‘You wear a lot of hats’

For Jess Gilman, the life of a school police officer isn’t as simple as to protect and serve. To Gilman, the job — officially known as school resource officer — is part cop, part cheerleader, part counselor and more.

“You wear a lot of hats throughout the day,” said Gilman, who works in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

His ability to adapt and tend to the numerous needs of his students is probably the reason the School Resource Officers Assn. named Gilman its best of the year for California.

“You just do what you do on a daily basis and try to do the right thing,” Gilman said. “Sometimes people notice, sometimes they don’t — apparently someone noticed.”

For Gilman, that someone was Sara Kaminske, the manager of emergency preparedness at the Orange County Department of Education. Kaminske has worked with Gilman in the past and nominated him for the honor.

From then on it was Gilman’s credentials and other relationships that took him onward. His two decades of service as a police officer, his six years of service as a school resource officer, his outstanding position as a role model for youths, and his high rapport with children all contributed to his selection for this year’s top honor, said Arthur Cummins, administrator of safe and healthy schools for the Orange County Department of Education.

Gilman has recently been working as the school resource officer for the district’s Credit Recovery Center, but prior to that worked at Estancia High School. Gilman’s work with children began when he did Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or DARE, training at elementary schools. Those same students he worked with then, some seven or eight years ago, recently graduated with Gilman as their school resource officer before he moved over to the Credit Recovery Center.

“I didn’t have to break down any walls,” said Gilman, a father of three. “They were already broken down for us.”

Unlike the contacts normal street police officers make, Gilman likes the fact he gets to spend more time with “good kids,” he said. Still, he knows many of the children who have trouble in school are just in need of someone to point them in the right direction.

“There are so many kids that don’t have any leadership in their lives,” Gilman said. “It gets frustrating. These are the kids I try to reach out to.”

One student Gilman established a strong relationship with was recent Estancia graduate Abby Koff. Known to her as “pops,” Gilman and Koff’s friendship began after Koff’s father died when she was in elementary school. She struck a close bond with Gilman, her DARE officer at the time.

“He has played a big part with me and I am sure with others,” said Koff, who will be heading off to Harvard at the end of August. “He is genuinely a good person and I don’t think you find many of those these days.”

Gilman will receive the award at the School Resource Officers Assn. annual conference Aug. 27 in San Diego. He will be presented with the award by the president of the association, Craig Hampton, and California Secretary of Education David Long.

DANIEL TEDFORD may be reached at (714) 966-4632 or at daniel.tedford@latimes.com.