In his 13 years as the Lincoln Public Schools security director, Joseph Wright saw the impact that the safety team had. He recalled one school resource officer who helped a student with behavior challenges by having lunch with them as often as he could.
“For two years they had lunch together every day, and the student graduated without any remarkable behavior after that,” Wright said. “That’s just a little tiny example of the relationships that our SROs can make with students that really make a difference.”
Wright retires from his role this month. Before serving as LPS security director, Wright spent nearly 30 years in the Lincoln Police Department. He said he appreciated the opportunity to combine education and safety.
“It’s been really gratifying,” Wright said. “The relationships I’ve made with people over the past 13 years have been fantastic.”
During his time at LPS, Wright said his biggest accomplishment was working with other entities to improve safety, including the local police department, the state’s law enforcement center and the University of Nebraska.
“The catch phrase in threat assessment is no one does this alone,” he said. “Even as a school district, we can’t do threat assessment alone.”
He’s also noticed a shift from safety efforts interrupting the school day to becoming a part of the school day.
“We’re a lot safer when all of our employees feel they’re part of the security and safety team,” Wright said.
One of the last trainings he planned was a full-day exercise with school administrators and resource officers. It focused on separating what are criminal matters and what are school discipline matters, as well as educating how to support students who are neurodiverse.
“We take time to get to the root of the problem to find resources for kids, so that they can be successful,” Wright said. “Students who are successful, know they have options, are treated with dignity and respect are not going to be dangerous kids.”
Wright’s advice to those in school safety is to never be complacent. He said he hopes school leaders see value in security teams like his and invest in them, even as districts see budget challenges.
“When you look at the efficiency of what our team creates with the expertise we have, that lets people in the buildings not have to take time out to do other duties as assigned,” Wright said. “They can focus on their job and their expertise.”
Nate Hill, a threat assessment investigator at LPD who worked closely with LPS, will become the LPS director of security. Wright said the school district has a good team assembled to continue supporting safety.
“I really look forward to seeing what the team and our district and our police department are going to do in the next 10 years,” Wright said. “We’ll be doing a lot better in 10 years than what we do now. I can’t wait to see it happen.”
Wright’s looking forward to his first day of retirement, with plans to hop on the MoPac Trail with his phone off.
“When I start to think (the) halfway point is near, I should probably use the knowledge of my age and say, ‘Yeah, I’ve hit the halfway point. Let’s turn around,’” Wright said.
