• Bassett serves students in all buildings throughout the district
Deputy Corey Bassett with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department, is currently serving Lincoln County School District No. 2 as the district School Resource Officer. Corey’s assignment typically takes him into each school in the district at least once a week, but his district home is Star Valley High School, where his office door is open to counsel, teach and mentor students as well as keep them safe.
Raised in Star Valley, Corey is the son of Alan and Denise Bassett. The only time he has spent away from the Valley was in Washington DC, serving a mission for his faith, then earning his degree in Criminal Justice from Western Wyoming Community College in Rock Springs, and training with the Wyoming Police Academy in Douglas.
“I started in 2005 with the Sheriff’s Office and that’s been my whole career as a deputy,” Corey told SVI Media. “I’ve been the SRO for two and a half years now. This is a rotating position where you spend three or four years and then rotate out. I’ll be the fourth one since 2006 or 2007.”
Corey enjoys his time in the schools. “It’s a little change of pace from being on the road. A lot of the stuff on the road isn’t the most pleasant. Here in the school, I interact with the kids and I’m playing a role in their upbringing. I find myself serving as a teacher, a counselor, a law enforcement officer, and it’s all rolled together. I take pleasure in my association with these kids and the staff, too.”
Building relationships with the students and staff is “joyful.” Of course, there are times when difficult and unpleasant things occur with the students, but Corey works to turn those experiences into teaching moments for the students as they learn about safe and wise social choices and governing their behavior. “I’m making a real difference in these kids’ lives.” Students in the secondary schools interact with him as a they pass between classes, and elementary students run to him in the halls with admiration in their eyes and excitement in their voices. “It cheers me up.”
Corey is involved with school safety presentations and drills that prepare staff and students for emergencies. His primary purpose is school safety, making every effort to ensure that students and staff stay safe. He is on campus for activities and games after school hours. “There are other things that come up that they might request that I help with.”
“There’s certain unpleasant things that occur in every profession,” Corey said. “Being in law enforcement, I see people make bad choices and bad decisions at times and that happens in the schools, but that’s to be expected. Kids are learning and growing. No deputy or law enforcement officer enjoys it when a kid makes a bad choice that we have to investigate, but, we’re just trying to educate as we go. That’s the good thing about working with students. I get to educate them along the lines of making good choices. I try to treat them with respect and they see that. For the most part, I think the kids know where I’m coming from. I hope the parents do, too.
“Those who recognize me outside of my work, the students who go out of the way to say ‘Hi’ and talk to me out in public, and feel comfortable doing so, those are the things that help me feel I am making a difference – when they come up and talk to me and interact like we are good friends. It feels like I am accomplishing what I am trying to. I am very blessed with the time I have here. We are in a very good community that supports law enforcement.
“My door is always open, and the kids here know that I’m here if they want to talk about something, whatever it may be,” Corey said. “I enjoy the kids and our interaction. I have good relationships with staff throughout the schools. I feel blessed where I am at, and that I get to see kids grow. My time here has uplifted me. I see more positive in the community than negative. In my years of law enforcement, this is definitely a positive experience being an SRO.”
