One of Southlake’s own won the National Award of Valor from the National Association of School Resource Officers last week.
Every year, the NASRO hosts a school safety conference recognizing some of the most dedicated school resource officers in the nation. This year, Dawson Middle School resource officer Anthony Pate won the National Award of Valor for responding to a call at Carroll Middle School earlier this year.
“In January of 2021, officer Pate demonstrated brave and immensely controlled communication and tactical skills during a call for service where he disarmed a mentally disturbed subject… within 500 feet of students and staff arriving at Carroll Middle School,” the association says in a news release. “Because of his actions, a very dangerous and stressful situation was peacefully resolved.”
Valor awards are given to school resource officers or staff members for a single act of courage that goes above and beyond what is expected of them, according to the release. Anthony was previously awarded Officer of the Year by the Southlake Police Department and was also nominated for the Carroll ISD Distinguished Service Award in 2019.
“Officer Pate is an example of what our SRO program represents,” Southlake Police Chief James Brandon says in MySouthlakeNews.com. “He put himself in danger while coordinating resources to help someone in crisis and keep our students safe.”