PORTSMOUTH — School Resource Officer Scott Sullivan readily admits that not every student has warmed up to him since he began his new position this fall. Some even hate him.

A few weeks ago he found the words “Pigs get butchered” written in black marker in a bathroom at the high school, along with other messages. Rather than ignore the graffiti, however, he took photos of the messages and taped them to the wall of his office at Portsmouth High School.

Read about Officer Sullivan's 24-hour Thanksgiving Day walk to raise awareness about the Portsmouth Police Department's holiday drive.

“It’s my way of telling the kids, ‘You’re not upsetting me,’” he said.

Since his job is focused on keeping kids safe, Officer Sullivan said he doesn’t mind not being the most popular person in the hallway.

“I tell them, ‘I don’t care if you hate me, as long as you hate me for a long, long, long time,’” Officer Sullivan said.

Every day he tries breaking the ice with at least one more student. The kids who pass him in the hallway with their heads down can’t escape his greetings of “Good morning” or “How was your day?”

“There are kids who’d tell me they hated me just because I was a police officer,” he said. “Now they come in shake my hand. Do I think they love me? No. I call it a working relationship. I tell them, ‘I want you to take me from the neck down and just get rid of the rest.’ The badge and the gun and everything else is so non-important. I’m just a person.”

PHS has just under 1,000 students, and no less than 100 come through his office every day, Officer Sullivan said. They sign the white board he put up on his wall, or grab a piece of candy or a snack (he puts the healthier treats up front). Sometimes they need something extra.

“I can’t tell you how many times somebody’s come in here because they don’t have lunch money, so I’m going poor I think,” he said.

It’s all part of breaking down barriers so kids feel more comfortable approaching him if they’ve got a problem, he said.

“Sometimes kids want to talk to you, sometimes they don’t. There are kids who still eat lunch all by themselves in this school. I try to sit with all of them, ask them, ‘Hey, what are you reading? How’s things going?’” he said.

His job, he said, is less about charging students with crimes — “There have been arrests at the school, most of them for nothing major,” he said —  than it is heading off trouble before it begins.

“Do I see instances of bullying? Yes, and we try to stem that,” Officer Sullivan said. “But one thing I try never to forget is, they’re kids. They’re going to make mistakes, that’s why they’re kids. Some of them either haven’t been taught the right way, or have never had consequences. I know these kids aren’t perfect and they’re still going to do their stuff.”

What he expects from them is common courtesy, he said. “If they’re swearing, saying things you shouldn’t say, I’ll go up to them and say, ‘Hey, that’s not how we’re going to act. If you can’t be here for seven hours, how are you going to get out in the workforce when things don’t go your way?’”

Daily routine

Officer Sullivan’s day begins at the police station, where he reads the log for things that might pertain to the schools or students’ family members. “You’re kind of making notes on who you may want to check on today — see how they’re doing,” he said.

He greets students as they get off the bus at PHS and makes sure traffic flows smoothly. Then he comes to his office for a few minutes and catches up with administrators before making more contact with students.

“The four most important times of the day for me are when they’re coming in, when they’re leaving, lunchtime and in between classes. They will always see me at those times,” he said.

Although PHS is his home base, Officer Sullivan also visits the middle school and the two elementary schools in the district. However, he doesn’t restrict himself to a set schedule, and for good reason.

“It’s not that I don’t want people to know where I am; I don’t want people to know where I’m not,” he said. “If I said I’m going to be at the middle school every Tuesday, if somebody was planning something …”

Although he’s never been happier in his law enforcement career, he said keeping tabs on four different schools is a daunting task for one police officer. “Seventeen, 18 percent of the entire population of Portsmouth is in these four schools right now,” he said.

PHS Principal Robert Littlefield said he’s glad to have Officer Sullivan aboard. “He’s really changed the atmosphere of the school and he’s done a terrific job of weaving himself into the fabric of the school. He’s a constant presence,” Mr. Littlefield said.

’Small miracle’

Although his presence has led to a few more arrests at the school — an assault on a school bus, a boy allegedly making threats, a girl being disruptive in class — Officer Sullivan said the more serious incidents usually happen at students’ homes.

“I don’t solve a ton of problems, but I can get them in touch with the people who can,” he said.

One such case he calls his “small miracle.” One boy at PHS comes from a tough area and has “grown up real hard,” he said.

“He’s not used to deal with standard discipline,” said Officer Sullivan. “He and I were standoffish at first because he grew up in a world where cops were not friendly. He suddenly started coming in and talking to me and I said, ‘What’s your story?’ He said, ‘You can read my file.’ I said, ‘I don’t want to read your file, I want to know from you.’”

It turns out that when he was much younger, the student witnessed a traumatic event involving a family member.

“So one day, he came in here and said, ‘Could I have a bottle of water, please?’ Sounds like a small thing, but I said, ‘Absolutely’ and I gave him a bottle of water,” he said.

The next day, the boy needed to go for reading help at a room near Officer Sullivan’s office. The teacher was at a meeting, however, and the student came to his office for help.

“He said, ‘Could you do me favor and call guidance and see where I’m supposed to be, because I don’t want to get jammed up for being in the hallway now.’ And this is a kid from the streets,” said Officer Sullivan, who was glad to see the boy let down his guard and ask for help.

It’s also a lesson, he said, for some kids who don’t know what hardship is.

“I have Life Skills right next door to me and you see what those kids struggle with on a daily basis,” he said. “They put a smile on my face because they don’t get upset. When somebody comes in here to complain about something minor — ‘My parents took my cellphone away’ — I usually say, ‘Hey, go two doors down, go in there for two minutes and come back and tell me how bad your life is right now, because those kids don’t complain about little things.’”

Learning experience

Officer Sullivan said he’s often frustrated by how difficult it is to quantify his job.

“I don’t know how many things I’ve stopped just by my presence. I don’t know how many kids have opened up,” he said.

His job is still a learning process and will be an evolving position, he said. “I will make mistakes; I have made mistakes. But I have a great support system at the police station and the administration here.

“It’s a learning experience every day.”