The Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees on Wednesday approved contracts with Watsonville Police Department and the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office to place uniformed law enforcement officials at the district’s three comprehensive high schools as school resource officers (SROs).
These SROs will be placed with mental health clinicians, and the programs will be evaluated annually.
The board moved forward on two items—Watsonville Police officers at Watsonville and Pajaro Valley high schools and a Sheriff’s deputy at Aptos High—despite Trustee Gabe Medina trying to remove them from the agenda because Trustee Joy Flynn was absent.
“Trustee (Joy) Flynn is not here tonight, and both parents and I have been requesting critical information that still has not been provided,” he said. “I believe it would be irresponsible to move forward without full board representation and the transparency our community deserves.”
But Board President Olivia Flores denied Medina’s request to table the item and put it to a vote.
“We have our board policy, and our board policy does not say we can do this,” she said.
A later motion by Medina to adjourn the meeting failed when no trustee seconded him.
In presenting the items to the board, PVUSD Director of Student Services Heather Gorman pointed to a survey that she says shows a majority of students, staff and parents favor the SRO program.
“We believe this partnership strengthens school safety while aligning with our values of support and inclusion,” Gorman said.
The district will pay $291,630 annually for officers at Watsonville and Pajaro Valley high schools, and $816 per day for the sheriff’s deputies.
A part-time officer will start at WHS in November, while PVHS will get its part-time officer when classes start later this summer.
Aptos High will have a full-time deputy.
The issue of placing SROs on campuses has long drawn controversy, with advocates saying it keeps school communities safe and opponents saying the presence of police has the opposite effect, causing anxiety among students and inordinately affecting Black and Latino students.
The Board cancelled the program in July 2020, and reinstated it one year later after a student was stabbed to death at Aptos High School.
While no definitive link has been drawn to the stabbing and the absence of an SRO, the incident provided a touchstone for the discussion.
“The price was too high, someone was murdered,” said Troy Martin. “Removing SROs a second time places students at risk and it’s just not learning from history.”
Kristen Hurley of Aptos said she supports the program.
“Your responsibility is to safeguard the education of our children, and on this issue I really think as representatives yourself we have fantastic data on how the community feels about the SRO program,” she said. “I think this program has been successful, will continue to be successful and it’s something the community really does support.”
WHS teacher Chris Webb said he doesn’t want to see any more of his students get searched by police officers on campus.
It would be more useful, he said, to better train teachers.
Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers President Brandon Deniz said that using that tragedy to further a political point is “shameful.”
“To those who believe that SROs make us safer, I would ask you to question, do SROs actually make us safer, or is it just the illusion of safety that brings you comfort,” he said.
Both contracts passed 4-2, with trustees Medina and Jessica Carrasco voting no.
Medina said that the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., and Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, both occurred despite the presence of SROs.
“The truth is that no one has presented verified data showing that an SRO prevents these incidents,” Medina said.
“Presence is not prevention. Prevention starts with trust, relationship and mental health services, not uniforms and firearms.”
Instead, the district should focus on bilingual counselors, community navigators and restorative justice coordinators.
“These folks build relationships without the threat of citation or arrest,” he said.
Trustee Misty Navarro said that the Aptos High stabbing “rocked our community.”
“I think it would be tone-deaf to get rid of the SROs,” she said.
Trustee Daniel Dodge Jr. said that families feel safer knowing an SRO is there.
“Time and again, I have listened to the voices of my constituents,” he said. “And it is clear; a majority of them support having an SRO.”
Bernie Gomez agreed that campus safety is a priority for everyone, but said there are better approaches.
“We just believe that we can find better solutions that are more cost-effective than just having this false sense of security because you have an armed person on campus,” he said. “We can do better than police in schools.”
