The Hollister School District and Hollister Police Department
are still trying to find the best way to reach parents and teach
students of lurking danger, a couple weeks after a fourth incident
within two months involving men trying to entice students into
cars. Those incidents occurred near Maze Middle School, R.O. Hardin
Elementary School and Sunnyslope Elementary School.
The Hollister School District and Hollister Police Department are still trying to find the best way to reach parents and teach students of lurking danger, a couple weeks after a fourth incident within two months involving men trying to entice students into cars.
Those incidents occurred near Maze Middle School, R.O. Hardin Elementary School and Sunnyslope Elementary School.
The issue isn’t something new, though. The school district and the police department both have programs that would notify parents directly after any school incident.
The school system uses a telephone service that calls every parent with a child in the particular school when an incident occurs, Superintendent Ron Crates said.
The program, called “School Messenger,” is used throughout the district.
The police department has set up a similar program that sends a text message to each person who signs up for a program called Nixel.
But more important, the police department has made an effort to give a greater police presence around each school in the district, Sgt. David Westrick said.
“We try to have officers in the school area, when available, during breaks, lunch and when the students leave,” Westrick said. “But the problem is we don’t have enough officers for every school.”
The police department does send School Resource Officer Carlos Rodriguez to each campus hoping to inform students of the realistic dangers.
Rodriguez tells students to avoid and not to talk to strangers, he said. Each student is informed to immediately call and report any incident to the police.
And since the most recent incident on March 15, Rodriguez has spent more time on each school’s campus informing students what to do if a stranger tries to talk to them and telling parents to have their children walk home in groups, he said.
“The most important thing is if someone has to walk home, they do it in a group,” Rodriguez said. “It’s important to get the word out, but if I had it my way, none of the kids should walk home.”
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