"Hazard Middle School is truly honored to be recognized as a recipient of the "Non-violent School Alliance Award."
Our school is in the beautiful mountains of Eastern Kentucky and one of three schools in our small Independent School District where approximately 300 students from grades 5th-8th and all levels of society walk the hallways each day. We are a tight-knit community, where the school and the community work hand in hand to make things better for our children. We have approx. 25 certified employees and 12 classisfied employees that make up our school staff.
Hazard Middle School has worked hard to be proactive in the changing world. Since the tragedy in Parkland Florida in 2018, our school district has worked very hard to provide each of our schools with a School Resource Officer.
Mr. Tim Engle has been our SRO since day one. Having an SRO was new to our school district and for the first couple of years Mr. Engle shared time at Hazard Middle School and our elementary school, Roy G. Eversole. From the beginning, the most effective method has been getting to know each student one on one, their backgrounds, family, issues and concerns. Mr. Engle is more than just our SRO, he is our family. He bonds with the students and gives a proactive approach to preventing school violence. By getting to know the students and their family, he can bond as more than our SRO and more as the father figure that can give students advice, background stories, and different approaches toward school safety.
Mr. Engle is also present in all of our safety meeting and is active on the school’s approach to safety. He knows all the safety protocols and evacuation routes which we work on during our school safety drills. We work on different situation that could happen in a lockdown or active shooter situation. Mr. Engle single biggest approach is to get to know the students, their families, and their background. This proactive approach has been the biggest benefit in having our SRO.
Hazard Middle School never works on any of our approaches to be recognized. It is who we are, daily! Our daily approach to safety is to practice our drills and know what to do in any emergency, but if we can be build relationships among our staff and students so we can prevent bad situations from happening then we will continue to build relationships among our staff and students.
Mr. Kevin Combs
Principal
Hazard Middle School
