District Removes Cops, Contract from Campus
SJUSD Board ends partnership with SJPD, removing officers from schools across the district.
By Ethan Percival
SJUSD Board ends partnership with SJPD, removing officers from schools across the district.
By Ethan Percival
Among other changes that met students when they returned to campus full-time in August was one with connections to national debates.
After a 3-2 vote on June 24, the San Jose Unified School District Board of Education elected not to renew the district’s contract with the San Jose Police Department for police officers on school campuses. Board member Wendi Mahaney-Gurahoo and President Brian Wheatley voted in favor of the contract, while Teresa Castellanos, Vice President Carla Collins and José Magaña voted against it.
The meeting was contentious, with at least 49 speakers in favor of ending the contract and 16, including Pioneer Principal Herbert Espiritu speaking in favor of keeping it. According to the minutes of the meeting, testimony had to be stopped twice to address disrespect from the crowd.
The decision led to an email the next day from SJUSD Superintendent Nancy Albarrán, expressing concern over the decision and saying that “We will also need to determine how we will replace the range of supports school resource officers provided to both students and staff, and we will likely need to reduce or eliminate large-scale events for public safety purposes as law enforcement support will no longer be available.”
The decision was similar to a resolution passed by the nearby East Side Union High School District on June 11, 2020, when the Board of Trustees unanimously voted to immediately remove the $700,000 contract from the district’s budget. A second SJUSD decision, on Aug. 12, did allow for police officers to be hired for security at public events such as football games.
The approval of the contract had been encouraged by a letter signed by 12 SJUSD principals, including Espiritu, on August 24, 2020. The letter closed with: “In summary, SJUSD’s partnership with SJPD is essential to providing safe and secure schools across our
district. While it may be a politically popular position to defund police services, removing officers from our campuses will create a direct and immediate threat to the safety of our students and staff. It certainly will not be so popular when a student or staff member is harmed because no police were available in a dangerous situation at a San Jose Unified school.”
The ending of the contract was a key component in the Derek Sanderlin Resolution, a proposed policy proposed that would have redirected police funds to other support programs on campus. On December 10, 2021, a protest was held outside the district office in support of the resolution, named for Sanderlin, a community activist who worked with the SJPD and was injured by a police riot gun during the protests over the murder of George Floyd.
“I think that if it makes students feel safer on campus, removing SROs is the right thing to do,” said social studies teacher and Sexuality and Gender Alliance adviser Danni McConnell. “Especially if students who are typically marginalized feel most threatened by police on campus, if it protects them, it’s the right thing to do.”
Other Pioneer teachers had also expressed concerns with police activities on campus, especially after high-profile incidents like the December 4, 2019 protest by the Gender-Sexuality Alliance where campus officers barred the door to the PAC, preventing students from protesting inside a meeting of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
“I advocated for not keeping police officers on campus. I think they’ve been kind of a detriment, for our students of color especially, and some of our male students. They’ve hindered the progress we’ve made of creating a community on campus,” said English teacher Michelle Bowman. “The police officers on campus have been rude to me, to other female teachers, and some of the students. At our school, I feel like we just don’t need them.”
Assistant Principal of Discipline Tim Gavello said that contacting police in potentially dangerous instances could now possibly result in a delay.
“If I do need an SRO, I have to call 311 and wait for a response,” said Gavello. “So I think the immediate contact with the SRO is gone and that has kind of made my job a little more frustrating because now I have to call 311, wait for them, wait online and then wait for a response which is time-consuming.”
Gavello’s frustration was reiterated by SJPD Sgt. Mike Carlson, who explained the SROs immediate duty was to protect the students and faculty of Pioneer, regardless of public opinion.
“Our purpose is solely to protect kids on campus,” said Carlson. “That's our number one role and the idea that we're here to harass or police the students is kind of silly.”
Carlson added how he hopes student concerns regarding the effect SROs have on campuses can be solved through simple conversations with officers.
“I challenge any student who doesn’t feel comfortable with cops on campus to come talk with the cops for five minutes and they’ll probably just see us as normal people and we’re just here to keep them safe and we’re not here to give a hard time to anybody for any reason whatsoever,” Carlson said.
Some Pioneer staff members echoed Carlson’s sentiments.
“I didn’t think having one officer on campus was that invasive, and it at least does provide some level of deterrence for criminal activity on campus,” said AP Statistics and Precalculus teacher Nick Hoffman. “Being on campus all day long, you hardly even notice that they’re there. One of the main arguments for their removal was that they made people feel uncomfortable having an officer on campus, but I don’t think that was because of anything the officer was doing, but probably had more to do with what they’re preconceived notions of what police officers or what they do.”
After a 3-2 vote on June 24, the San Jose Unified School District Board of Education elected not to renew the district’s contract with the San Jose Police Department for police officers on school campuses. Board member Wendi Mahaney-Gurahoo and President Brian Wheatley voted in favor of the contract, while Teresa Castellanos, Vice President Carla Collins and José Magaña voted against it.
The meeting was contentious, with at least 49 speakers in favor of ending the contract and 16, including Pioneer Principal Herbert Espiritu speaking in favor of keeping it. According to the minutes of the meeting, testimony had to be stopped twice to address disrespect from the crowd.
The decision led to an email the next day from SJUSD Superintendent Nancy Albarrán, expressing concern over the decision and saying that “We will also need to determine how we will replace the range of supports school resource officers provided to both students and staff, and we will likely need to reduce or eliminate large-scale events for public safety purposes as law enforcement support will no longer be available.”
The decision was similar to a resolution passed by the nearby East Side Union High School District on June 11, 2020, when the Board of Trustees unanimously voted to immediately remove the $700,000 contract from the district’s budget. A second SJUSD decision, on Aug. 12, did allow for police officers to be hired for security at public events such as football games.
The approval of the contract had been encouraged by a letter signed by 12 SJUSD principals, including Espiritu, on August 24, 2020. The letter closed with: “In summary, SJUSD’s partnership with SJPD is essential to providing safe and secure schools across our
district. While it may be a politically popular position to defund police services, removing officers from our campuses will create a direct and immediate threat to the safety of our students and staff. It certainly will not be so popular when a student or staff member is harmed because no police were available in a dangerous situation at a San Jose Unified school.”
The ending of the contract was a key component in the Derek Sanderlin Resolution, a proposed policy proposed that would have redirected police funds to other support programs on campus. On December 10, 2021, a protest was held outside the district office in support of the resolution, named for Sanderlin, a community activist who worked with the SJPD and was injured by a police riot gun during the protests over the murder of George Floyd.
“I think that if it makes students feel safer on campus, removing SROs is the right thing to do,” said social studies teacher and Sexuality and Gender Alliance adviser Danni McConnell. “Especially if students who are typically marginalized feel most threatened by police on campus, if it protects them, it’s the right thing to do.”
Other Pioneer teachers had also expressed concerns with police activities on campus, especially after high-profile incidents like the December 4, 2019 protest by the Gender-Sexuality Alliance where campus officers barred the door to the PAC, preventing students from protesting inside a meeting of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
“I advocated for not keeping police officers on campus. I think they’ve been kind of a detriment, for our students of color especially, and some of our male students. They’ve hindered the progress we’ve made of creating a community on campus,” said English teacher Michelle Bowman. “The police officers on campus have been rude to me, to other female teachers, and some of the students. At our school, I feel like we just don’t need them.”
Assistant Principal of Discipline Tim Gavello said that contacting police in potentially dangerous instances could now possibly result in a delay.
“If I do need an SRO, I have to call 311 and wait for a response,” said Gavello. “So I think the immediate contact with the SRO is gone and that has kind of made my job a little more frustrating because now I have to call 311, wait for them, wait online and then wait for a response which is time-consuming.”
Gavello’s frustration was reiterated by SJPD Sgt. Mike Carlson, who explained the SROs immediate duty was to protect the students and faculty of Pioneer, regardless of public opinion.
“Our purpose is solely to protect kids on campus,” said Carlson. “That's our number one role and the idea that we're here to harass or police the students is kind of silly.”
Carlson added how he hopes student concerns regarding the effect SROs have on campuses can be solved through simple conversations with officers.
“I challenge any student who doesn’t feel comfortable with cops on campus to come talk with the cops for five minutes and they’ll probably just see us as normal people and we’re just here to keep them safe and we’re not here to give a hard time to anybody for any reason whatsoever,” Carlson said.
Some Pioneer staff members echoed Carlson’s sentiments.
“I didn’t think having one officer on campus was that invasive, and it at least does provide some level of deterrence for criminal activity on campus,” said AP Statistics and Precalculus teacher Nick Hoffman. “Being on campus all day long, you hardly even notice that they’re there. One of the main arguments for their removal was that they made people feel uncomfortable having an officer on campus, but I don’t think that was because of anything the officer was doing, but probably had more to do with what they’re preconceived notions of what police officers or what they do.”