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Blantz is the uniformed Manheim Township police officer who began working his new beat as school resource officer Sept. 21.
In the short period he's been at the school, Blantz has helped break up fights, defused potential conflicts and made a couple of arrests, but his presence has had a more subtle effect, students say.
"I've never not felt safe at school, but now that I know there's always going to be someone here who's always looking out for us, and he's always just a short call away … I feel safer," Erin said.
Manheim Township joins several other Lancaster County high schools, including Ephrata, Penn Manor, Hempfield, Conestoga Valley and McCaskey, with full-time SROs.
Under a two-year agreement, Manheim Township School District is paying 75 percent of Blantz' salary and benefits — totaling about $80,000 — and the township is paying the remainder.
In the summer, Blantz will patrol township streets.
A 20-year department veteran who has worked all sections of the township, Blantz is a longtime volunteer softball, basketball and soccer coach.
The opportunity to work with children in a school setting and the regular hours of the SRO job appealed to him, Blantz said.
"I love working with kids. I'm getting the message out that the kids can come to me and not have to go to the police department. They can pick my brain, and I'll pick theirs," he said.
"My door's always open."
Blantz' office, dubbed "the fishbowl," is a glassed-in cubicle just outside the cafeteria where he can watch the comings and goings of students.
But Blantz usually is on the move, walking the myriad halls of the sprawling high school, talking with students and staff at every opportunity.
"Let's just say I'm getting my fair share of exercise," he joked of his daily workout.
Blantz also plans to patrol school parking lots on his police bike.
Once he gets better acclimated to his surroundings, Blantz will meet formally with students to discuss such topics as drug and alcohol use, texting while driving and cyberbullying.
He'll also spend some of his day at Manheim Township Middle School and Neff Sixth Grade School.
High school principal Debby Mitchell said Blantz will be able to tackle community problems, such as cyberbullying, that school officials often can't address.
Students have complained to principals in the past about harassing e-mails and text messages they've received on their cell phones or home computers, she said.
But officials have been unable to do much because the harassment didn't happen at school or on school computers.
"In the past there was not a whole lot of jurisdiction for us, even though we all know it eventually spills over into school."
Now Blantz can investigate those complaints and get other township police officers involved, if needed.
"It's good because it keeps kids focused on what they're supposed to be doing while they're here and not on the tension they feel about what's going to happen," Mitchell said.
Senior Ben Woratyla agreed that Blantz is likely to hear about more than just what happens in school.
"I'm sure a lot of people will come up to him with out-of-school problems that they don't want in the school," he said.
Ben said Blantz "seems like a pretty cool guy," and he's glad to have him on the high school staff.
