Aw, Ducks. School Resource Officer Goes Above & Beyond To Brighten Students’ Days

At some point in the past couple of months, my children started occasionally coming home thrilled to show me the small resin ducks they had found at school. Of course, similar to the usually one word answer to my daily question, “How was school today,” my inquiries about the duck hunt excitement were met with little-to-no further context, other than a few quick lines, “Officer Chris hides them,” “Officer Chris is really nice,” and other small verbal glimpses into this apparently treasured part of their day. As I began to hunt for more information about the duck hunt from my busy elementary age children, I started to realize that Officer Chris Coplan, the School Resource Officer for Brackett ISD, has truly endeared himself to the students through this unofficial, ongoing game. We certainly appreciate all the teachers, staff, and administrators at our wonderful school district, and it’s always nice to know there’s an extra watchful eye on the students as they go through their day. …And as Chris says, “it’s fun watching how excited the kids get when they find ducks.” Officer Coplan says there is no prize for finding the ducks, but perhaps the conversation starter and friendships made from the duck hunt is more of a prize than the ducks themselves. Thanks, Officer Chris!


AM: What do you enjoy most about your job?

Officer Coplan:
What I enjoy most about my job is having lunch with the kids. I’m able to have lunch with them most days and I do my best to “blend in”. I sit at their tables and try to have actual conversations with them. Something I’ve realized in this job is when you sit down with kids (particularly elementary aged kids) and look in their eyes and actually talk to them, well they eat it up.  They can tell if you're feigning interest. So to actually sit down with them and take genuine interest in the conversation, well… It seems like they are starving for that kind of attention from adults.  Kids are way smarter than we give them credit for.

AM: Tell me about the Duck Hunt… 

Officer Coplan:
The Duck Hunt….  The duck hunt is something fun that I just thought of one day. I give the kids small gifts all the time. Bouncy balls, erasers, temporary tattoos, stickers, etc. but giving small gifts was becoming boring and something the kids just expected.  One day I thought it would be fun to hide small toys around the school.  There isn’t much more to it than that. No prizes for the most ducks found or anything of that nature. When I do my door checks around the school I just put them in conspicuous places.  I put them on railings, on locker handles, on coat racks etc. I told the kids they will always be able to see them. I don’t put them under things or anything like that. They will almost always be in plain view.  So far I’ve only placed them in the elementary side but some of the HS girls said they’d like to find them too. 

AM: Why ducks?

Officer Coplan:
There isn’t any particular reason I chose ducks. I searched for “small plastic animals” in Amazon and I found these little resin ducks. I think I paid 10-12 bucks for 200 of them. I also bought some glow in the dark resin skulls for Halloween and started hiding them. I was thinking I’d buy a few seasonal figures just so things don’t get boring. 

AM: What motivates you? 

Officer Coplan:
As far as motivation goes, I guess that I just really love kids. They always make me laugh and I like doing nice things for them. I believe in my heart that I’ve made friends with these kids that in many cases will last a lifetime. I never had children of my own so maybe a small part of me feels like the kids at our school are partly mine. I enjoy being around them and in many cases my relationship with the kids have turned into friendships with their parents. 

About Chris Coplan:
My name is Chris Coplan and I’m 48 years old on December 20th. I’m single, no kids and have been a Texas Peace Officer for over 21 years. I started my career with the Val Verde County Sheriff’s Office on January 31, 2003. I worked as a Patrolman from 2003 to 2008. In 2008 I became the Training Coordinator for VVSO and instructed the Basic Peace Officer Academy. I had a 100% pass rate, something I am very proud of. In 2009 I started working for Kinney County Sheriff’s Office as a Highway Interdiction Officer and kept that position until 2017. In the summer of 2017 I once again became a patrolman for Kinney County Sheriff’s Office. I worked Patrol for 5 years and in 2022 I transferred to the position I hold now.  I used to say being the training coordinator for VVSO was the most rewarding job in my career. Now I say it’s the 2nd most rewarding job. The School Resource Officer position I have now is the most rewarding by a large margin. If I had known how much I’d enjoy it, well… I wouldn’t have waited so long to make the move.