HHS School Resource Officer Alvin Zellous has zeal for building trust with students

(Editor’s Note: This is the third installment in a multiple part series on local school resource officers. This week, we introduce you to Hanahan High School SRO Alvin Zellous.)

Officer Alvin Zellous shares a friendly but stern demeanor with the students of Hanahan High School. During the paper’s recent interview with the school resource officer, he stopped a student coming in to school late and the two shared a joke before she entered the office with a tardy excuse. Earlier, a student with past behavioral problems entered his office to ask him for advice on a situation he was involved in. He uses mutual respect for and faith in the high school students to do his job to the best of his abilities.

“I’ve been put here to more help the kids than hurt them,” Zellous explains. “I tell them all the time, ‘I’m your personal police officer.’ I don’t care what it is—you’re within the City of Hanahan, you can come ask me a question because I’m here for y’all.’”

Zellous spent time working as a correctional officer for the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) at the Coastal Regional Evaluation Center in Ridgeville.

“When I first got to the correction facility, I was like ‘I’m kind of nervous.’ I’ve got kids who committed crimes, real serious crimes,” he remembered. “After a week, I started adjusting to them, learning them. I said ‘ok, they’re kids who committed crimes, but they’re still kids at the end of the day.’”

Although his job as an SRO is less intense, Zellous said that his time with the DJJ taught him to “loosen up and learn kids.”

After four years as a correctional officer, he began working for the Hanahan Police Department. Upon completing his first year patrolling the streets of Hanahan, he was asked to be the SRO at HHS because of his previous work with the youth.

Zellous’ average day takes him around the school several times to patrol, assure the doors are secure, and talk to students at lunch. “Most of the time you see me walking through the campus, in the classrooms, sitting back, watching what they’re learning, just to let them know that I’m here,” he said.

Sometimes, he’ll go to the gym to throw the football around or shoot some hoops with the students. Zellous’ work getting to know the kids of Hanahan seems to work well for him, because teenagers will greet him at his office in the morning or eat their meals with him.

“Sometimes they’ll come in and say ‘so and so has been threatening me on Snapchat or social media,’ or ‘this kid might have a JUUL they’ll smoke.’ The kids are going to tell me,” he stated.

Zellous mentioned that his favorite part of the day is when students go to his office during lunch to chat. “I might have 20 kids in my office,” he commented. “We might listen to some music and just talk about what’s going on in school or what they’re doing during their spring break.”

The SRO’s office is decorated with testaments to the care he’s shown for the student body of Hanahan High School. Thank you letters from students hang on the wall next to the entrance and across from his desk is a list of sporting events he’ll attend to show his support for the students.

When asked what the best trait for an SRO is, Zellous said “trust” without hesitation.

“If you build your trust with the kids, they’ll definitely respond better to you,” he noted. “When you handle situations, you’ve got to think in mind that they are kids, they did make a mistake. How would you want someone to handle this if it was you in your teenage years? I kind of put myself in their shoes before I get them an answer or take action.”

“If I got to call their parents, [I say] ‘I understand your kid made a mistake and we’re going to handle it at the lowest level first, before we pass it on to an administrator,’” Zellous added.

But, at the end of the day, the SRO wants to ensure that the students he helps learn their value as people. “I just want to see everybody come to school, pass and graduate, and go be successful,” he said. “I want to see everybody come through here, do four years of school, and be successful. If they can do that, I’m happy with that.”