Triton SRO Dave Skadson  is 2026 juvenile officer award winner

Photo courtesy of the Dodge County Sheriff Office
Deputy Dave Skadson (left) was awarded the 2026 Outstanding Juvenile Officer of the Year award from the Minnesota Juvenile Officers Association. He poses with Kasson Police Department School Resource Officer Zach Kasper, who nominated Skadson for the award.

When fellow officers told Triton school resource officer (SRO) Dave Skadson that he had won the 2026 Outstanding Juvenile Officer of the Year award from the Minnesota Juvenile Officers Association, he didn’t believe them.
Even when Kasson Police Department School Resource Officer Zach Kasper told Skadson that he was the one that had nominated Skadson for the award, “even after that I was like is this for real?” said Skadson.
For 16 of the last 24 years, Skadson has been an SRO in the Dodge County area, starting as a part-time officer at Kasson Police Department in 2002.
As a patrol officer, Skadson carried a baseball glove and football in his car and would get out to play with neighborhood kids. For Skadson, the practice was one of relationship building that “beats sitting in your car all the time.”
He credits the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) Program for putting him on the path of becoming an SRO. Skadson took the two-week training in the winter of 2005, which he calls the “most intense class I’ve been in.”
On the last day of the program, officers are required to go into a school and help teach a DARE lesson. Skadson, who by then had been a police officer for four years, was intimidated. To break the ice, he started with a joke, a tactic that he still stands by.
“If you can make the kids laugh, you are right at ease.”
In August of 2025 Skadson became president of the Minnesota DARE Association and credits the DARE program for evolving past simply anti-drug messaging to include lessons on decision-making, utilizing support systems and stress management.
The goal of these additional lessons is to provide students “something they can use in their daily life,” said Skadson.
The award “makes you look back at your career,” said Skadson. In the nearly two decades he has been an SRO, the biggest change has been the growth of social media. When Skadson began in 2002, Myspace ruled the social media scene and TikTok was unfathomable.
“That’s one of the biggest ways it’s changed: kids’ interests are more digital,” he said.
Despite now only working in a single school district rather than the three he began in, SROs are busier than ever due to more students coming forward to speak out about issues within their schools.
“It’s a positive thing, in my mind,” said Skadson.
Beyond social media, one of the biggest issues Skadson faces in schools today is vaping, which he says has outdone the damages of cigarettes and chewing tobacco to students in decades past.
“Vapes have become much bigger things in schools,” said Skadson.
When asked what qualities make a good SRO, Skadson answered good relationship building and being approachable, not just to students, but to staff and parents. Despite the award and his years of experience, Skadson is quick to admit that he is not an authority figure on SROs.
For him, working with students and showcasing that schools are a safe space is still the focus. “Being able to show that is a privilege,” said Skadson.