Since the start of the school year, police in Hercules have been called to Hercules Middle/High School 161 times, the Contra Costa Times reports.
The figure is significant not only because the Hercules Police Department has eight fewer officers than it used to, but because Hercules is the only city in the West Contra Costa Unified School District with only one district-funded police officer, the Times reported.
Pinole and other cities in the district each have two officers at their schools.
The talk about school resource officers was part of a larger discussion about school safety during this week's joint meeting between the Hercules City Council and the district board of education.
The school board reportedly offered a solution during the Tuesday meeting:
School board President Madeline Kronenberg and Superintendent Bruce Harter promised to try to take care of that problem immediately by bringing a vote to approve funding an extra officer at the school board's Feb. 6 meeting.
If the district chooses to fund another officer for schools in Hercules, it wouldn't be alone: President Barack Obama this week directed the Department of Justice to provide grants to fund 1,000 more school cops around the nation.
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Correction: A previous version of this story misidentified the number of times police have received calls from Hercules Middle/High School. Patch regrets the error.
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Readers, what do you think? Are Hercules schools short on police protection? Tell us your thoughts on school safety in the comments below.
District (S) average: 34, 21, 24 District (E) average: 0.4, 0.5, 0.5 Hercules High: (S) 33, 10, 25 (E) 0.8, 1.5, 1.4 Hercules Middle: (S) 99, 39, 42 (E) 0.7, 1.02, 1.4 Pinole High: (S) 35, 46, 31 (E) 1.3, 1.3, 2.0 Pinole Middle: (S) 82, 77, 80 (E) 0.8, 0.9, 1.0 Richmond High: (S) 81, 32, 61 (E) 0.4, 0.2, 0.6 Portola Middle: (S) 69, 91, 43 (E) 0.4, 0.5, 0 El Cerrito High: (S) 37, 31, 36 (E) 1, 0.3, 1.6 Hercules Middle-High School recently had a policy that suspended a student for 3 days if they skipped one class. The current principal says this policy is no longer in place. So when do they suspend? When do they call the police? The WCCUSD has announced they will decrease # of suspensions. How many of these calls to the police resulted in suspensions this year? How many such police calls were made each year in the past 5 years? The parents and children should be promising to reduce suspensions, not the school. Kudos to Councilman Romero for advocating the Restorative Justice program. http://www.icjia.state.il.us/public/pdf/BARJ/SCHOOL%20BARJ%20GUIDEBOOOK.pdf I support an additional SRO as long as this isn't a substitute for common sense policies.
Hercules Middle-High School has one principal, two HS assistant principals and one middle school assistant principal. I do know that an experienced, competent assistant principal can make a difference. How are these assistant principals doing? When a teacher excessively relies on the use of referral notices to keep their students in check, they are sometimes downgraded for not having control over their students. Could this many calls to the police be signaling that this principal is having a difficult time managing their 2 schools? Is she being set up for failure? Vandalism, fights, the fire resulting from a science experiment and a teacher arrested with marijuana are a few examples of what this principal is facing. Maybe Hercules Middle School should have its own principal for the reason that each school needs a leader. Middle school principals can make a huge difference for both a school and a community. Just look at what Principal Burnham did for Portola Middle School. He has attained hero status. He has quelled disruptions. He has worked with the community, including now trustee Todd Groves, to introduce a math initiative. Most middle schools have one dedicated, accountable leader. Maybe Hercules should, too. Has this ever been considered?
We need to take ownership of this problem now.
Or did this school actually have an uptick in unruly behavior?