Officer Ryan Tillman worked as the School Resource Officer at Don Lugo High School in Chino Valley, California.
“I wasn’t always a fan of police officers. I couldn’t’ stand police officers until I became one,” Officer Ryan Tillman shared.
What is a School Resource Officer (SRO)?
“A school resource officer is a sworn law-enforcement officer with arrest powers who works, either full or part-time, in a school setting… they have had some special training on how to work with youths. [A school resource officer’s] basic 40-hour training includes some content on the adolescent brain, cyber safety, and violence prevention in schools, among other topics,” Stephen Sawchuck explained on EdWeek.
It’s a very serious job that can be intimidating to young students.
Officer Tillman didn’t want to have that impression on the teenagers.
“I had this mindset that everybody just pictures a school resource officer just sitting in his office eating doughnuts and being angry at the kids,” Officer Tillman said. “But when you get there, it’s so much more than that, you’re so interactive with the kids, you’re a mentor to the kids.”
Having an SRO in the local high school is actually a good thing.
For one thing, it helps young students and school staff to improve their trust in the police and their safety measures. It’s a great partnership with schools to create more resources focused on safety.
Overall, it’s a great way to make students feel safe in their own environment.
Officer Tillman spent a year and a half as the school resource officer at Don Lugo before he was promoted to Chino Police Corporal.
When he started, he was surprised at how he much loved his job.
The students became like his own kids, and he watched out for them and became a mentor.
Because he loved the bond and connection he created with the students, he wanted to do something special for them when he told them he was leaving.
Officer Tillman decided to do what he loved best to surprise the students.
“One of the things I’ve always just liked to do, just me being me, [is] to dance. I danced with my students before at football games and stuff like that, so I wanted to go out with a bang,” Officer Tillman told InsideEdition.com.
He asked for help from the high school’s hip-hop dance team and principal to pull off this secret performance.
The outgoing SRO made his announcement during a school pep rally, where he also chose to perform for the school. He, with the dance team, performed a mashup of new and old hits.
The songs included MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This” and Soulja Boy’s “Crank That.” The students really enjoyed his dance moves, and they had to take a video and upload it online.
Officer Tillman had no idea it would go viral.
He didn’t expect the performance to go viral, he just wanted to show the students that police officers are human beings, too.
“I carry that into my day job and when videos go viral like that, it’s a constant reminder for me and a reminder for others that these guys … have a lot of similarities that you guys have,” Officer Tillman further explained.
Since being uploaded online, the video has received almost three million views on Officer Tillman’s Facebook page, Breaking Barriers United, and more than 11 million views on Youtube.
Want to see the video that humanized Officer Tillman and other police officers? Watch it below!
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