News Photo by Julie Riddle Chris LaPlaunt, school liaison officer to Thunder Bay Junior High School in Alpena, learns about ongoing renovations in the school’s media center from Principal Katie Lee, right, last week.

ALPENA — Junior high students with positive police interactions have a leg up in life, according to the newest police officer assigned to spend school days with Thunder Bay Junior High School students.

Chris LaPlaunt, deputy with the Alpena County Sheriff’s Office, will serve as school liaison officer to the school during the 2022-2023 school year.

With no formal experience working with young people in his police role, LaPlaunt said he has occasionally interacted with them during his nearly 20 years in law enforcement.

Often, young people fall under police radar because they make mistakes, he said.

Now, he looks forward to providing positive interactions that help young people believe they have the support of adults around them and that they can recover from those mistakes.

“You can be whatever you want,” he wants students to know. “You’re not confined by your environment or your situation. You can overcome any of that.”

School liaison officers help school officials enforce rules, but they prioritize building relationships with students, hopefully instilling a belief that police officers are friends, not enemies, LaPlaunt said.

Hopefully, interactions with school liaison officers “will be the only contact they have with law enforcement,” he said.

As an adult, he appreciates the teachers who invested in and cared about him as a student and looks forward to being that person for today’s students.

Part of taking care of students means new rules to ensure student safety, like those released last week by Alpena Public Schools.

Safety protocols for the upcoming school year include closed and locked doors, visitor restrictions, limits on when students can carry backpacks, and covering of interior windows into classrooms.

School officials have to impose such rules to eliminate any possibility, at least to the extent that they can control, that anyone would bring danger inside the school walls, LaPlaunt said.

The school years of today’s adults looked much different, the officer acknowledged, but, he said, “We have to change. People have to change and prepare themselves for the time they live in.”

LaPlaunt remembers dropping his daughters off for their first day at the junior high school and feeling reassured by seeing now-Alpena County Sheriff Erik Smith, then the school’s liaison officer, standing in the doorway, greeting each family and connecting with the kids.

That’s his goal for the year, the officer said — to be the officer students know, and know they can turn to when they need him.

Katie Lee, principal at the junior high, said she’s excited to have LaPlaunt in the building to build relationships with students and help keep them safe.

Students have always appreciated the hands-on presence of liaison officers, who become part of the staff family, as well, she said.

“It’s another adult that cares about our students,” Lee said. “And that can help make a difference for them.”

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693 or jriddle@thealpenanews.com. Follow her on Twitter @jriddleX.