Brickham ‘graduation’ brings Nunez to new role as Wildcat Nation SRO

School Resource Officer Heather Brickham recently graduated from her position as West’s guardian angel after four years on the job. 

Brickham came to West with the added burden of filling the shoes of former Officer Mike Wissink, who retired after sustaining injuries protecting students from an attempted school shooting. However, all good things must come to an end as Brickham will move on to new opportunities.

“I’m leaving because I accepted a promotion for the detective position at the Oshkosh Police Department, so that’s what I’ll be doing,” she said. “I’ll still be staying in Oshkosh, just working different types of cases.”

Although Brickham has bright things ahead careerwise, she notes that her departure is rather bittersweet.

“The hardest part of my job so far, obviously, has been saying goodbye to the people who I’ve seen every single day here at West,” she said.

West Principal Lewis Malczewski finds that school resource officers play a pivotal role in running the school in a safe and orderly fashion.

“The main job is the safety and security of our building,” he said. “They work very closely with the administration and staff to maintain our safety and security if all of our existence and safety drills -- that and building relationships with people. Those two things go hand-in-hand, and they’re very much a part of what their job is.”

The work of school resource officers oftentimes goes unseen, but the impact that Brickham made was widespread. Brickham’s time serving as West’s school resource officer was not only gratifying, but also built lasting relationships.

“I think the most rewarding part of being an SRO has been building relationships with both the students and staff,” she said. “I started with many of the freshmen so seeing the then freshmen as now seniors has been super cool.”

Brickham’s passion for helping people has helped her guide students through oftentimes challenging moments in high school.

“I absolutely love working with teens and just trying to be a mentor,” she said. “Also I try to lead by example by reassuring the students I work with like ‘Hey, you’re going to make mistakes. We’ll learn from this. We’ll work through it.’”

Taking on the job as both a mentor and school resource officer posed its own challenges.

“On a daily basis I would say the hardest part is always having more work to do and always wanting to help more people, but physically not being able to do as much as I would like to because I’m just one person,” Brickham said.

Brickham’s work has proven time-consuming, but also worthwhile. Throughout the years, she has become a familiar and friendly face among the students of West, like senior Avery Pakula.

“Officer Brickham has always been a friendly face here at school,” she said. “I’ve never needed her, but in the hallways she’s always smiling, which makes her seem very approachable.” 

Brickham’s approachable demeanor has helped students become more acquainted with her.

“I can’t quite quantify my impact necessarily,” she said. “I would say that over the years just getting to know more and more students and having more students recognize me, and then feeling that we can talk to each other.” 

Although Brickham herself may not have been completely able to assess the value of her work, the effects are widely felt between both students and staff. Even during Malczewski’s short time working as principal, he has seen her influence.

“She was able to establish relationships and ensure there was follow through with whatever was going on in the building and out in the community,” he said. “She was able to build the bridge between home and school for many people. That, and she brought a really good sense of humor and fun to the main office area that helped us when we were struggling some days and when things were hard.”

Malczewski observes that Brickham’s ability to ease a tense situation has become an imperative skill when managing conversations with students and their families.

“I think with a lot of the relationships she built with students, people really respect her. I think staff and students, though probably more students, respect her and feel like it’s someone they can go to if they have problems.” he said. “At times she was the only person in the office who students would talk to, so that was always neat to see, because sometimes you have those one or two students that you build a really strong relationship with and get to spend a lot of time with them.” 

Brickham’s presence has been found extremely useful among every nook and cranny of the building. 

“She was very instrumental as a part of our administrative team and worked with her on lots of different pieces that we started the year off with, like our safety drills with students and staff,” Malczewski said. “She really reached out an olive branch to welcome me to the building and to the school.”

Brickham’s departure is bittersweet, with both good and bad things ahead for her future.

“She’s going to be missed. She did a lot here in her time that she worked here, but we wish her well because she’s continuing to pursue her career,” Malczewski said. “Becoming a detective was a goal of hers and she was able to reach that goal, so it was bittersweet to see her go, but we know that she’ll be back. She’s not going to leave us for good, and will continue to show up, so it’s not the end.”

Brickham intends on staying active and present within the Oshkosh community.

“I guess I just hope that I’ll continue to be able to help people, and that if I see any of you guys in the community that you’ll remember me and aren’t afraid to say ‘hi!’,” she said. 

Brickhams departure, of course, necessitates the arrival of a new school resource officer. Officer Angel Nunez was recently hired to step into this position.

“I’ve been adjusting pretty well. There is a lot to learn and a lot of faces to learn. Working with the admin team that we have here has been a lot but they’ve been extremely helpful,” Nunez said. “All the students have been working really, really well with me and sort of guiding me along.”

Starting at a new school with his first time working as a school resource officer has painted its own challenges for Nunez. 

“Biggest challenge so far has been remembering everybody’s names. That is very difficult for me,” he said. “Before, when I was on police patrol, I didn’t have to remember everyone’s name. I would just write their name down, and I would see them every once in a while. Here, I have to remember their first name, who their friends are, talk to some of their parents maybe, so the names are very challenging for me, but otherwise I am doing pretty well.”

Nunez has been able to overcome these struggles by consistently committing time to spend with students around the school.

“My favorite part of this job is the interactions I get to have with the kids in the hallways,” he said. “People giving me nods and looks, handshakes, people tell me that their grades are good. I’ve gotten a few letters from a few students, and they tell me that I’m doing a good job, and it’s very rewarding for me and my side of it, so that’s the best part of the job.” 

Continuing to reach out to students has helped Nunez connect with more students.

“I’ve been spending my downtime, instead of writing reports and doing investigative work, I’ve actually been meeting with students talking to them, seeing how they’re doing, seeing how their grades are doing, pushing them to do better both inside of school and outside,” he said. “Honestly, it has been very rewarding for me. Of course, it’s been challenging, very tough. I do enjoy it everyday.”

However, balancing both student relationships and school resource officer responsibilities haven’t been a complete cakewalk.

“My job has been very, very busy. Keeping the school safe is obviously my number one priority. I want to build relationships with my students, which is super important to me.”

Nunez’s success on the job has already translated into forming positive relationships within the student and staff body.

“Officer Nunez is a solid man who has a lot of great ideas,” Malczewski said. “I think that he would bring new ideas to the building to help students and staff. He definitely works hard to make sure that our building is safe and, again, they work hard to build those relationships with everybody.” 

  Nunez has been able to give a new perspective to the West administrative staff.

“I think that Officer Nunez is just as approachable and probably has different ideas and ways of doing things, but definitely gets through and gets the work done just like Officer Brickham did,” Malczewski said.

Nunez comes from a family of similar lines of work, which helped make this job a natural fit for him. 

“Policing in general, my family has always been in some form of first responder role, whether that has been in the military, EMS, paramedics, or the police force,” he said. “So, I just felt that this was something that I was meant to do, something my family has always done, and it was very important to me.”

His experiences with school resource officers shaped his passion for the job he has right now. 

“I wanted to be a school resource officer partly because of my school resource officer from when I was in high school. I’m actually still close friends with him to this day,” he said. “He is in his 16th year of being a school resource officer. He is an awesome guy, and I really do enjoy him. We’re great friends, and he has pushed me and kind of guided me along to who I am today.”

by Zosia Bowlus-Jasinski

Published April 1st 2024

Oshkosh West Index Volume 120 Issue VI