Students are constantly being watched by the staff at school: in the halls, at lunch and even in the parking lot. If a car doesn’t have a parking pass, it gets a ticket. If a student is skipping, they get sent back to class. While the teachers teach and the food service workers serve lunch, the walking counselors monitor the student body for misconduct. According to counselors Willie Parks, Hulas King and Johnnie Parker, they do much more than the obvious.

The KSD job description document says a walking counselor’s primary duty is to maintain campus security and mediate situations between students, as well as step in as substitute teachers. There are currently five walking counselors at KHS, one counselor for every 360 students. Most of them also coach sports or oversee study focus classes, like King, walking counselor and boys football and girls basketball coach.

“Most of what I do here is making sure kids get to class,” King said. “A lot of people see the walking counselors as just the guys with walkies, but we’re so much more than that.” Our job is really to keep the flow of the school, [and] make sure the students are able to learn and the staff are able to do their job without worrying about all the stuff that we take care of.”

Coach Johnnie Parker said that being a walking counselor is a unique job. Some of what is required for it are organizational skills, multitasking and the ability to read and diffuse social situations.

“After college, I worked for the Department of Youth Services, so I have a good background working with kids,” Parker said. :I worked in transportation, usually for kids with trouble at home, so I tried to be their liaison and help them grow. That’s really why I got into this job, to uplift and share my experiences with the next generation. “

Parks said that a walking counselor can see a student grow as a person, from their first days of high school to their last days as a senior. He has been in his position for 13 years and has seen countless students come and go over his career.

“My favorite part of the job is seeing the kids that I connect with do well,” Parks said. “Sometimes students get a little lost. I try to redirect them [and] push them in the right direction so that they can have a good high school career.”