Every day at Rochester High School, the staff works together to help the students succeed in their high school careers. An essential part of the team are the Shields.
The Shields at RHS ensure that the campus is safe all day long. They monitor the halls and make sure all students are doing what they’re supposed to be doing in their classes.
“In the morning right after the bell, we lock up all the doors and then check to make sure all the external doors are locked,” said Shield member, Holly. “Then after lunch time we check all the doors again. After that it’s mainly just controlling the halls.” Shields don’t exactly have a set routine. Usually, there is one at the office that buzzes people into the school while the others monitor lunch and the hallways. They can take breaks whenever and even have their own office by the Junior Collab Space. As long as everything is secure, their schedules are fairly flexible.
Shield is a safety consultant company. They started off working with other businesses and eventually came around to expanding their company to schools.
This year is Shield’s first year working with Rochester Community Schools. Before Shield, we had another safety consultant company: Safe Ed. This company eventually had to come to an end because the owner wanted to retire. He put Safe Ed up to buy, and Shield offered enough money to obtain it. Now, our previous Safe Ed staff are known as Shields.
“The kids are great. That’s the best part of the job, working with the kids,” said Holly. “You guys are so fun and there’s always something going on.” The Shields whole job revolves around the students, so it’s important that they are able to connect with children. Holly has had her own personal duties with her kids and family, so this principle is very important to her.
“My kids were at school here along with my husband who works here, so I wanted to be at school where my kids were,” said Holly. “I enjoyed having my summers off and all the breaks with them.” Holly highlighted one of the great benefits of the job, mentioning that she gets long vacations from school along with all the other students so she can be with her family. It’s almost like being a teacher but without all of the class preparation and grading that you have to do.
With being a Shield, you need to have certain characteristics. Since the job is concerned with kids, you have to get along with children. The applying process includes an interview where they
see if you’re a good candidate for being around kids. They then do a background check on you, making sure you’re an upstanding citizen with no previous felonies or violations.
After the interviewing comes the training. The sessions are light with one week’s worth of training in the summer. It involves helping kids in the special education program to become familiar with the type of work they’ll be doing.
The Shield staff at RHS have been successfully keeping everyone in the building protected from potential dangers for years now. Although it usually goes unmentioned, their contributions are very important and appreciated throughout the district. Our schools would not be as victorious as they are without the guaranteed security that is provided by our amazing Shields.
