Educationally Speaking -- Gay Geiser-Sandoval

I would like to thank Police Chief Bob McDonell and all of the others

who have written to the Daily Pilot or me about the issue of police

officers on campus and bullies at our schools. I see my role as sort of a

philosophy professor sparking discussion and thought about educational

issues through a community newspaper. Whether or not we decide to change

things or keep them the same, it is good to make decisions based on

reason and logic, as opposed to fear or tradition.

Politically speaking, our Newport Beach school campuses will always

have school resource officers. Police departments increase their numbers

every year without fail, even if cities have to cut back on library

hours, cut out after-school programs for kids and leave their streets

laden with potholes. Our society has fostered a “Take the keys and lock

them up” view to its problems, so that a percentage of resources that

used to go for education, health care and street maintenance are now

allocated to law enforcement and the prison system.

Statistically, we know that bullies usually begin when they are in

elementary school and end up in prison. So, one way to handle the problem

is to have more law enforcement, so when the bully starts pulling armed

robberies as his next logical progression, we can hunt him down,

prosecute him and lock him up for 15 years.

Another possible solution is to train teachers and students, beginning

in elementary school, about how to deal with bullies. We can train kids

to be kind to each other and provide counseling for potential bullies at

an early age. Where should we use our resources?

I want a safe high school too, but the chances of my daughter catching

a disease at school are much greater than those of her catching a bullet.

However, we have cut out school nurses to the point that most students

will never see one. During a time when infectious diseases are running

rampant and scientists are starting to believe that cancer, heart disease

and mental illness may be the result of long-term infections, we have no

health care professionals on campus for prevention, education or

detection of disease. More kids have died or have been harmed from

infectious diseases caught at school in our district than they have from

weapons.

Likewise, more kids in our district die by their own hands than have

died from the hands of others at school. Yet, we have steadily cut back

on the ratio of school psychologists and counselors. One of our high

schools has almost 600 students for every one counselor. Those things

don’t make me feel very safe.

Finally, does the presence of a police officer in full uniform on

campus change the student’s and community’s perception of our schools?

The time I felt most unsafe was during a recent trip to Mexico City. In

the tourist district, there was a police officer on every corner with a

large automatic weapon. However, in the subway, there was no police

presence. Because of the highly armed police presence in the tourist

district, it was my instant impression that this is where the community

perceived there was the most danger and I better be on my guard at all

times.

By having a police officer on campus, have we told the kids that we

think the place we send them every day is so unsafe that we have to have

an officer on-site to protect them?

Are we telling them that we’ve done such a bad job of raising them,

that their fellow students may commit a violent crime against them at any

moment? If that is the case, then our schools have truly failed us.

* Gay Geiser-Sandoval is a Costa Mesa resident. Her column runs

Tuesdays. She may be reached by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .