On Tuesday morning, seven days after he began his post at Pajaro Valley High School, Watsonville Police Officer Saúl Rodriguez walked through the campus, greeting a handful of students who were making their way to their next class.
Rodriguez is PVHS’s new School Resource Officer (SRO), a program that places a police officer on each of Pajaro Valley High School’s comprehensive high schools.
He worked at Santa Cruz Police Department for 18 years, and at Pacific Grove Police Department for five years before taking the part-time SRO position.
Rodriguez says he is there to bring a measure of safety to the campus, but stresses that he wants the students to see beyond his police badge.
“My mindset is, yes I wear a uniform on campus, but I am trying to kind of make it disappear,” he says. “That way, when the kids come up, they’re actually just talking to me, not to a police officer.”
In that way, he says, he can serve as a liaison for his fellow officers who patrol the streets of Watsonville.
“As a police officer, you can influence kids in a very positive way,” he says. “I want to be a bridge where they can see any other cop in Watsonville to be approachable.”
Rodriguez also gives classroom presentations on topics such as teen driving and cyber bullying.
The issue of SROs on campus has in the past drawn a measure of scrutiny, with the Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees cancelling the program at Watsonville, Pajaro Valley and Aptos high schools in 2020 after students and staff said the presence of law enforcement officials on campus made them uneasy.
The board reversed the decision one year later after a student was stabbed to death at Aptos High School, an incident that appeared also to shift public support in favor of the program.
In September, the board approved a plan to pair a mental health clinician with the officers.
The idea has taken hold with many states and school districts, and could soon become a reality in California.
If a bill by state Assemblyman Bill Essayli passes, every school campus in the state will be required to have an armed school resource officer.
AB 68 was introduced on Dec. 5 to begin the months-long legislative process.
PVHS was the last school to get its SRO reinstated, a delay mainly caused by staffing woes at the department.
WPD Capt. Mish Radich says that it was Rodriguez’s willingness to take the part-time position—he works 8am to 2pm—that made the hire possible.
“To get a full-time officer here, with our staffing levels, is almost impossible to do,” he says. “We’re lucky he was able to come.”
A 25-year veteran of police work, Rodriguez says that he wants students to be able to approach him and talk to him about anything, and to feel safe enough on campus to be able to focus on their education.
“I’m not here to get people in trouble,” he says. “I’m not here to give tickets, I’m not here to take people to juvenile hall, and I’m definitely not here to arrest people. I love it. It’s still police work but it’s a different environment.”
