Westside High School Hires Returning Security Officer

Anavela Santos, Wired Staff Writer|December 18, 2019

Allan+Ienn+is+a+new+security+officer+at+Westside+High+School%2C+returning+years+after+he+worked+in+the+building+for+nine+years.

Anavela Santos

Allan Ienn is a new security officer at Westside High School, returning years after he worked in the building for nine years.

Westside High School recently added a new security officer, Allan Ienn, to join School Resource Officer Jeff Kilgore to assist in keeping the school environment safe. Ienn is a retired police officer, having been on duty for 20 years and a school resource officer at Westside for nine years. Ienn said he is happy to be back in the community.

“I was a school resource office for nine years,” Ienn said. “I’m happy to be at such a great school with a good environment again. I missed it.” 

Ienn said he moved back to Omaha to help take care of his mother.

“I was living in Arizona two months ago but my mom wasn’t doing too well so I moved back home,” Ienn said.

Ienn said he does not want students to be intimidated by him and his title of security officer; he wants to have a friendly relationship with students and appear welcoming.

“[I hope for] some good relationships with students,” Ienn said. “Hopefully they’ll come up and talk to me. I’m not the bouncer unless I need to be; let’s make it a friendly thing.” 

According to Ienn, his first few weeks at Westside have been great. 

“This is my second week at Westside,” Ienn said. “It’s going well. So far students have been acceptive and the staff have been great.” 

Assistant Principal Tola Dada said he was thrilled Ienn returned to Westside.

“[I’m] really thrilled with [Ienn’s] experience,” Dada said. “He’s really big on beginning with kids and building good relationships with [them].” 

Dada said administration’s main goal is always to create a positive environment, and an extra security officer helps them do just that. 

“[Ienn] helps make sure that our building [is] a safe place,” Dada said. “We [need to] maintain order in our building.” 

Dada said he is very thankful that the district allowed them to hire another resource officer to ensure order in the hallways. 

“Any building would take all the help they could get,” Dada said. “We are so fortunate to have five hallway supervisors [here] and now the district has allowed us to hire another person. It’s not like this can happen in every district.”