CENTRAL GETS FIRST POLICEMAN; RESOURCE OFFICER SERVES DUAL ROLE

A new student wandered the halls of Cape Girardeau Central High School Wednesday for the first day of school.

Uniformed and smiling, Cape Girardeau police Cpl. Barry Hovis was the model freshman as he began his first day as the school's resource officer.

Hovis, 32, said he had some of the same problems as many of the teen-aged freshmen who were looking for classes, trying to learn teachers' names and simply trying to get oriented to a new environment.

Hovis must learn the names and locations of about 70 teachers and he will be subjected to the passing faces of more than 1,000 students at Central alone. If that isn't enough, Hovis also has to be on the lookout for former Central students who have nothing better to do than return to the campus to spend time with their friends.

"It's been an awakening experience for me," Hovis said. "It's kind of like going back to school."

Hovis said he and the school are trying to determine exactly what his responsibilities will be. He said he is considered to be part of the staff and also a police officer; his duties will consist of a little from both areas.

One of Hovis' responsibilities is to be visible at the most troublesome areas of the school at the most active times of the day. When the class bells ring, Hovis goes out to the hallway to see and be seen. He smiles and says hello, always aware of his second duty -- that of a role model.

Before and after school he patrols the bus areas and some well-known gathering areas for fights.

Hovis isn't immune to the lessons to be learned from books either. He has the school's policy book to study.

While Hovis is in the process of learning he will also be asked to teach. He said in a few weeks he will be in the classroom as a guest speaker.

"I'll be doing things from a law-enforcement aspect that I feel comfortable talking about," Hovis said. He said some of those topics will be criminal law, juvenile law, drug and alcohol violations, search and seizure, sex crimes, traffic laws, and city and state laws.

"I think if you can make everyone smarter about what they can and can't do, it makes for a better student body and citizens," he said.

Hovis said he comes from a big family with a lot of brothers and sisters, he's easy going and he likes to talk to people. He said that will help him adjust to the new conditions.

"When I become comfortable walking down the hallway with 50,000 students running around me, I think things will go a lot better," Hovis said.

For the first few weeks Hovis said he will wander the school halls -- walking his new beat -- and getting used to new surroundings. "I've found a lot of shortcuts and nooks and crannies that I didn't even know were here," he said.

Hovis said he doesn't mind being a role model. "I lead a pretty clean life," he said.

Randy Fidler, Central High School principal, said the teachers are anxious to get Hovis into their classrooms. "He's going to be in our classrooms as much as he can manage," he said.

"We're hoping this builds a good rapport," Fidler said. "We want the students to realize that an officer on the street is not a bad person."