You might have noticed a new face at school this year – Officer Matthew Miller is our new school police officer at JMS. In this role, he is responsible for ensuring the safety of all students and staff at the school.
Officer Miller used to work as an elementary school teacher for second-grade students. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in elementary education from Bethel University in Mishawaka, Indiana. He has also helped coach a varsity football team at Jupiter High School. He has 2 sons, one in 8th grade, Easton Miller, and one in his junior year of high school at JHS, Griffen Miller. When he was still teaching, the school resource officer at the middle school he worked at asked if he wanted to join their police department. “I thought about it and submitted an application, and I successfully got in.”
(Adriana Terrusa)
How Will He Make the School Safer?
“I would want [the students] to feel safe and know they can come to me or another adult if they have any concerns about the safety of their school.” A lot of times, kids don’t want to say something because they worry about the impression that it could give. Everybody should feel safe enough to know you can say something and either come to Officer Miller, one of the APs, or use Fortify Florida.
His Favorite Part of Being a Police Officer
One of the things Officer Miller enjoys most about being a police officer is that he can use his experience as a former teacher in his role here at JMS. Officer Miller states, “I kind of get the best of both worlds.” He gets to educate students with his former teaching abilities and be somewhat of a counselor, while also enforcing the laws in order to keep our schools safe. His priorities are making a difference and making an impact on all the students, keeping our school safe, and getting to know the students personally.
The Most Difficult Part of His Job
Some of the most difficult parts of Officer Miller’s job are seeing the students not prioritizing school. “I know that a lot of kids don’t come from the best backgrounds, so I think the hardest part is trying to get them turned around so that they can see that education is important and that they can be a part of that process.”
His Craziest Story on the Job
According to Officer Miller, “Up in Indiana, we have a lot of tornadoes, so in 2016, I was working in a school, and we had some terrible tornadoes come through, and they leveled houses, trees, and powerlines were all out.” This was right before school let out, and since they had no radios, they weren’t able to communicate with the kids’ parents. They had to figure out how to get all the kids back to their parents because the tornadoes had caused so much damage that the parents couldn’t come to the school to pick up their kids.
“We had to figure out a location to have all the kids get on buses to take all the kids to that specific location for the kids to get picked up, but when you went outside, it looked like a war zone.” Trees were lying everywhere, a house that had been completely blown off its foundation, and all of the power lines were lying in the streets. It was only 3:00 pm, and it was already completely dark, so that made it way scarier. As the supervisor, Officer Miller had to figure out how to get the kids home safely without any cell service. Eventually, their parents picked them up around 3:00, but the last kid got picked up at 10 o’clock. Thankfully, all the students got home safely, and none of the schools were directly hit.
As you can see, JMS is incredibly lucky to have such an experienced officer patrolling our school. When you see him around, say thank you – his work and his experience are much needed and a big part of our school community.
