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Mt. Pulaski SRO returns to his roots to help grow strong,
responsible youth in the community
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[February 12, 2024]
Walk through the halls on any given day in the
Mt. Pulaski Schools and you will more than likely see a police
officer laughing, chatting with students, and providing quick, yet
meaningful, advice. Officer Josh Pharis, life-long resident of Mount
Pulaski, has returned to his roots to work side-by-side with
administrators, faculty, and staff in his role of Student Resource
Officer (SRO). |
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 For
the past three years, Officer Pharis has helped to mentor our youth
on a variety of topics. He teaches about school safety, substance
abuse, traffic safety and a gamut of other age-appropriate issues.
His role is to primarily foster a solid, working relationship
between law enforcement and the youth in our community. He helps to
provide a safe environment for the students not only in terms of
physical safety but emotional safety as well.
He finds the job offers many positive aspects. Namely he believes
that “seeing our youth grow up and become citizens who give back and
make right decisions” is one of the perks. Having a role in
assisting those students is rewarding. Officer Pharis is regularly
in the lunchroom talking with students and building relationships
all the while dropping seeds of inspiration into the conversations.
He recognizes that not every day is blissful. One of the hardest
parts of his role is “having to have difficult conversations with
kids in whom he is personally invested.” When he sees an area of
concern or is alerted to a problem, the hard discussions are tough
because he knows their parents and often grandparents. Yet, he
realizes that having such conversations are necessary in order to
continue to grow our community in a positive way.
In order to become an SRO, officers are required to have a minimum
additional 40 hours of training through the state of Illinois.
Coursework includes teaching techniques, mentoring strategies and
youth psychology. Officer Pharis opted for the 80-hour training in
order to offer more depth to his position.
The students are clearly positively impacted by his presence and the
benefits of his role in the district have created a ripple effect to
those around him. He has also worked with the driver education
teacher, Mr. Patrick Hewitt, to show students the dangers of
drinking and driving and to relay the harsh punishments the state of
Illinois has in effect for offenders. In addition, he helps the
school counselor, Miss Melanie Hinson, to present lessons on social
emotional learning. Those topics vary from repercussions of hosting
an underage party to knowing who to ask and where to go for help
should a student identify as having a substance abuse issue.
The positive impact Officer Pharis has on our youth is duly noted
and MPCUSD #23 is grateful for his expertise and daily presence in
our school buildings.
Article by: Linda Smith, MPHS Instructional Coach
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