Another Salinas district rejects school resource officers

Monday night the Salinas City Elementary School District’s Board voted 4-0, rejecting school resource offices on their campuses. As of now their 14 schools are the latest to turn down the SROs of the Salinas Police Department.

The vote came after strong opposition from the public to the program.

KION reached out multiple times to the district, but they have been unavailable for comment. Parents on Tuesday had largely mixed opinions, or didn’t know about the vote. The only person who agreed to go on camera tells us the district made the wrong decision.

“Things can happen. People come in and you need officers to take care of that situation,” said Robin, a grandparent at University Park Elementary School.

However, at Monday’s meeting, the Board and the public shared concerns – over scaring children, stories of past negative encounters with police, and how this would negatively impact our minority communities.

“They serve their purpose, but absolutely not in school,” said one parent. Another person discussed a young relative at the school and said “I know that if she saw a police officer at the school, that would absolutely freak her out.”

Santa Rita’s acting Superintendent said the SRO program has had the opposite effect, saying these officers actually turned several students with felonies to the right path. The Santa Rita Union School District is the only school district in Salinas to agree to have SROs on campus.

“These SROs took it upon themselves to go out and got into a diversion program, and were able to move these students out of the juvenile justice system and back on campus and back into their homes with their families,” said Superintendent Tim Ryan.

Salinas Police Chief Adele Frese said there have been no student arrests by the SROs since Santa Rita brought them in, in late 2017.

Another major concern from the board was about the police department having access to a student’s personal information. The Santa Rita district says that information is protected by law and doesn’t go to the Salinas Police Department.