School resource officers are a familiar sight on the MHS campus, often conversing with students or watching over the school. These police officers have been stationed on campus since before 1989, MUSD Superintendent Cheryl Jordan said.
These officers are stationed at MHS most days of the week, and are usually stationed for two to three years at a time, Associate Principal Skyler Draeger said.
“They’re here, of course, to provide safety,” Draeger said. “But generally, we try not to do things punitively and that prevents things from escalating.”
The role of these officers is also to build positive relationships between law enforcement and the wider community, Jordan said.
“We have officers who come at the elementary level, they read to the classes, they come at recess and play wall ball,” Jordan said, “And then at the middle schools, they play basketball and bring pizza.”
San Jose Unified School District (SJUSD) also has officers stationed on their school campuses, courtesy of an $800,000 contract between SJUSD and the police department, according to “SJUSD, SJPD outline agreement under new SJUSD agreement” by the San Jose Spotlight.
However, MUSD has not made any formal contracts with the Milpitas Police Department, and instead has a verbal agreement, Jordan said.
“Our relationship started with our last police chief, and has been even built upon with the current police chief, Hernandez, and that is a building relationship, our core, between our police officers and our students,” Jordan said.
MHS resource officers also often work with school administrators to improve student conduct, Draeger said.
“If it seems like that a student is verging on activities that might at some point become an arrestable offense, we would rather proactively bring in the police officers to sit down with that student and talk to them,” Draeger said.
Although, the officers are rarely asked to directly intervene in situations with students, Draeger said.
“As a school, what we don’t want to do is funnel students into the police system. We don’t want our students to have a record,” Draeger said.
While officers are able to build bonds with students, the reaction to the officers is not always positive, Draeger said.
“There’s always a fear if you’re bringing a police officer into a situation,” Draeger said.
Draeger hopes that the relationship between the officers and the community will only continue to improve, he said.
“I think we have a really strong working relationship with the police department, and I think it’s a relationship that has benefited our students,” Draeger said.