Three SROs — School Resource Officers — are back with students in Moorhead public schools. (From right to left) SRO Andy Werk, SRO Beth Jutting, and SRO Jessica Horn, with Community Engagement Sgt. Scot Kostohryz and Youth Services Coordination Louis Ochoa. (Photo/Katie Ettish)
Nancy Edmonds Hanson
When students go back to school next Monday, they’ll again rub shoulders with school resource officers wearing the uniform of the Moorhead Police Department. And for the first time in at least three years, there will be three of them on hand to keep them safe.
Two of the SROs have already been greeting students in the halls and lunchrooms since the current school year began. Officers Andy Werk and Jessica Horn have been assigned to Moorhead High and Horizon Middle School since the 2025-26 school year began back in September. The third, Officer Beth Jutting, will now be stationed at the MHS Career Academy, while continuing to work with the city’s five elementary schools.
MPD officers had been a familiar sight in local schools for more than a decade when, in August 2023, they suddenly disappeared. “[Former] Chief Shannon Monroe pulled them out because of the vagueness of a new regulation passed the 2023 Legislature,” Sgt. Scott Kostohryz explains. He’s in charge of the department’s community engagement, including the SROs. The change of one word in updated regulations on restraints, he said, put his officers in legal jeopardy.
That statute was amended in 2024, and SROs once more strolled the halls during the first five months of the year. But they once again disappeared from Moorhead Area Public Schools that fall due to severe manpower shortages in the department. They remained absent for that entire school year; the SROs were reassigned to patrol the streets of the city.
But as hiring ramped up last summer, the SROs were finally able to return. Now, says Kostohryz, the relationship between MAPS and MPD is better than ever. “Communication and cooperation have never been better,” he says. “The schools’ goals and our goals align perfectly. We’re both totally dedicated to student safety.”
The presence of officers in the schools isn’t primarily focused on enforcing laws, he notes. While that’s certainly part of their responsibility, the greater goal is to build relationships between law enforcement and young people. “We want to instill in the students the knowledge that we – the police department – are part of their community,” the sergeant explains. “When you’re stopped for speeding, you may be frustrated … but it’s comforting to know that if you need help someday, someone will be coming who cares.”
Officer Werk, at three years, has the longest tenure of the three SROs. Like his colleagues, he joined the department as a patrol officer, serving in that division for five years. He also served as a field training officer. He became the high school SRO after the departure of Ethan Meehan, who left for the Duluth Police Department.
“Working with kids was a real change of pace,” Werk recalls. “When you’re in patrol, you don’t usually see people who are having the best of days. Here, we have a chance to have positive interactions every day.”
Werk – like Horn and Jutting – spends his days talking with students and staff as he walks the halls of Moorhead High and chats in the lunch room. “Sometimes they drop into my office on the second floor for snacks and a little conversation,” he reports. He stocks typical teen go-tos like chips, granola bars, Cheez-Its and Goldfish crackers. “Candy goes pretty fast,” he concedes.
Those relationships, he says, help break down the wall between everyday citizens and the cops. “Instead of only seeing uniforms when something negative has happened, they get comfortable with us. With good communication, they realize that police officers are human, too.”
He concedes that not every exchange is positive. “Crimes do happen in school,” he concedes, “just as they do everywhere. After all, school is a microcosm. There can be thefts, vaping and law enforcement calls for things like weapon checks. It’s like a little city. Fortunately, those things are rare.”
Kostohryz says the frequency of such situations is down significantly. “Trouble? No, we see the opposite. The incidence of negative behaviors is down this year, and positive attitudes are up.”
The attitudes of students, faculty and staff toward officers on campus were surveyed in 2017 and 2019, he adds. “At Horizon Middle School, 95% of those surveyed wanted SROs to remain in the schools,” he says. “At the high school, it was 97%.”
He emphasizes that the presence of SROs on campus is not only a chance to emphasize that they too are human, but also a way to prevent negative occurrences.
“When you see a police car going down the street, it’s a visual deterrent,” he observes. “You’re more aware of the rules.
“The same goes for seeing men and women in uniform in your school. The officers’ present itself just raises awareness that there are rules that should be followed. Most already know that. For a few others, they may need a reminder.
“It’s like seeing a black-and-white on the street. Most people are glad that they’re out there. Those who aren’t … well, it’s a way to refresh their memory.”
