Highland Mid-Kids Radio Club Interviews Highland School Resource Officer

“Hello, my name is Savannah Cabral, and I’m with Highland Mid-Kids Radio Club and today we’re interviewing Highland County School Resource Officer Beth McGuire. Thank you for joining us today. Can you tell us a bit about yourself?””

“Sure. I’m a resident of Highland County, and have been practically my whole life. The only time I wasn’t is when I was in college, and I did go into four year college in Ferrum. I played basketball here, and volleyball, as well as softball, and ran track. I pretty much did everything they let me do to have something to do here in Highland, as you all know. I have two kids, Florence and Kendra, and I’m married to Harold McGuire, who is a world champion taxidermist, and we live in McDowell.”

“Hi, my name is Anna Chambers. What is your background in law enforcement?”

“So, prior to this position, I served 14 years with the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, which recently became Department of Wildlife Resources as a conservation police officer. And then I became an auxiliary officer with Highland County when I left DWR in April of last year. And then this job became available, and I was asked if I would be interested, and here I am.”

“Hi, my name is Hensley Neil. What are the duties of your job?”

“Well, I have three main kinds of duties while I’m here at the school, and the first is to provide safety and security for the students and staff. And then the second one is to do law related education, which we’ll get into that in a little bit. And then the third one is to be kind of a informal counselor or mentor for the kids  – for anybody that needs to just chit chat or talk about things that might be going on outside of school as well.”

“Hi, my name is Amelia Good. Why did you want to become the school resource officer?”

“Well, basically one of the reasons that I had quit with DWR is because I was losing family time. I was not home when they were home, when the kids were home especially. I was working lots of nights, weekends, holidays, all the things that they would have off, I would have to work. So, when this job opportunity came up where I would be at school when they were in school., it just felt like a perfect fit. Plus, I love to be around kids and teach what I can.”

“What education opportunities do you have planned for students?”

“There are a lot of different educational opportunities that I could present to the schools. It’s kind of going to depend on the administration and the sheriff as to which ones I’ll be allowed to do. There’s a DARE program obviously, that could be done here in the school, as well as a program that’s called Virginia Rules. That covers everything from bullying, to dating issues, to internet safety crimes, and things like that, to of course, drugs and alcohol. There’s all kinds of opportunities out there, it’s just going to be what I get approved to do.”

“Thank you for joining us. This has been Highland Mid-Kids Radio Club for Allegheny Mountain Radio.”