Every morning when you walk into the school through the main office, the first thing you may see is Officer Shane Fries sitting behind the front desk, smile spread across his face as he chimes a “good morning” as you head onto your first class.
Officer Fries came to East last March, after being the Student Resource Officer (SRO) at Shawnee Mission West and Northwest. He was also as a sergeant with the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office for almost 27 years. He worked as a desk sergeant towards the end of his time there, mostly reviewing reports. Now, he’s a campus security police officer.
Fries checks in East visitors, scanning their driver’s license, and printing them out a visitor pass. Aside from this, he watches security cameras of all other elementary and middle schools that feed into East, while sitting behind his desk in the main office.
Fries considers himself a morning person, so naturally, his favorite part of the day is the morning. He enjoys smiling and greeting all the students and staff each day.
“All the students here are so great, and the staff too,” Fries said. “Everyone is so positive, I really don’t see much negativity at all. I mean everybody has their days, but for the most part everyone is great.”
Although his job involves sitting in one place for hours on end, Fries doesn’t get bored.
“I see visitors that come to school, we have quite a few,” Fries said. “I meet a lot of new people, which I love.”