The Clark County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) relaunched its school resource officer (SRO) program at Prairie High School, with Chelsea Quiggle, former educator turned deputy, set to begin patrolling the hallways this week as class starts for the 2024-25 school year.
Quiggle gained previous experience working in schools in the Longview/Kelso area with a few educator roles, she said. She worked at the Quest Academy in Longview for four years as well as a private school in Kelso working with kindergarten through high schoolers.
In 2019, Quiggle decided to make the switch to law enforcement after a student asked her why she hadn’t become a cop.
“And I was like, ‘maybe I will,’ ” Quiggle recalled. “So, it started on a whim, and then very quickly I had to have this real serious conversation with myself.”
While taking the career change under consideration, tragedy struck in Cowlitz County, further deepening the conversation with herself.
“Justin DeRosier, he was a friend through high school and everything through Kelso, and I had to quickly — sitting at his funeral — decide whether I was serious about it or not,” Quiggle said. “And sitting there, I just realized I’d rather do something that’s honorable and build a life that I’m impacting others and potentially lose my life doing that than to just continue to go down the path I was on.”
DeRosier, a Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office deputy, was shot and killed after responding to investigate reports of a disabled motorhome in 2019.
“It was a huge shock for the community,” Quiggle said of DeRosier’s death.
After that moment, Quiggle switched careers and joined the Clark County Sheriff’s Office in hopes of landing one of the many specialized duties the agency has to offer, she said.
“SRO has always been on my list, you know. I love kids. I love being in a school. I love the education process,” Quiggle said. “So to be able to kind of be in both of those worlds at once is a pretty cool opportunity, I think.”
She believes her background in education will help in her new role.
“I think it’ll help because I have classroom experience,” Quiggle said. “I’ve been on the other side of things. I’ve dealt with discipline. I’ve dealt with acting out. I’ve dealt with all these big issues that at a certain point there’s only so much you can do as a teacher before you need help. So, I’ve had that beginning part where we’ve done all we can so I understand that process and what they go through, and now I get to be on the other side where I can come in and support them.”
As an SRO, Quiggle hopes to support the staff at Prairie High School before they need her to step into the classroom. Her goal starting the school year is to build relationships with staff and students. With roughly 1,500 students attending Prairie High School, Quiggle is excited to be with more people rather than mainly being in a patrol car from call to call, she said.
Along with her main role at Prairie High School, Quiggle will also serve at other schools in the Battle Ground Public Schools district that are outside the city limits of Battle Ground. She will also be a part of the learning communities at Tukes Valley, Pleasant Valley, Yacolt, Amboy, Lauren and Glenwood Heights schools.
“I get to be at all these different campuses and get to go interact with all ages, and just really building those relationships is huge,” Quiggle said. “I just want them to see law enforcement in a time that’s not crisis or a time that’s not like a consequence kind of thing. I want kids to understand that law enforcement are here to help. We are here to support. We’re members of the community that they can rely on if they need something. So building those relationships in time of calm and not need [is important].”
