Gilroy
– In full uniform with sunglasses and standing on a vantage
point where he surveyed the entire quad, Officer Mike Terasaki
watched students shuffle off the Gilroy High School campus Thursday
afternoon. For the past six years, students have grown accustomed
to Terasaki’s presence on Gilroy public s
chool campuses at any hour of the day.
By Lori Stuenkel
Gilroy – In full uniform with sunglasses and standing on a vantage point where he surveyed the entire quad, Officer Mike Terasaki watched students shuffle off the Gilroy High School campus Thursday afternoon. For the past six years, students have grown accustomed to Terasaki’s presence on Gilroy public school campuses at any hour of the day.
His Gilroy Police Department sports utility vehicle can often be seen parked just outside the school gate near the administration building. Other times, it is carrying groups of students picked up during truancy sweeps, or responding with lights flashing to a school lockdown across town.
But Terasaki will watch students leave campus only a few more times: this is his last month as the department’s School Resource Officer. He knows it’s time to leave, but he’s not quite ready, despite a six-month extension of what was to be a five-year assignment.
“I’ve done a couple other special assignments, but this position as school resource officer has been my most enjoyable and rewarding assignment,” he said.
It wasn’t an accident that he was the first officer to hold the position created in January 1999.
“We were working paid jobs here at the school on-and-off on occasion, before the position actually became available, and I was working several of those paid jobs … especially here at the high school,” Terasaki said. “I was really liking the position and really hoping this would become a full-time job.”
The department already had one officer, Pat Sullivan, dedicated largely to school and neighborhood issues, including drug education, but needed someone to specialize in suppression and enforcement, deal with students every day, and talk to them when things were going wrong.
At 49, Terasaki plans to retire in the fall, after he completes 28 years with the GPD. The city’s first police Chief C. J. Laizure hired him in 1978, with a couple years’ experience as a reserve officer in Hollister.
He pointed to his badge – No. 1 – and smiled.
“I’m the most senior officer out of the department, so I’m proud of that,” he said.
He will leave behind a lasting impact as the original full-time liaison between the police department and the schools. Each Gilroy Unified School District campus can reach him any time he’s on duty via his radio dedicated specifically to them, although the Santa Clara Sheriff’s Office usually responds to Rucker Elementary.
On any given school day, Terasaki rounds up truants, assists school staff with interventions and even helps parents resolve truancy problems with their children.
“I do get many calls from parents having issues with their son or daughter not wanting to go to school,” he said.
In response, he occasionally makes home visits and persuades students to return to school or risk being punished for violating both the state Education and Penal Code.
On campus – he often visits GHS when students are on break – Terasaki works closely with administrators and campus supervisors to prevent and quell any discipline problems. Campus Supervisor Chris Lemmon said she appreciates not only his presence on campus, but his familiarity and interaction with the students.
“It’s always nice to have a police officer to my left,” Lemmon said, as Terasaki stood talking to students nearby.
“Of all the years that I’ve worked on this campus, this is the best year, as far as arrests are concerned,” Terasaki said, estimating arrests now are half what they were in 1999. “I think that we’re doing something positive here on campus and it’s not just me doing it alone: it’s myself, administrators, campus supervisors. As long as we all communicate and work together, we’ll keep making a difference.”
Gilroy High School Principal Bob Bravo was an assistant principal at the school when Terasaki joined the campus.
“It’s a huge impact. I think the school is night and day since he came,” Bravo said.
One parent of a sophomore, who had a nephew attending GHS in 1994 when a fatal stabbing occurred on campus after school, agreed.
“It is a good idea to have an officer here,” Lazaro Rodriguez said, adding that more would be even better on the large campus.
Terasaki’s patience and calm demeanor are needed in a school resource officer, Bravo said.
“He never loses his cool,” he said. “It’s hard to even get him to raise an eyebrow at something. … You need to be patient with kids.”
Add to that his high visibility on campus, and Terasaki becomes an officer students respect and trust. He is approachable in a way that other police officers are not. A select number of students each year make a habit of talking to him on campus, Terasaki said, while others approach him to ask specifically about law enforcement as a career.
“The kids feel comfortable going up and talking to him because he’s here so much, and knows so much, and knows a lot of them,” Lemmon said. “He’s a police officer, but he’s more approachable than just another police officer on the street because he’s more familiar.”
Several students at GHS Thursday afternoon said they knew Terasaki and saw him as much as other campus supervisors or administrators.
“I see him every day,” said Lauren Elseree, a senior. “I feel safer, because there’s lots of fights.”
“I don’t think he’s ever lorded over the kids,” Bravo said. “But he also takes care of business. I can’t think of a better person for us to get for the first (school resource officer).”
Although Terasaki leaves big shoes to fill, as Bravo put it, his replacement, Officer Cherie Somavia is already meeting with school administrators and preparing to take over the position. A six-year veteran of the department, Somavia is currently on patrol and has been a juvenile intervention officer with the Anti-Crime Unit. She will become the school resource officer in July.
