![Lisle High School Alumna Returns to Teach and is reminded of ‘why [she] wanted to be a high school teacher’](https://lhsmanestream.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/A.-Fujiwara.jpg)
After over two decades in law enforcement, Officer Louis found his favorite assignment not on the streets, but in the hallways of Lisle High School, where the students became more like family.
Officer Louis has been Lisle’s School Resource Officer (SRO) for five years, a role he admits he didn’t expect to love. Before joining Lisle, he spent nearly 20 years as a patrol officer & detective, beginning his career in 2002.
Louis’s path to high school began after he was looking for a detective position. His chief encouraged him to try the SRO role. Initially reluctant, Louis agreed to give it a try for a year. That year quickly turned into 5. Since then, he’s built lasting relationships with both students and staff. He says the most rewarding part of his job is when graduates stay in touch with him.
“Probably the relationships that I make with kids that continue after they leave, after they graduate,” he said. “When they reach out to me, be like, ‘Hey, you know, do you want to go grab lunch or coffee?’ Like, to me, that is meaningful.”
Louis says that over the years, while he has worked here, the school has become calmer, and he credits the positive atmosphere to the students and staff.
“I feel like it’s gotten calmer since I’ve been here,” he said. “When I tell other SROs the kind of things that I deal with, they’re like, ‘Your job is so easy,’ because the stuff they deal with is way worse than what I deal with.”
More than anything, Louis says the connections he’s made with students have shaped how he approaches his work, and how he hopes the next SRO will approach it, too.
“Just remember that before they even get to school in the morning, you don’t know what the kid has been through,” he said. “They could have had no heat at their house last night, no food for breakfast… So when they come in in the morning, all hot and bothered and pissed off about stuff, kind of remember that they may have been dealing with a lot of crazy stuff.”
Louis says part of connecting with students means treating them with respect and understanding.
“I liked it a lot more than I thought I was going to,” Louis said. “You guys are just little adults, right? I try to treat you guys like I treat my own kids.”
When he eventually retires, likely in 2026 or 2027, he plans to spend more time with his family, visit his two children in college, and possibly take on another full-time job.
“Probably just spending more time with my family, because I spend a lot of time here,” he said. “I will work. I can’t sit around and do nothing, so I will find a job to do something.”
Even as he looks forward to retirement, his legacy at Lisle High School is clear. Louis hopes to be remembered as someone students could always depend on.
“Just as someone that they could come to, you know,” he said, “and also someone that made them feel safe and able to be at school and not be concerned about their safety at all.”
As his time at Lisle winds down, Louis says it’s the people who will be hardest to leave behind.
“Yeah, it’s hard anytime you see somebody every day, and then you don’t see them anymore,” he said. “I see you guys more than I see my own kids… It’s definitely something that I will miss.”
For the students and staff who’ve come to know him, it’s clear the feeling is mutual.
