“I believe I am placed here for a reason,” said the Lakota Local School District School Resource Officer, who has saved three lives in critical situations during his career.
Green used the Heimlich maneuver training to help an eighth-grade student a Liberty Junior School. The boy, whom Green knew from coaching track, stepped off the bus clasping his throat with both hands.
“He couldn’t talk or anything,” Green said. “But it was obvious he was in trouble.”
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Green said after about three or four thrusts, a piece of gum was dislodged from the boy’s throat.
“He started breathing alright right away,” Green said.
The 20-year department veteran has had many duties in has career, but he said his school resource officer assignment is his favorite.
“I can see that I am making a difference in their lives,” he said.
When not securing the building, keeping watch at bus time and talking with students in that halls and lunchtime, Green coaches track and basketball. The Hamilton High School graduate, who lives in Fairfield, says he has always been active in sports and uses it as another way to mentor and reach out to students.
“I hear a lot of stuff,” he said with a laugh. “That is good. They feel comfortable talking to me. I can help mediate, find a constructive solution.”
Green was named deputy of the year three years ago for his efforts in pulling a truck driver from a burning semi.
He was working his summer assignment with the warrant division on June 18, 2015 and was en route to pick up a prisoner in Montgomery County when a massive crash happened. A tractor-trailer swerved on Interstate 75 near Moraine, causing a crash with two cars and a pole. When the truck came to a stop, it caught fire.
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“The driver was out of it … his pants caught fire and I had to get him out,” Green said, noting others helped pull the man away from the fire. “We had to drag him away from the truck. He was a big guy.”
Green said he ran to the truck after the drivers of the other vehicles indicated they weren’t seriously injured.
“I was just in the right place at the right time,” Green said.
Early in his career, Green said he was working an accident on an icy day. A woman was in a wrecked car on Princeton Road, and a responding emergency squad slid on the ice and slammed into the woman’s vehicle, just seconds after Green pulled her to safety.
“I heard the squad coming and I could see it.” Green said. “She was all shook up. I told her, ‘Ma’am, you are going to have to get out of the car.’ I told her again, then just grabbed her.”
Green said he takes the training he receives on the job seriously.
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“I want to be prepared,” he said “Staying calm and doing what you have been trained to do is key.”
He is known in the department for being soft-spoken and even-tempered, said Sgt. Kim Peters. Jones described Green as an “active, well-trained deputy.”
Jones said it is almost unbelievable how many times Green has been hero in his career.
“I think God puts him there,” Jones said.
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