ATHOL — The Athol-Royalston Regional School District has a new school resource officer.
Officer Thomas Cummings of the Athol Police Department will patrol the Athol schools and serve as community liaison with Athol’s youth. He takes over for Det. Douglas Kaczmarczyk, who was recently promoted.
Kaczmarczyk will serve out the current school year, and Cummings will take over in September.
He will patrol the schools full time, Monday through Friday during school hours. On occasion, when needed in certain instances, he will be pulled for other duties.
Cummings has been a resident of Athol his entire life. He attended Athol public schools from kindergarten through high school. He attended Castleton University in Vermont and received a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, with a minor in sociology. He was also a four-year college athlete as a pitcher in baseball.
Cummings returned home to Athol and joined the Athol Police Department as a dispatcher in 2007. He was hired as a full-time police officer in 2011. He attended the Boylston Police Academy and graduated as part of the 19th Municipal Police Officers Class.
Cummings said he is the first in his immediate family to go into police work, although his great-grandfather Franklin Caldwell did serve as a special police officer in Athol.
Cummings lives in Athol, where he continues to raise his two elementary school-aged children with his wife Emily Cummings.