Welcome Officer Riechmann New school resource officer hired for

By Jamee A. Pierson

The PCM School District has once again filled the school resource officer position. Officer Carter Riechmann, a Chariton native, is on the job and excited to get to know not only the students but the communities, as well.

“Having a little brother, kind of getting into the school setting was a pretty big deal to me,” Riechmann said. “Even before that, I took a bunch of classes in high school to become an elementary education teacher. I tore my ACL so my scholarship to place basketball got yanked and I realized I wanted to help everyone. I wanted to broaden out and be a role model for everyone, not just kids. Now that I am actually in the school I absolutely love it. It is kind of going back to my initial dreams were of being a teacher, I can do a little bit of that now.”

Riechmann received his AA from Indian Hills Community College and took his first position in law enforcement with the Lucas County Sheriff’s Office. Looking for a chance of pace, he moved to Ames and worked for Iowa State University. Serving a larger community ended up not being the change he wanted and an opportunity was presented to him by PCM’s former SRO Adam Choat.

“I worked for Iowa State University for a couple of months and I decided that isn’t where I wanted to be, I wanted more of a small town. The former SRO here said he knew of the opening and that I’d be perfect for the job,” Riechmann said. “I talked to (Monroe Police Chief) Nick (Chambers), did a couple of ride alongs and thought, ‘hey, I can see myself working here.’”

A short three weeks later and he was on the job. With headlines across the country often telling of school violence, Riechmann hopes to be a part of the solution and not just reacting to the problem.

“Seeing all of the unfortunate events that have been happening in schools around the nation, I want to be able to help ensure the safety of the kids here,” Riechmann said. “As

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much as I want to say I can control it so it doesn’t happen, I just want to try to be as well trained as I can be.”

Through additional training during the summer and attending classes with the Na tional Association for School Resource Offi cers, he hopes to get more specific knowledge for working with students and in schools. He can then pass that on to the school adminis tration and teachers to help make PCM as safe as possible.

For now, he is really enjoying getting to know the students and building relationships throughout the district.

“(I hope to be) a role model for the kids. I know I’m tall and big and everyone looks up to me but I want them to do that for a different reason,” Riechmann said. “Just walking down the hall and having a kid run up and hug me, that was cool. Having only been in the schools for about three weeks and the fact that they feel OK with doing that is cool. I’m really hoping to kind of have it take off next year.”