Brittany Dorman: high school resource officer
BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
KEYSTONE HEIGHTS— Brittany Dorman’s primary job is to patrol the campus of Keystone Heights Junior-Senior High School, watching out for threats and intervening when trouble starts.
However, she said her most important work occurs in her office, when students come to her after a breakup, a family problem or some other crisis.
Dorman was raised in Middleburg and graduated from Ridgeview High School. Her husband is a Keystone Heights graduate.
Right out of high school, she joined the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office as a court bailiff officer.
“I’ve always wanted to be in law enforcement,” she recalled, “but that agency required standards like you had to have a four-year degree or four years of prior law enforcement. I didn’t because I literally came straight out of high school.”
Dorman said that after having children, the court security job fit her schedule well. She stayed there for 10 years.
She also said that during her time at the courthouse, she observed that most of the juveniles she encountered had a negative view of law enforcement.
“Obviously, the ones I dealt with were in jail for crimes, some petty and some major,” she said. “They just didn’t like us.”
She said in her current job, she hopes to offset negative views of law enforcement some students may have.
She also said her court experience helps her not to prejudge people in her current job.
“I might run into a child that has a charge pending, but I don’t judge them based on that,” she said. “We all make mistakes as humans. It’s how we go past that, what you do for yourself in the future that matters.”
Dorman spends much of her day in the halls and on the sidewalks of the school. She said she likes to maintain a high profile on campus.
‘I love to go cheer with the cheerleaders at the basketball games and football games,” she said. “I’ve got secret handshakes around here. It’s about making yourself available for these kids whether it be for the good or for the bad.”
Dorman said students routinely walk in her office to discuss problems like breakups, traffic crashes on the way to school or family issues. She said she tries to meet them where they are, which includes not reacting to profanity.
“They are teenagers,” she said. “They don’t want another parent. They don’t want another school staff member. They know I am here to protect them.”
Dorman said in the times she cannot help a student, she refers the child to the guidance office or the school’s student assistance program.
But with most problems, she can help students on her own. She said that many times, a child just needs someone to talk to, and to offer common sense advice. One problem at a time. One child at a time.
“My kids know it’s an open-door policy,” she said. “They need somebody positive in their lives and if I only change one life then I change one life.”
