<\/p>\n
When Dave Van Bibber walks the halls at Dolores Elementary School, he shakes as many hands as he can.<\/p>\n
He also teaches students a special handshake.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey love it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
After nearly 20 years on the road as a Colorado State Patrol officer, Van Bibber has just completed his first full week as the Dolores Schools\u2019 school resource officer. The position was revived when Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin took office last month.<\/p>\n
Van Bibber recently retired as a state patrol traffic accident investigator, and was working at the Sports Authority in Durango when he accepted the school position.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t an easy decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cKids can be intimidating,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Van Bibber said he had to learn to tone down his law enforcement side since he now works mainly at a school and not a crime scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a very good challenge for me,\u201d he said. \u201cI really enjoy seeing the positive side of education and our youth. I am seeing a lot of really great kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
A few minor bullying and cyber-bullying incidents have kept him busy.<\/p>\n
So far, Van Bibber said, the students are excited that he is on board.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy goal is to be a good liaison,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
When Van Bibber is on campus, he doesn\u2019t wear a uniform, but he\u2019s equipped to enforce the law. He carries handcuffs, a radio, a gun and other law tools and can assist in criminal matters in Dolores if needed<\/p>\n
He doesn\u2019t wear a deputy\u2019s uniform at the school, he said, because he feels the casual uniform will make him more approachable to students. Van Bibber said he\u2019ll wear a deputy\u2019s uniform when he attends athletic events.<\/p>\n
Van Bibber also hopes to teach age-appropriate classes to students regarding drug awareness and other safety choices.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to teach them they have the ability to make their own decisions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Although Van Bibber can be called out to other situations in Dolores, he said, \u201cMy No. 1 priority is the school.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Nowlin was sworn in as Montezuma County Sheriff in January, he quickly restored the position of school resource officer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe safety of the students and the staff in our communities is a top priority to me,\u201d Nowlin said.<\/p>\n
Dolores Schools haven\u2019t had a school resource officer since last school year.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving that resource there and the right time and the right person is very beneficial,\u201d Nowlin said.<\/p>\n
The position is 100 percent funded by the Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
And so far, \u201cDeputy Dave,\u201d as students call him, has been accepted by students, who lined up last week to learn a secret handshake.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe found the perfect fit,\u201d Nowlin said. \u201c(Van Bibber) is self-motivated, energetic, experienced and has dedication and responsibility to the duties.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nowlin said he also picked Van Bibber because he\u2019s very approachable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want a security guard,\u201d Nowlin said. \u201cHis No. 1 priority is security and the protection of the kids.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
‘Deputy Dave’ building relationships with kids<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":114797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6363],"tags":[188,13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-114796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ds-news","tag-dolores-star","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114796"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=114796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}