Spending time with a 16-year-old suicidal girl. Diffusing an
eight-person gang fight. Counseling a parent who forged a doctor’s
note. It’s all in a week’s work for School Resource Officer Josh
Norris.
MORGAN HILL
Spending time with a 16-year-old suicidal girl. Diffusing an eight-person gang fight. Counseling a parent who forged a doctor’s note. It’s all in a week’s work for School Resource Officer Josh Norris.
One of three such officers with the Morgan Hill Police Department, Norris volunteered for the position at Live Oak High School, which is being threatened as the city and school district, who share the cost of the officers, face budget deficits and are looking at ongoing belt-tightening.
“There’s always a chance, but it’s not imminent,” Police Chief Bruce Cumming said of taking an officer out of a school. “We’re down three officers now, so it’s getting a little thin. We don’t have as much of a cushion.”
Cumming explained that if an officer has a long-term injury, he has to reorganize his team of 36 officers to make sure there are enough on patrol. For the current year, the city has financed 39 officers. But with funding shaky for next year, Cumming isn’t recruiting for the three vacant positions since there may not be money to hire them.
Taking a school officer off campus and putting them back on a beat would solve any officer staffing problems.
“We would still have two officers closely affiliated with the schools,” he said “It would just make it more challenging. We have a fair amount of activity on the campuses.”
During Wednesday’s lunch period at Live Oak, Norris stood on the perimeter of the courtyard, watching over the 1,400 students’ social interactions. Wednesday was a higher threat level day, so to speak, since someone tagged a black “14” over the blue inked “13,” that was written on the wall of a men’s bathroom near the courtyard. The number “14” denotes the Nortenos gang, while “13” is the other dominant gang’s, the Surenos, number. Because of this, there could be a fight, Norris said.
He keeps a special watch on two groups of tables, one at the north end and the other at the south. These are the hangouts of the two dominant gangs.
If a gang member so much as wanders too close to the other side, there could be a fight, as there was in late January when eight students, three on five, exchanged fists.
Norris explained that teenage gang member wannabes use high school as a career-builder.
“All the gangs originate here. A lot of the juveniles want to make a name for themselves, show the higher-ups they’re hardcore,” Norris said.
Before long, the gang incidents spill off campus.
“Every time a fight happens here, something happens on the street,” Norris said, naming weekend stabbings around town that stemmed from high school fights.
Cumming said crime prevention makes school officers a great asset.
“The thing is, they nip a lot of things in the bud,” Cumming said. “Because of their presence on campus they can solve things faster. They know the kids and the kids trust them.”
The general student populace, though, feel the officer’s presence makes them safer with little impact on their independence.
“There’s no harm in it,” junior Kalea Cleeton, 17, said. “If there are altercations at lunch, he’s here to enforce.”
“You know he’s there, and he seems like a nice guy,” said junior Zack Colton, 17.
The school resource officers act as liaisons, connecting the police department with the school district and vice-versa. Officers Norris, Gary Cupps – who patrols Ann Sobrato High School – and Mike Nelson – who works at Britton Middle School – know the schools’ campus layouts, the students and their histories.
Nelson, whose position is half paid by a $65,000 Gang Resistance Education And Training grant, especially knows the students – and their parents. As part of the GREAT program, Nelson councils parents on how to handle tough teens. The effect is tighter control on the community through these relationships.
Nelson said that recently a parent involved in GREAT heard of an upcoming gang fight at Ann Sobrato High School, which has more gang problems because of the South San Jose students who attend there.
“There was going to be a big fight after school, 10 on 10. We pulled one of the (program) kids aside and asked him, ‘Where’s it going to happen?’ He told us, ‘Down this street, off campus.’ With their help, we were able to prevent the fight.”
Nelson called being a school resource officer “true community policing.”
“Traditional policing oftentimes doesn’t provide you completion. Very few times people come up to you and say thanks. With school policing, you see it through. You start it, finish it, and follow up on it.”
Ann Sobrato High School Assistant Principal Lloyd Webb said the officers provide a vital connection to the adult world.
“One thing they do is demystify the police to an age group that’s generally very mistrusting of the police,” Webb said.
Live Oak High School Principal Nick Boden was equally grateful for the help of the officers.
“It’s a great thing to have school resource officers to build some very positive relationships with the kids,” he said.
Norris is working on starting a boot camp-style “scared straight” program called Impact, which will partner police officers with community groups and the local workforce to keep students out of trouble.
Being moved back into a regular cop beat would make this project, which would require hours of volunteering from him and other officers, almost impossible to carry through, Norris said.
