Students on Wednesday protested a proposal by the college administration to place a Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputy on the Gavilan College campus in Gilroy starting next fall semester. They argue that the recommendation by President Dr. Steven Kinsella, expected to be made to the board of trustees at their meeting next week, goes against the advice of students, unions for faculty and staff and the Academic Senate who are concerned about having an armed presence on campus.
Denise Apuzzo, president of California School Employees Association Chapter 270, which represents campus security officers, said the money to fund the deputy had been earmarked for an additional full-time campus security officer who could work in the evenings, along with and a daytime parking monitor. She was told those positions are now off the table and the director of campus security position would not be filled. The former director retired in December.
Campus security already works with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department and the California Highway Patrol, which patrol the Gilroy campus and enforce federal, state, and local laws, including criminal laws and vehicle code violations as well as handling the investigation of all criminal and traffic cases that occur on the Gilroy campus, according to the Gavilan college website.
“Our security staff have been able to provide more than adequate security,” said Apuzzo. “This recommendation is not in the best interests of students, staff or faculty.”
Students representing the Associated Student Body of Gavilan College said the $248,000 in salaries would be better spent hiring campus security officers and funding mental health programs. At the gathering, student protesters also highlighted the risk an armed presence would have on triggering anxiety among veterans and alienating students who may have been in trouble with the law before but who are turning their lives around.
“Gavillan is a very safe place and we do not want guns on campus,” said Adrian Lopez, a student body officer and student trustee on the Gavilan Joint Community College District Board of Trustees, where he has an advisory vote. He said 350 students so far have signed a petition against the proposal.
“We have a relationship with campus security; we trust them,” said Iris Cueto, 22, who serves as vice president of student activities on campus. Cueto who is in a wheelchair because of gun violence, said she feels the campus security police would be better equipped to handle conflicts on campus rather than an armed law enforcement officer.
Protesters were also critical that the sheriff’s deputy is scheduled to work during the day, not in the evening.
Not everyone at the protest, however, was against the proposal.
Student Connor Quinn, 29, said while he feels safe on campus and had not experienced an active-shooter situation at the school, having an armed law enforcement officer on campus “is not a big deal.”
“People are less likely to do something; it’s a deterrent,” he said.
Pausing on their walk through campus, JJ Johnson, 19, and Jamie Ross, 18, said having an armed sheriff’s deputy would create an impression in the community that is at odds with their own personal experience of the school.
“We saw more fights at our high school than we do here,” said Johnson, adding he feared people would attempt to do “stupid things” knowing there was a deputy on campus.
“I would rather see more campus security than a sheriff’s deputy who can only be at one place at one time,” said Ross, adding that the presence of an armed deputy may give visitors or prospective students pause for thought.
“People will say, ‘why do they need a sheriff or gun here? They must have lots of problems—I don’t want to go here.’”
