While working with nearly 3,000 students presents different
challenges than working the streets, San Benito High School’s new
Resource Officer is finding it easier to keep his sense of humor
while walking his new beat.
Hollister – While working with nearly 3,000 students presents different challenges than working the streets, San Benito High School’s new Resource Officer is finding it easier to keep his sense of humor while walking his new beat.
“In this job if you don’t, you’re done,” San Benito County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Rich Brown said while patrolling the campus recently.
After dealing with the drug dealers and robbers for more than a dozen years on the beat, Brown is excited about his new job as the resource officer at SBHS. As the resource officer, he will helps students, enforce parking and truancy laws and trying to keep students away from encounters with his law enforcement colleagues.
Brown, who started his new job on the first day of school, has had some time to get to know the students, and while walking around the campus during lunch, Brown is friendly and knows many of them by name.
And many of the students like the idea of having a police officer on campus, junior Vanessa Buelna said.
“He’s really nice and having him here is really a good thing,” Buelna said. “Last year there were a lot of problems and since Officer Brown has been here everything has been running smoothly.”
The students appear at ease with the former Sheriff’s Department hostage negotiator and National Guardsman. Students offer candy and food and talk freely with Brown, but that wasn’t always the case. Brown said that he had to earn his reputation as a friend rather than a foe.
“All of the staff – we’re all on the same wave length – we all want to see these students graduate,” Brown said. “Here there is so much positive energy that you don’t get in other areas of law enforcement.”
San Benito High School has had a resource officer in the past, but did not have one for the last two years due to budget cuts in the City of Hollister. The decision to hire a resource officer this year stemmed from officials’ desire to provide students with an additional resource, Principal Debbie Padilla said.
“Really it’s for students’ education,” she said. “We want to teach our students about the law and about their legal responsibilities before they go out into the real world.”
School officials also want to be able to prevent crimes from happening on campus, Padilla said. In order to have a law enforcement officer on campus, school officials worked out a cooperative agreement with the Sheriff’s Department to split the cost of Brown’s salary and benefits in half, Superintendent Jean Burns Slater said.
This year Brown will work diligently to educate students and to eradicate drugs and violence from San Benito High School in an effort to make the school a safe place for learning, he said. Brown will use a dual-pronged strategy of education and punishment in order to keep drugs and weapons away from school. So far, he has only had to issue one criminal citation for possession of marijuana, but Brown knows drugs and weapons are serious problems at San Benito High School.
“Drugs and weapons are volatile,” he said. “If they’re on campus you’re just asking for trouble.”
According to statistic released by the school, 33 students were suspended during the 2004-2005 school year for possession or use of marijuana and six were suspended for possession of a weapon or an explosive.
When it comes to drugs, Brown is especially concerned about marijuana and methamphetamine. Marijuana is, by far, the most popular of the two because many drug users believe it is harmless, Brown said.
“With the marijuana situation the big factor is the ease of use,” he said. “But the reality is that marijuana will negatively affect learning.”
Although both drugs can be dangerous, methamphetamine is particularly harmful.
“Methamphetamine is so bad because it takes away a person’s desire to do anything other than get more methamphetamine,” Brown said.
Around school, Brown sees himself as having a preventative rather than punitive role. One of best parts of his job, he said, is having the opportunity to use discretion and solve small problems before they turn into criminal offenses.
“I try to keep these students from having to deal with my contemporaries,” he said.
And while drugs and violence are serious problems, they are not the only things Brown has to keep an eye on.
“The biggest problem right now is parking,” he said. “It’s going to be a constant problem unfortunately.”
Although school has only been underway for a little more than a month, Brown has already had to issue about 35 parking citations. The problem is that many students and parents are not using the designated pick-up and drop-off zones, he said. Instead they are double-parking in front of the school on Monterey Street, which creates a dangerous situation for both motorists and students. Brown is specifically concerned about students darting out into the street and accidentally being struck by cars.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to abate this (parking problem) with citations,” he said.
Brown is forced to deal parking problems daily, but he would rather spend his time working with students.
“The main focus of my job is to assist the staff in maintaining a safe campus,” he said.
In addition to his other responsibilities, Brown is also available to help teachers educate students about the dangers of drugs and violence. Brown will be really focusing on education this year and said that one of his goals is to become a substitute teacher in the future.
“I try to emphasize the resource part,” he said. “I’m not here to be an adversary, I’m here as an asset.”
Brett Rowland covers education for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or [email protected].
