After recovering from surgery, Officer Austin Gutwein has resumed his work as student resource officer (SRO) for the Snoqualmie Valley School District, a role he stepped into in March 2024.
During his three months of light duty, Gutwein continued to be the department’s liaison to the school district and spent time at the schools in plain clothes. Each day, officers also made stops at the schools and checked in with administration so the department would maintain a presence in the district, according to Snoqualmie Police Chief Brian Lynch.
Lynch, whose own children attend Mount Si High School, said when he was appointed chief in late 2023, he “fully committed to having an officer there.”
“When I send my kids to school every day, it’s with the expectation that [Gutwein is] keeping them safe,” he said.
But having a full-time SRO has been difficult due to staffing shortages that started after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s been tough to hire new officers, Lynch said, and it’s rare that the department gets a lateral hire from another department. Most of Lynch’s new hires are going to, or are fresh out of, the academy.
“I have my five sergeants, and then there’s a huge gap of experience,” he said. “We’re very young.”
Lynch needs a mid-level officer to hold this position, which involves keeping the nearly 4,000 students and full-time staff of Mount Si High School safe — along with the thousands of other students and staff in the district. And safety, Gutwein said, has many facets.
“I want to be a support, I want to be a mentor, I want to be a teacher,” Gutwein said. “I want to be a police officer when it’s appropriate, and that’s a difficult line to walk sometimes.”
Lynch said the SRO’s first priority is preservation of life.
“We know what kind of world we live in now, so when I put [Gutwein] down there, it’s my expectation that he is monitoring for weapons, that he’s responding to weapons calls,” Lynch said.
Closely behind that, Lynch said the SRO’s second priority is being accessible to the district community.
“I want this to be a no-barriers position,” he said. “If he makes a relationship with somebody in the school and brings those barriers down, then that person is less likely to not call us when needed. They’re going to approach us in public a little bit different.”
Gutwein is currently Lynch’s only option for an SRO, and he volunteered for the position, but it wasn’t supposed to be forever, Lynch said — and it likely won’t be.
“There’s going to be openings in my leadership positions that [Gutwein] is going to be perfect for, so I have to look long-term,” Lynch said.
Long-term for Lynch starts in September, at the beginning of the 2025-26 school year. By then, he’s hoping to have found a new SRO who can remain in the position for multiple years and cultivate a strong relationship with the district and its students.
Regardless, Lynch says he won’t leave the Snoqualmie Valley School District without an officer, and he is actively interviewing prospects.
“It’s not a perfect situation, because I love [Gutwein] being in that position, he’s very good at it,” Lynch said. “But I need his leadership up here when the time comes.”
