After nearly a decade as school resource officer, Colorado deputy reflects on role
At any Niwot High School football game, Boulder County Sheriff Deputy Eric Underwood will likely be among the crowd.
He's been a part of the NHS community for nearly the last decade as their School Resource Officer, or SRO, and as he walks through the crowds of the game, he's constantly fist-bumping students, checking in, or even tossing a football on the sidelines.
However, Underwood says his main focus at these events is safety. Following recent events involving school threats across the country and a shooting in Evergreen, Colorado, there's a heightened focus on an SRO's role.
"We do have to enforce the law, but that's something that we do pretty rarely. The majority of the stuff is just being a mentor and being someone they can trust and rely on to be there every day," Underwood said.
It's clear Underwood cares for these students as he describes them as "his kids," adding, "I'm talking about our 1500 plus my own family."
And it's clear those generations of students feel that connection through years of photos and events. Over the last few years, students invited him to participate in social media challenges, high schoolers then joined in chorus to sing him a happy birthday, asked him to throw a first pitch at a baseball game, and currently, a stack of handwritten thank you cards sits on his desk. Underwood says he reads some of them on the tougher days to remind him of the impact his role has. That includes one former student's card, where she thanks Underwood for saving her life.
Alongside mentorship, however, Underwood is still a law enforcement officer and serves that aspect of his role during school during lockdown drills or during any possible threat.
Protecting students is Underwood's number one priority, he said, as he constantly thinks through emergency response possibilities.
"I think about it probably way more than I think about anything else. I'll stand in the commons during lunch, and I'll just watch and observe kids. And what happens if it happens now?… What happens in this part of the building? How do I get these kids safe?"
Following a shooting last month at Evergreen High School, many parents asked for more SRO support and brought renewed attention to the role. But officers weren't always as welcome a presence in schools.
"Obviously, what happened with Uvalde did not look good for law enforcement, especially for SROs," Underwood said, "Parkland was a real tough pill to swallow. For SROs, just seeing that amount of inaction put a lot of us into question: how are you going to react? This guy did this. What are you going to do? And I got kids who asked me that question, and I got kids who said you would never act like that."
Underwood also welcomed anyone with concerns to reach out and discuss the position. Adding that he's directly communicated with many parents and students in the past.
Still, alongside his training and preparation, Underwood says his main job is helping kids stay on a positive path.
"They just want to get through school, and they've got a lot of pressure, and it's a lot of work and a lot of stress, and by just having somebody in the building they can trust and know is going to be there to take care of them and can talk to them about anything," Underwood said.
And if any of his students get pulled over and want to use his name, he welcomes it, "Because if my students are doing something they're not supposed to and they're being disrespectful to an officer, I want to know that because that's a way for me to maybe help re-navigate this kid back. Or if an officer is rude to my student, I want to know because my kid, they're kids, you know, we just need to sometimes realize that not all police officers know how to work with teenagers."
And Underwood says that the mentorship role continues back at school, but all comes in second to safety.
"The main goal is just to make sure kids get home safe. And you want to make sure communities feel comfortable with you being there," Underwood said.
