Last week at Thomas Jefferson High School, a student approached King County Sheriff’s Deputy Eric White to give him some alarming news: There was a fellow student with a gun.

White went to work. He told administrators about the weapon, had the school locked down, then went to find the student with the gun.

White is Thomas Jefferson’s school resource officer, which means that the school is his beat. He patrols the school for safety, but he also talks to students and makes sure they know him. Sometimes he talks to classes about safe driving or bullying. He shoots the breeze with students, but patrols the neighborhood around Thomas Jefferson looking for truants or after-school fights. He makes sure they know he enforces the law, but is also someone they can trust.

Within 15 minutes, White caught the student with the handgun off campus with five other students. Last week at a press conference about county budget cuts, King County Sheriff Sue Rahr reported that the student had been given the gun by a classmate so he could protect himself from another student. He and his friends were immediately expelled, and criminal charges are assured.

White is an important part of the Thomas Jefferson Community, but after Dec. 18, White may no longer patrol the school. He may be sent back to regular patrol duty due to King County budget cuts.

“The kids will tell me anything,” said White, a 44-year-old father of four. “I’ve built a bond with them.”

King County Sheriff Sgt. John Urquhart said that the department has to make $3 million in cuts based on the budget passed Nov. 15 by the King County Council. There will be positions eliminated, he said, which will result in the department pulling back on some programs to focus foremost on crimes against people. Programs getting cut include property crimes, storefront deputies and school resource officers. White isn’t losing his job, though he may be transferred away from a job he loves.

The school system has its own security force, but contracts with various police departments to have an actual law enforcement officer on campus. District officials say if White goes, a Federal Way officer will likely take over his duties, but they’re trying to keep him for the rest of the school year.

District spokeswoman Diane Turner said that White’s position was partially funded by a grant that is set to run out. Assistant Superintendent Sally McLean, who oversees business affairs and security in Federal Way schools, said that the district has asked King County how much it would cost to fund White’s position for the rest of the year. The county has yet to respond.

“Whatever the outcome, Thomas Jefferson will have a school resource officer,” McLean wrote in an e-mail.

But his presence may be irreplaceable. As White describes them, his duties sound more like those of a father than a cop.

Talking by phone Monday, he explained that it had been a hectic day. He had just helped dismiss the school because of snow. Then he went across the street to help some stuck drivers. He said it’s normal for him to help out at school and in the surrounding neighborhood.

It’s no wonder White is a school resource officer: His career in law enforcement has been spent almost entirely on the juvenile side.

His family moved to Seattle in 1970 from Washington. He grew up in the Central District and attended Garfield High School, where he was influenced by Seattle police officers who coached him in sports. His desire to be an officer was not solidified until 1985, when his father’s store was robbed at gunpoint. His father knew the robber, but did not trust police enough to talk to them about it. White didn’t want it to be that way.

“I thought that was B.S.,” he said.

After graduating from Washington State University in 1993 with a degree in criminal justice, he applied to his dream law enforcement job: The King County Sheriff’s Department. He was among thousands of applicants, he said, and he instead took a job in juvenile corrections, working at the King County North Rehabilitation Facility and in youth group homes. In 1999, he became a Bothell police officer, then finally, in 2002, he became a deputy.

He’s been the resource officer at Thomas Jefferson for two years, and has built a rapport with students. He said students call him “Deputy” or “White ninja” for his ability to be silently everywhere. He helps students with their homework and listens to them when they have a problem.

“They say the way I talk, it’s like no other police officer they know,” he said. Some of kids told him that “if I didn’t come back, they’d drop out.”

He talks fondly of a student who had cancer; she underwent chemotherapy and missed a lot of school, got better, but the cancer came back. She elected to have her leg amputated rather than miss more school. He found out at the beginning of the school year when she appeared with crutches. He spends time helping her with little things, like her lunch tray in the cafeteria, or getting up the stairs.

He also has a lot of responsibility for the safety of the school. He helps plan emergency drills, enforces court orders and keeps track of sex offenders — both potential students and outsiders — around the campus. He takes reports of child abuse. He worries these services will go away if he’s not there.

“But what if the child was scared to go home? Showed signs of being injured? Or if a removal should be done ASAP?” he wrote in an e-mail, fretting about what could happen if he was not around to deal with abuse cases. “With me at the school the reports come directly to me, and in some cases I take the child into protective custody and place them with Child Protective Services within one or two hours.”

He’s also worried about the kids. Where will they turn if they feel unsafe or are having some kind of problem?

As a testament to his relationship with the students, it turns out that the student who alerted him about the gun had run afoul of him just last month. White had caught the student stealing.

“I maintained the good rapport with them,” he wrote in an e-mail. “The schools need (school resource officers) as the schools have the responsibility to take care of people’s most precious possession, their kids.”