By Mark Varenhorst, MCP Contributing Writer
LUDINGTON — To date, this series has featured the five deputies from the Mason County Sheriff’s Office who serve as school resource officers. Today, we will feature Ludington Police Officer Conor Gallihugh who serves as the school resource officer for Ludington High School and OJ DeJonge Middle School.
Finishing this series with a feature on the Ludington Police Department school resource officer is rather fitting since LPD began the SRO program.
On Nov. 20, Officer Gallihugh met me at LHS and we spent the next hour walking through the halls of the high school and middle school. After a bit we then sat in his office so I could rattle off questions and learn anything more I could that I had not picked from him as we walked about. Gallihugh’s comments were much like each of the other SROs I had spoken with, they all call the kids at their schools “their” kids.
Conor Gallihugh was born in Marshal and graduated from Marshal High School in 2009. He earned an associate degree in criminal justice from Kellogg Community College in Battle Creek, and then completed the police academy there. In 2021 he took a position with the Ludington Police Department (LPD) and is now in his third year as SRO. Gallihugh has been through the following training:
ALICE – Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate
NASRO – National Association of School Resource Officers
SRO Basic and Advanced
School Safety Academy
Forensic Interviewing
Having not been in LHS since it had been rebuilt, I was somewhat lost as we went down different corridors. Some I actually remembered from my high school days. Standing in one hallway I remembered, mechanical drawing when I took it had been right there, but now long changed.
Gallihugh remarked as we walked “I have an open-door policy with the kids here. I like them to be able to come and talk to me anytime”.
As we wandered the halls, I came to a door with a teachers name by it, and the teacher was inside. Mr. Killips. I stepped in and after finding out who his dad was, I said, “I went to school with your dad”. I had gone to LHS with his dad that is why I knew the name. We wandered through other parts of the school with students slowing to wave or smile at Gallihugh. They seemed quite comfortable. I found that he is an assistant coach on the JV baseball team.
“They call me Coach Cop. I would/t have gotten that opportunity to coach had it not been for being an SRO here”. He was obviously pleased with being able to be with the team.
As we wandered along through OJ DeJong a couple kids passed us and we were discussing how after graduating his family moved west but he stayed in Michigan, and then ended up in Ludington. Mentioning his personal life and kids he said “well I have no kids of my own yet, these are my kids” as he pointed to ones walking away. That is something I have found that all the SRO’s have in common. They adopt the kids at their schools as theirs and they watch over them and help them as they can.
Gallihugh also coaches the E-sports team for his schools. Having never been big enough for sports I would have fit well on his E-sports team. Most of the guys I hung with in high school would not have been on the teams we were more the nerds. Every school needs them you know. Nerds rule!
Gallihugh talked to me about the Shop with a Cop/Shop with a Hero program and discussed organizing the pie auction held on Facebook that supports it.
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