Mr. Jason Richards is the new Catholic Central Safety Manager. We wanted to know more about him and what he did before coming to Catholic Central. We asked him a few questions about himself and what he likes about the school. And you won’t believe how many pets he has!

Before coming to Catholic Central, Mr. Richards had a long career as a police officer. He said, “I spent 25 years in the Kent county sheriff’s office, worked as a deputy and retired as a captain.” Although Mr. Richards had a long career with Kent County, that didn’t stop him from what he loved to do. He said,” I retired from what I was doing, but I still wanted to work in a community and wanted to give back and found out this was a good way to do it.” 

He said that a typical day at work involves him ”providing the safety and security for students and staff, and physical security for the building.”

In 2023- 2024 the students had lanyards that the school provided for safety. This year, we became aware that we no longer had to use them. Some students thought Mr. Richards was the reason we don’t have lanyards anymore since this is his first year. He said, ” No, they were gone before I came here.” 

With a new security guard in the building, we wanted to know if there were going to be new changes or rules for security reasons than last year. “We are going to evaluate where we are now with security of the building and drills. Once done we are going to decide if changes need to be made,” said Mr. Richards.

Mr. Richards said he was impressed with the Catholic Central student body: “I love how you guys are creative, work together, and get along so well. I’ve been working here for a little while, but I see it at the football games and when I walk around the hallways”.

A former police officer now walks our halls each day. It may sound intimidating ,but you’ll never guess how many pets new security officer Mr. Jason Richards has. He said, “I have a black lab named Walt, yellow lab named Blake, Great Dane named Hank, two retired police horses Hugo and gat speed and six or seven barn cats.” We would’ve never guessed he had TWO retired police horses. 

Since Mr. Richards has so many pets including dogs and cats, we wanted to know if he prefers dogs or cats. He said, “I prefer dogs inside and cats outside.”