Berkeley Leader

Berkeley County Middle College High School issued the following announcement on February 14.

Walking into Cayce Giddens’s classroom, it is obvious that Officer William Traynor has a way with children.

Traynor, armed with a bag full of printed pieces of paper, is greeted with big smiles and cries of “OT!” (“Officer Traynor”) as he makes his way to a work table on the other side of the room to set up shop. Giddens works in special services at Westview Middle, where Traynor serves as an SRO, and her students love it when Traynor comes to visit.

Traynor is joined by three of Giddens’s students who are about to use a bin full of lego-like manipulatives as part of a math lesson. As the students work, Traynor keeps them company by getting to work on some origami creations – and even after he is done making a little frog (it can even “hop”), he will help students with their work.

“OT” is just one of a couple of nicknames for Traynor at Westview Middle; he is also known as the “origami cop” because he can awe students with his origami art. He can make jets, frogs, turtles, swans and boats, among other figurines.

Traynor likes to say he has 1,033 children – and he will gladly tell any parent that he thinks of Westview Middle’s children as his own. His goal as the school resource officer is to make an impact on students during their formative years and keep them on track for success, even after they have graduated from middle school.

“I would like them to think that I was a good role model, that I was approachable,” he said.

Traynor has served more than 22 years in law enforcement, working at a few different local agencies, in different roles, during that time. Traynor started off with the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office but has been an officer with the Goose Creek Police Department for the past two years.

When he first started his career, SROs were not well known positions yet. Traynor said he was intrigued by the opportunity to work with students and teachers, adding that his father was a science teacher as well.

Traynor gets to interact with Westview Middle’s students a lot – and he loves it.

“They give me energy,” he said. “When they’re happy, it just makes me happy and energetic.”

A majority of Traynor’s career in law enforcement has been spent as a school resource officer. He has served at several BCSD schools, including College Park Middle, Goose Creek High, Sedgefield Middle (some of them he has been to and from and back again), and now he is at Westview Middle. 

“Once you become an SRO it kind of gets into your blood, and you can get out of it, but it’s always kind of there and you want to get back into it,” he said.

Traynor said he learned early in his career, while working the roads, that by adulthood people have usually made up their mind about what kind of person they want to be – whether it is a good guy or a bad guy. By serving as an SRO, he has a chance to help students and steer them in the right direction when they are still at that “teetering point.”

“It takes a lot of work but once you’ve earned their trust, you got ‘em,” he said.

Traynor grew up a product of Berkeley County School District – he graduated from Goose Creek High in 1995. He also attended Sedgefield Middle, where he picked up the origami skills he now shares with Westview Middle.

Traynor recalled when he was in middle schooler he learned he was dyslexic, and attributed the school’s special services teachers with helping him get back into general education classes, which is why he has a soft spot for Westview Middle’s special services program.

While he strives to be a role model for all of Westview Middle’s students, he particularly wants to leave a positive impact on students with special needs.

“I want them to know that they have somebody that they can talk to and they can trust,” he said.

Traynor said he has enjoyed all the schools he has worked at, but what he likes about Westview Middle is that he has even more opportunities to work one-on-one with the students. It is not uncommon to find Traynor outside throwing a ball around with students during recess. He will chat with students and play a game of checkers or chess with them. He will pop into an art class and do an art activity, or join in on a science lab experiment.

“It’s a little bit of a smaller school, so there’s more time for me to engage with the students,” he said.

Outside of Westview Middle, Traynor’s hobbies include fishing – his favorite place to fish is off-shore on Folly Beach – and hanging out with friends. He is a big Ohio State fan. In addition to working at Westview Middle, he helps with the police cadet program that is held at Stratford High.

He likes working in the schools and said he plans to keep doing what he is doing.

“It’s an awesome school,” he said. “They (the staff) welcome me and we get along great.”

Monica Kreber

kreberm@bcsdschools.net

Original source can be found here.