Candy, tattoos, and information are the main things that Cedarcrest High School’s school resource officer Sgt. Lori Batiot serves up in her shared role between department and district. The candy and (temporary) tattoos are ice-breakers to get students to make contact; the information, advice, and the accompanying healthy dose of role modeling are what she sees as her real purpose at the 900-student school.

“I’m a safe person they can come talk to,” said Batiot, on a walk through the high school. “It seems like what I need to do is just be there and connect with the kids.”

That, essentially, is what Batiot does half-time at Cedarcrest High School, and what officer Kim Stonebraker does full time at schools throughout the Snoqualmie Valley School District. Both are School Resource Officers, both with the goal of being a resource not only for teachers and staff, but also for the students they see.

Stonebraker, “has made a commitment that (for) any youth in the Snoqualmie Valley School District who’s having legal dealings with the Snoqualmie Police Department, she will get involved,” said John Belcher, Principal at Mount Si High School.

It’s a commitment that keeps Stonebraker busy, which is why, during the school year, she doesn’t have patrol responsibilities beyond the schools, says Capt. Nick Almquist of Snoqualmie Police.

Instead, she keeps an office at Mount Si High School, where she spends much of her time, visiting other schools as needed. She wasn’t available to talk to the Record for this story, but she is always available to the students, according to staff.

“One thing that’s fun for me is I see a lot of traffic going down the hall (to her office),” Belcher said.

Stonebraker has been a great fit for the district, Belcher said, but any officer stationed in his school would have to be.

“In the interview process, I was very clear that I wasn’t looking for someone to bust, I was looking for someone to teach,” he said.

Both school districts had school resource officers eight years ago, but the local departments eliminated those positions when federal grant funding for them dried up. The return of the program has seen very positive responses in both districts.

Belcher recalled one parent telling him, “I’m relieved that we have an officer in the school who’s fully equipped,” shortly after the school year started.

The student shootings at Marysville Pilchuck High School last month brought more attention to school safety issues, but haven’t really changed the way Batiot works. She is a half-time officer, with an office at the high school, as well as the Duvall Police Department’s community outreach official. Half of her contract is paid by the Riverview School District.

Although she has gotten a lot of questions from students—has she ever been Tasered, for instance, or been in a car chase, because “for some reason, they love to ask about car chases”—the students didn’t seem deeply affected by the nearby shooting.

“I’ve actually talked to a lot of the kids about it,” she said. “They were shaken up by it, but it was at another school, it wasn’t at this school, and I’ve been told that they still feel safe there… but it was good that we were already here,” she added.

Batiot tries to eat lunch with students during both lunch periods—the cafeteria has started adding items that work with her vegetarian diet, too—and says she heard from more students after one of the Duvall Police officers, Mike DeBock, was shot in the leg, Sept. 16, and a week later after Cherry Valley Elementary School was locked down because of threats.

Come summer vacation, both school resource officers expect to go back to their regular duties—Stonebraker is also a detective working domestic violence cases through the Coalition of Small Police Agencies—but they are planning to go back to school with the students next fall.

• Contact Snoqualmie Police at (425) 888-333.

• Contact Duvall Police Department at (425) 788-1519.

Above, photo courtesy city of Snoqualmie | Below, Carol Ladwig/Staff Photo

Above, new Mount  Si High School resource officer Kim Stonebraker with Principal John Belcher, at the high school entrance. Stonebraker was chosen as the school’s first resource officer in more than seven years. Below, officer Lori Batiot pays for her lunch at Cedarcrest High School. “I try to eat lunch with the kids every day,” she explained, as a way of connecting with students in the restored School Resource Officer program.