{"id":52578,"date":"2020-07-24T02:12:39","date_gmt":"2020-07-24T08:12:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-students-question-presence-of-officers-on-campus\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:00:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T10:00:28","slug":"cortez-students-question-presence-of-officers-on-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-students-question-presence-of-officers-on-campus\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez students question presence of officers on campus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A group of Montezuma-Cortez School District Re-1 students is asking the district to reconsider the presence of school resource officers on campus. Currently, Re-1 has the equivalent of 1.5 SROs, one of whom is stationed at the high school.<\/span>Erika Alvero\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A group of Montezuma-Cortez students is asking school administrators to reconsider using school resource officers on campus.<\/p>\n

Montezuma-Cortez School District Re-1 has the equivalent of 1.5 SROs stationed on district campuses. The group of students said a police presence on campus fosters a fearful environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t create that great of an atmosphere to learn in and try to be productive in,\u201d said Caro Gomez, a recent graduate of Montezuma-Cortez High School.<\/p>\n

Some of the students spoke up about SROs at the latest virtual school board meeting June 30. The district agreed to discuss the matter with students soon.<\/p>\n

Gomez, who\u2019s been gathering other students of color to join her in her request, said she was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement that has surged nationwide. As a member of a minority group herself, the issue hits home: Family members have experienced bias or profiling by law enforcement, she said.<\/p>\n

She added there doesn\u2019t have to be a specific example or incidence of wrongdoing by an SRO to address the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy don\u2019t we get someone that\u2019s less intimidating?\u201d Gomez told The Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n

She would like to see SRO funding reallocated to health services, transportation for extracurricular activities or teacher pay.<\/p>\n

Gina Lopez is a member of the Ute Mountain Ute tribe and works for the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault, which is \u201cgrounded in anti-oppression,\u201d she said. Lopez supported the students in their movement, and said she\u2019s proud of them for standing up.<\/p>\n

A big part of the issue at hand is understanding that law enforcement has a different meaning for different communities and cultures, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t about \u2014 we don\u2019t support, care for, or love the police,\u201d Lopez said. \u201cWe understand what that is. But we\u2019re just asking that folks understand that policing is very different depending on the community you come from.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also worries that the specific role of an SRO might not be clear, and that if a law enforcement official also serves as a counselor or truancy officer, misunderstandings can arise. The presence of a uniformed officer also can seem to \u201ccriminalize\u201d certain aspects of schooling, which is not good for students who have experienced bias or profiling.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s part of a larger, systemic issue related to discipline in schools, Lopez said. She recalled when she worked for the victim services department for the Ute Mountain Ute tribe, Southwest Open School came to them for help, looking to implement a restorative justice model of discipline \u2014 school staff were seeing Native American students being disproportionately disciplined.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn their own,\u201d Lopez said, \u201cthey came in and said, \u2018We feel that it\u2019s humanly impossible to ask for these students to come from homes where there are struggles \u2014 I could name off what all those things are \u2014 and hop on a bus and come to a campus and switch all that off the moment they step off of it. And then somehow they\u2019ve got to turn that back on when they get back home.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

She also would like to see Montezuma-Cortez High School work toward a restorative model.<\/p>\n

At the school board meeting June 30, board members and administrators agreed that it would be a good idea to meet with the students to hear their concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a school district, these students\u2019 voices at least need to be heard,\u201d said board member Lance McDaniel, adding that it was important to acknowledge different experiences throughout Re-1.<\/p>\n

A few board members cautioned, though, that while they want to address the concerns, they also want to ensure student safety. Board member Sheri Noyes added that many students have had a positive relationship with SROs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were several kids who were upset when some of the resource officers left, because that was a safe spot for them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Superintendent Lori Haukeness said she would like to meet with the students, calling it a great opportunity to \u201creally look at how we serve students of color as a district.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added, though, that it was important to recognize the value SROs have offered the district.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve always been incredibly supportive, even working behind the scenes on the proactive side, which you do not see,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The district pays $23,000 annually for the SROs. The Cortez Police Department has paid the majority of SRO funding, since former police Chief Roy Lane felt it was a priority, Haukeness added.<\/p>\n

ealvero@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Re-1 agrees to discussion on law enforcement in schools<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[2619,13,28,52,216,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-52578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-black-lives-matter","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-law-enforcement","tag-montezuma-cortez-school-district-re-1","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52578"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88112,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52578\/revisions\/88112"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52578"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=52578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}