He’s here to prevent students from being afraid to go to school and learn.
He’s here to prevent staff from being afraid to go to school to teach.
As recent school shootings have brought school safety into closer focus across the nation, Casey Littlefield has begun his job as the high school’s campus security officer, a new position created by the district this year with the main goal of campus protection.
“My specific role is to maintain a presence within the school, as to ensure our students and staff are given the safest and most secure environment to thrive and excel,” Littlefield said. “Another critical and extremely important role is to foster positive relationships with our students. It is so important that we are a valuable resource to the schools in which we serve.”
Littlefield comes to the school with an extensive background in security and law enforcement. He served as a police officer for about five years before transitioning into the private sector. He has worked as a regional loss prevention manager with Westlake Ace Hardware, a safety and investigations administrator with a casino and event property in Oklahoma, and as a district operations manager with The Home Depot.
Littlefield spent five years as a police officer before transitioning into private security.
Littlefield also holds a private investigations owner/manager license in the State of Texas with the company Diligent Protective Services.
“Well, let me first say I’m not easily impressed,” district director of safety and security Dan Buholtz said. “During each interview I look for many different attributes from an applicant. Mr. Littlefield came into the interview thoroughly prepared, professionally dressed and was very articulate with all his answers.”
In preparation for the new job, Littlefield completed the state’s 80-hour school marshall training during the first weeks of school.
“It was pretty structured around the laws of use of force, and all the things you need to know in what you can and can’t do in school systems,” Littlefield said. “The difficult part probably was the simulation training. Really what that is is putting you in real-life scenarios from a training perspective, and you’re having to react, being able to identify a situation and react to it with almost real-life simulation-type of stuff.”
Principal Chris Mayfield stressed the benefit of having Littlefield on campus.
“We’ve really enjoyed having him here,” principal Chris Mayfield said. “We really feel like his presence has been a real positive, both from the standpoint of having a person here who is contributing to the safety of the campus as well as a staff member and what that brings to our campus.”
Littlefield’s wife teaches PE and health at Sloan Creek and coaches cross country and track, and their daughter is a seventh grader at Willow Springs. After hearing about the new security department in the district, Littlefield was immediately attracted to the position.
“Certainly [my family] has an affect on why I wanted to obtain this job,” Littlefield said. “As far as them being in the school district and me having the experience and skill set, it kind of says, ‘Hey, why not join this school district and be a part of what they do every day.’”
