DIXFIELD — Deputy Justin Onofrio of South Paris is Regional School Unit 56’s first school resource officer and the first union officer from the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office to be an SRO, he told the Rumford Falls Times earlier this week.

Justin Onofrio of South Paris is Regional School Unit 56’s first school resource Officer and the first union officer from the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office to be an SRO. He is working with students from the three schools of the district; Dirigo High School and T.W. Kelly Dirigo Middle School, both in Dixfield, and Dirigo Elementary School in Peru. Submitted photo

Onofrio began his duties working at the district’s three schools in April; Dirigo High School and T.W. Kelly Dirigo Middle School, both in Dixfield, and Dirigo Elementary School in Peru.

“The SRO position is funded through a bipartisan Stronger Connections Grant. The grant is for $250,000 and covers three years. The grant covers the salary/benefits of the SRO in RSU 56,” Superintendent Pam Doyen wrote in an email.

Some wording from the grant request, which describes the need for an SRO in the district, states: “Since returning from the COVID pandemic, there has been an increase of truancy, chronic absenteeism, skipping classes and drug/alcohol use. Truancy, chronic absenteeism and skipping classes have been tracked by daily attendance in PowerSchool. Drug use has been tracked in SWIS through office referrals.”

Other concerns listed on the grant request from the district were school shootings and lack of police.

“School shootings remain an on-going concern. Since 2018, there have been 168 documented school shootings across the country. During the 2022-23 school year, there were 24 school shootings that resulted in injury and death. It’s terrifying. RSU 56 is a rural school that serves four rural towns. There are no local police. The Oxford County Sheriff’s Department serves the towns. This results in an extended wait time for police to arrive. Having an SRO would ensure that one police officer would be on site in a timely manner if a violent incident were to occur,” the grant request stated.

Onofrio has been working throughout the summer doing many home visits of at-risk students that he and administrators have identified during the school year. He’s mentoring and building relationships with their families.

“The idea behind that (mentoring and home visits) is you’re building relationships now with a lot of these at-risk students,” he said. “I’ve had parents reach out to me, and community members reach out to me, about school-related things that I’ll be able to help with.

“So, it’s been really wonderful in that sense. It’s really an opportunity for the right person to not only make a difference but build or change some of those (negative) perceptions that some people have of the police, which is always a good thing,” Onofrio said.

The SRO position is also “very much about educating and working with people to problem-solve,” he said. Other parts of the job include connecting families with community support services such as with the Maine Department of Mental Health Services or low-income assistance programs for home electricity and heating.

In the upcoming school year, he is planning to incorporate throughout the year “three different blocks of instruction” with one about the “real life of police” and understanding Maine laws and citizens’ constitutional rights. Another subject he plans to teach students about is “mental health and strategies to cope with life’s ups and downs.” And the third subject he plans to teach students about is the Constitution and our rights as an American, he said.

Onofrio believes that the SRO position “all boils down to attitude. I think it’s really important that an SRO has the best attitude every day,” because SROs are impacting the students “just by being there,” he said.