By Quentin Calhoun

Whether in the mornings or afternoons, during the weekdays or during a weekend football game, at least one Henrico County police officer almost always patrols Collegiate’s campus, and Corporal Alexander Danilovich is a member of that team.

Growing up in Buffalo, New York, Danilovich had a lifelong desire to go into law enforcement. In college, he received an Associate’s Degree in criminal justice. Ultimately, he credited many of his professors, including many retired law enforcement officers, with telling him to keep going. He received a bachelor’s degree from Buffalo State College before beginning work in Henrico County 17 years ago.

For the majority of his time in Virginia, Danilovich primarily worked as a patrol officer, but he currently works as a School Resource Officer (SRO) in middle and elementary schools. As a middle school SRO, the problems he encounters at other schools range from students skipping class, to families in crisis, to drug dealing on school campuses. 

Normally, Collegiate contracts private security officers to work 24/7 at both our Mooreland and Robins campuses, and Henrico police officers like Danilovich patrol Collegiate’s campus during the regular school day as well.

In addition to patrolling Collegiate, Danilovich often works at several other schools, including The Stewart School and different locations in the Henrico Public School System. “I got a lot of jobs,” says Danilovich. 

Danilovich says that working at Collegiate is a “fairly easy job.” The most prominent challenge remains coordinating student and parent traffic, as Collegiate lacks a busing system like the public schools.

At Collegiate, Danilovich and other Henrico police officers aid in the mornings, directing traffic efficiently and safely getting people in and out of campus. During regular class periods, the officers patrol the campus and occasionally speak with students in presentations or meetings. 

In one of his more significant responsibilities, Danilovich trains teachers and other faculty at schools around Henrico to respond in the case of a violent, armed, or even an active shooter scenario. He laments that a violent shooting “happens once a week somewhere, [but] hopefully, that day will never come” to Collegiate.

Danilovich has noted a change in the role of Collegiate’s officers over his fifteen years on campus. He says it felt much smaller when he started, and his role evolved quickly. 

After the tragic Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut in 2012, Collegiate began to contract at least one Henrico Police officer to patrol the campus during the entire school day. Prior to this change, officers like Danilovich usually just directed traffic in the mornings and afternoons and attended school events. In 2016, former Head of School Steve Hickman amended this policy to contracting two officers to patrol Collegiate during all regular school hours. In addition, doors to Collegiate’s Lower School buildings remain locked at all times, as students move with teachers who use authorized fingerprints to unlock doors. 

Since he first started working on Collegiate’s campus in 2005, Danilovich notes that Collegiate’s security team has instituted new changes and protocols. He feels that today, those around campus are better trained and more experienced. Danilovich says of Collegiate’s security, “They have to go through certain school; they have to know certain policies, procedures, and training before they even step foot on campus.” 

His greatest concern, not only for Collegiate but for most other schools, is a mentality that a school shooting is “not going to happen here.” Nevertheless, he feels Collegiate is instituting the right improvements and protocols. 

Danilovich credits Collegiate’s Head of Security, James Bandy, with improving Collegiate’s security protocols, even in his short time with Collegiate. “He’s at the top of his game; he’s improving the school,” says Danilovich. 

Danilovich recognizes a disconnect between what he imagined law enforcement would be like when he was five or six years old, and what it is today. Still, he states that he still finds the excitement in the job that he thought he would find as a kid. 

He doesn’t think his five-year-old self would have expected all of what his job would entail. He has dealt with events like hostage situations, and Danilovich once nearly had to deliver a child, but he says, “thank God the fire department showed up and saved me.” 

He admits he often enjoys his more stressful jobs when having to think several steps ahead in split-second decisions, whether he faces a bomb threat or an armed individual. The work, he says, is exciting because “it’s preparation for the unknown.”

Still, he says he enjoys most when kids come by and speak with him, whether that’s during an official school event or with one of the younger Lower School students whom he walks across the street. Every time he works at Collegiate, he walks a young student, also named Alex, across the street while holding his hand. Danilovich says, “he’s my friend, and he helps my day go faster.” Danilovich asserts that trying to build a community with the kids, even with just a high-five, is an essential part of his job as an officer.

From his experiences as a police officer, he remembers one young woman, from many years ago, whom he helped while she dealt with depression and suicidal thoughts. He then saw her again on the street over a year later. He didn’t remember her, but she recognized him as the person who saved her life.

“In my mind, I was just doing my job; in her mind, I went above and beyond.” 

“Everything I dream of being when I was a kid, some of its there, some of it I didn’t expect,” Danilovich maintains, “But I think, overall, it’s there and more.”