Officer Mark Mitchell is practically a celebrity on campus, constantly joking around with the students and coming across as so approachable that it seems that some forget he’s not a student himself.

“He’s so cool,” sophomore Nathalie Kroll said. “Even though he’s a police officer he’s really nice to everyone and I think he’s funny.”

Other students agree.

“Everyone knows Officer Mitchell and everyone likes him,” junior Autumn Keefer said. “He’s basically friends with all of us.”

Despite his laid-back nature, Mitchell is still a police officer with a history that many do not know.

“I went to college at Christian University in Tucson, Arizona and Harding University. I was there for five years and I majored in accounting,” Mitchell said. “I’ve worked in the sheriff’s office since July of ’96. I started out working in the jail. I was in the jail for about four years and then I came to patrol and I was in patrol for six to seven years and then I was placed in the school. Before I worked in the sheriff’s office I worked in the prison system and at restaurants.”

He has also had experiences that some would never expect.

“One of the most memorable things that’s happened to me was the shootout,” Mitchell said. “There was a guy that we were trying to arrest and he didn’t want to go to jail so he picked up a gun and started shooting at us.”

He has memories of his career that most cannot even imagine.

“There were two guys sitting in a car off the road,” Mitchell said. “At first I thought it was just some guys fishing and so I was just stopping to check on them and it turned out that they were two guys trying to kill themselves, by having a hose attached to the exhaust pipe and I was able to save them and that was really cool. It wasn’t really a big deal, just part of a job but one of them sent me a letter later to thank me and that was just a really good feeling.”

But above all that, he is just a regular man.

“I have three kids, two daughters and a son, and a wife. I have a dog, a bulldog, who’s about knee high, about 107 pounds,” Mitchell said.

Most will agree that Mitchell was an excellent choice for the position of School Resource Officer.

“I really respect what he does here,” Keefer said. “I think it’s awesome that he’s able to do his job and still be so nice to us. We’re really lucky to have him.”