Saratoga’s “lone wolf”

In the month after Sandy Hook, Ken Lehr’s job went from teaching and educating students to patrolling and doing door checks.

Lehr, School Resource Officer in Saratoga said his emphasis on the physical safety of students will continue until the schools formally adopt new security measures.

Saratoga will be hosting a “Lone Wolf” school, a program that, like its name, teaches one or two officers how to respond to an active shooter.

Lehr said officers from all over Wyoming and some from Colorado will attend.

“I’m impressed with the school board and local administrators,” Lehr said. “They are getting crisis plans done and making sure schools are as secure as possible. It makes my job easier to do.”

Lehr spent some time helping Center Specialist Mary Hohnholt put together a crisis plan for the Head Start program.

After 12 years in the military - Lehr was in the Marine Corps, the Army and the Air Guard - he decided to try the civilian side of law enforcement and joined the Kimball, Neb. police department.

Lehr spent nine years with the Kimball police department before a stint as a sheriff’s deputy for Kimball County for about a year.

He then joined the Saratoga Police Department in October of 2012 as the School Resource Officer.

Lehr said Kimball does not employ a school resource officer, but he dealt with school issues there while on the day shift.

With an interstate and two highways running through it, Lehr said Kimball had more drug related issues than Saratoga, but he did spend time on drug education and “stranger danger” awareness in Saratoga before the renewed emphasis on security.

Lehr has done some trainings at the elementary school and said he is working on gaining the students’ trust. He makes himself visible around the schools during the day and attends games. He has a 14-year-old in middle school and that helps him make connections with students.

“I had kids in school (in Kimball), and their friends became my friends,” Lehr said. “For the first month or so, (the students here) avoided me like the plague.”

Saratoga Elementary Principal Dave Rangitsch said parents have noticed Lehr talking to kids and getting to know them on a first-name basis.

“He’s getting out and walking in the hall and periodically throughout the day making sure the doors are locked,” Rangitsch said. “We even have him on the lunch room duty rotation.”

Lehr said the school resource officer position is funded by a grant that runs out in June. Mayor John Zeiger said the position will be funded for a year after that.

“It is a four year grant and for the first three years the Federal government pays and the town pays for the fourth year,” Zeiger said.

Zeiger said he wants to find a way to continue the program once the funding ends in June 2014. It is likely there will be federal money available again, and Zeiger said the state of Wyoming is looking at ways to help fund resource officer programs.

“This community and school district is not going to take the chance of getting caught without knowing what to do,” Lehr said.