Former Oak Bluffs police officer and Rhode Island state police detective Jared Andrews is joining the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School staff as director of the student affairs office, overseeing the school’s counseling department.

“We have incredible guidance counselors [and] we were looking for someone to round out the team,” said high school principal Sarah Dingledy.

Mr. Andrews, who most recently has worked at Martha’s Vineyard Community Services, is also a youth hockey coach on the Island, where he and his wife moved last summer to be closer to her family here.

In Rhode Island, where he was with the state police from 2011 to 2023, Mr. Andrews helped start the force’s special victims unit, interviewing both victims and suspects of sexual assaults on children.

“He’s trauma-informed, I think he’s compassionate, I think he’s supportive, and I think, in the role that we’re looking to complement other members of the team, he’ll do a great job,” Ms. Dingledy said. 

At the high school, Mr. Andrews’s direct focus will be on working with students who are chronically tardy, absent or breaking other rules, Ms. Dingledy said.

He was selected for the job by a 10-member committee of high school teachers and community members including NAACP president Toni Kauffman, she said.

“What the committee really liked was hearing … his passion for working with the community as a whole [and] helping support students and families,” Ms. Dingledy said.

Mr. Andrews and his wife, who wed in 2013 and now have three children younger than 10, have known each other since he was just out of college and starting his law enforcement career on the Oak Bluffs police force in 2008, he said.

“I married into the Island,” he said.

In 2011, he joined the Rhode Island state police, where in 2019 he became a detective investigating major crimes — including a plague of unsolved assaults on children.

“I noticed … the significant amount of attention that needed to be brought to historical child molestations and sexual assaults,” he said.

The special victims unit set up an interview room with soft toys and cushions and Mr. Andrews brought in a goldendoodle “comfort dog,” K-9 Gus, to ease the stress of talking about harrowing experiences.

Gus remains on the job in Rhode Island, said Mr. Andrews, who moved to the Vineyard with his young family in June of 2023.

In what might have seemed at first like a full circle career loop, he rejoined the Oak Bluffs Police Department, working as an officer for the next few months.

“Going back to where I started in uniform and in Oak Bluffs — downtown, helping people, talking to people, enjoying the summer days and Circuit avenue and answering questions — I absolutely loved it. It’s a wonderful, humbling experience,” Mr. Andrews said.

He then took a position as senior director of administration at Martha’s Vineyard Community Services, working on initiatives such as a still-in-development program that would pair mental health professionals with emergency personnel responding to certain calls.

When the high school job opened up, he was ready.

“Based on my time coaching and my background with children, I know that ... the school system is a good fit for me,” Mr. Andrews said.

The listening skills and trauma-informed approach he developed in his law enforcement career are key to what he hopes to do at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, Mr. Andrews said.

“I have a connection with this community which is very tight-knit, down to the fabric,” he said.

“It goes well beyond coaching hockey or speaking to kids about traumatic events. It’s instilling a certain motivation and understanding of every child having their own story,” Mr. Andrews said.

As director of the high school’s student affairs office, Mr. Andrews succeeds former assistant principal Jeremy Light, who wore both hats before becoming principal of the Oak Bluffs School this month.

There were no qualified applicants to replace Mr. Light as assistant principal, however.

“We did not have any licensed candidates apply, although all candidates committed to pursuing licensure over the course of the year,” Ms. Dingledy wrote in a letter to school employees.

The state education department mandates a three-step, documented licensing process for principals and assistant principals, who must have at least three years of employment and education before they can begin to qualify.

Editor's note: a previous version of this article incorrectly stated Mr. Andrews would be overseeing the guidance department.