some of whom had violent behaviors. One of her housemates was in the classroom where the intended victim had sought refuge and had texted the boy’s location to the angry girl.
“Where is she headed?” Novak yelled to the administrators.
They answered with a teacher’s name.
“Tell her to lock her door!” the SRO advised. She then asked her patrol backup to step up his response.
When Novak arrived at the classroom, the door was closed and locked. The student assailant was pacing back and forth in the hallway. The SRO told two contracted security guards to stand in front of the door while she attempted to calm the girl and de-escalate the situation.
The assailant’s housemate inside the classroom pushed past teachers and unlatched the door. The security guards stepped out of the way. The assailant began moving into the classroom.
“I grabbed the girl from behind and pulled her back out of the room,” Novak said. “That’s when she punched me on the side of my head. I pulled out my taser and the girl started coming at me, daring me to tase her. I took a few steps back.”
By now, the classroom door was secure and teachers inside were keeping the housemate from the door.
That’s when the patrol officer arrived in the hallway, about five minutes after Novak’s initial backup request. The assailant started heading back for the classroom door. The two officers grabbed the girl and pushed her to the floor. In the process, she punched the patrol officer’s face at least twice, but the officers ultimately got control and handcuffed the girl.
Novak is convinced that the situation would have been much worse without an SRO on campus.
“She would have gotten into the room,” the SRO explained. “People would have gotten hurt before a patrol unit could have gotten there. Not just the boy, but probably staff members as well.”
Do you have a similar SRO success story? If so, contact NASRO PIO Jay Farlow, [email protected].