At RHS, there aren’t one but three security guards who are highly experienced, including having previously worked in police departments: Leon Pollison, Biren Patel and William Zimmerman. Rounding out the team are Biren Patel and Dan Stewart. Though the security guards are a crucial part of school safety, they don’t always receive the recognition they deserve for their dedication to keeping students, staff, faculty, visitors and the entire campus safe and secure.
The RHS security guards are always a friendly face at RHS, but many members of the campus community don’t know all the preparation and hard work that goes into a security guard’s typical workday. According to PalAmerican Security Services, “the role of a security guard is to protect students and staff on the school grounds, respond to emergency situations, enforce campus rules and regulations and patrol the school campus.”
RHS Security Guard William Zimmerman agreed that his typical day at work can be rigorous. “I get here, and we do traffic; we make sure everybody gets here safely, and then, we have a little meeting,” he said. “We discuss what we have to do for the day because there’s always meetings with the principals and teachers.”
After meetings, the security guards do a lap around the school to make sure all doors to enter the building are locked. They also monitor the security camera footage during the day. When the students are released from school, the security guards go outside to direct the RHS seniors out of the parking lot and, to finish up their workday, they patrol the Commons.
Our security guards come to RHS with plenty of prior experience that makes them qualified for the job. For example, before RHS, Pollison worked in the Morris County Jail for 25 years as a firearms instructor. He was also a member of the sheriff’s emergency response unit.
Security guards not just at RHS but around the country have proven themselves to be heroic figures time and time again. In recent years, there have been multiple news reports of violence and threats of violence in schools across the United States, and most of them are tied into follow-up stories of security guards living up to their positions when it was needed most.
Top Gun Security Academy, for example, shared a story about a security guard at Westhill High School in Stamford, Connecticut. The guard, Keith Rosedom, was quick to respond to an emergency in May of 2021 when he spotted a car rolling backward toward a man standing behind it. He jumped into action, saving the man from being run over by stopping the vehicle from moving any farther.
Another example of how security guards protect us is shown through the heroic actions of a Union High School security guard, who was honored by the Board of Education for saving a student’s life in 2023.
“One of our students was stepping out of the cafeteria, presumably trying to clear his throat because he had something lodged in it, and he was choking and could not breathe,” Union superintendent Scott Taylor revealed in a Tapinto Union article. This caused security guard Rich Schubert to perform the Heimlich maneuver, successfully clearing the student’s throat of the obstruction. Schubert was awarded a certificate of appreciation for saving this student’s life.
RHS and the greater Randolph community must show appreciation for our security guards, just as we do for teachers and other staff members who have positively impacted our lives. The members of our dedicated security team deserve their own celebration of recognition. Every day, they work hard to ensure the safety of all students and staff. Without their watchful and reassuring presence, RHS faculty, staff and students wouldn’t feel as safe and secure as we currently do.
