Student resource officer helps bring healthy behavior to HBHS

Published: Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Courtesy photo Tracy Dunne is the student resource officer at Hollis/Brookline High School.

When walking through the halls of Hollis/Brookline High School, one might notice students hurriedly getting to class, teachers getting ready for their lessons and administrators enforcing the rules – but they aren’t the only ones.

One person in particular wearing a blue uniform and badge sticks out from the rest. Students refer to this person as “T-Dunne,” while others call her Officer Dunne; this person is otherwise known as the school’s student resource officer.

Tracy Dunne, having had 10 years of experience as a police officer in Concord and Hollis, is able to offer a great deal of expertise at Hollis/Brookline, and a level of safety and protection is felt in return.

She also has a level of compassion and concern for the safety and well being of the students, and one major contributor to her concern is her promotion of healthy behavior in the focus of alcohol and drugs.

Since 2008, Hollis/Brookline High School has been a part of the Greater Nashua Community Prevention Coalition along with several other surrounding towns. Dunne and David Muse, who was part of the class of 2009, sent out a letter last year asking for a grant from the association. And upon receiving the $10,000 contribution, Dunne and Muse have set out with programs and activities in association with the coalition.

Dunne said the idea is to get kids into activities that do not involve the use of alcohol or drugs. One of these facets includes speaker Jeremiah Johnson, who came to the school last year to converse about his experience with the dangers of drinking and driving.

Dunne said she is “trying to get parents and students involved.” She planned one way to do so, in association with the PTSA: a drug awareness night for parents, which was held Tuesday. The information session contained information on signs and symptoms that follow drug use.

Dunne is a drug recognition expert, or DRE, and is trained to recognize impairment in drivers under the influence of drugs, which helped toward her informative presentation that night.

The session was just one of the many aspects that have come to HB upon joining the GNCPC, which was created in 2007. It was established through a federal grant administered by the United Way of Greater Nashua to help bring services aimed at reducing alcohol abuse among youths and adults.

Dunne, having seen several drug- and alcohol-related incidents, said, “It’s now about prevention,” and she wants to “let people know about choices through education.” Thus, the GNCPC has been the flawless solution to help in Dunne’s endeavor to help students “make healthy choices.”

Robert Grant is a senior at Hollis/Brookline High School.