Sharper Point: Student safety should come ahead of parental perception

I just got introduced to a great Phoenix police officer by the name of Jesse Martinez.

I didn’t meet the former Washington Elementary School resource officer in person, but instead through an ABC15 report. I feel confident saying he’s a good guy because that report shows how admired he is and how much he’s done for that school. Unfortunately, that report also explains why he is now Washington Elementary’s former resource officer. 

The sin that led to Officer Martinez’s reassignment? Well, he provided photographic proof of an on-campus safety issue – but did so a little too well for the comfort of school administration.

Officer Martinez’s good deed that didn’t go unpunished was helping to organize “Super Saturday Cleanups” at Washington Elementary after he and others started spotting used hypodermic needles and other drug paraphernalia (!) on campus.

I know! You’d think that would make Officer Jesse Martinez the kind of on-campus cop that schools would be fighting over, right?! Well, unfortunately, the fight between schools to land students has led some administrators to value public perception over pupil protection.

ABC15 reporter Nicole Grigg says that sources tell our TV partners that Officer Martinez was reassigned to patrol because he posted paraphernalia pics on social media. Those photos were put up as motivation for the community to show up en masse for this past weekend’s cleanup.

But – allegedly – those photos led to Martinez moving on because (according to an ABC15 source) “Officer Martinez was told twice by the school’s principal to remove the photos.”

Thanks to Arizona’s open enrollment policy, parents have a choice where to send their kids. And pictures of used drug needles at your school are not going to get a lot of parents clamoring to enroll their kiddos at your school.

So, if you don’t want declining enrollment (like Washington Elementary is experiencing), you’ve got to fix the problem. Or euphemistically cover parents’ eyes.

Listen, I don’t blame the school, the district or Washington Elementary’s principal for the used drug needles showing up on their campus. People do a lot of bad things around 27th Avenue and Northern.

However, I do blame school administrators if they chose public relations over an opportunity to let a whole community know about a problem that only a whole community can solve.

At Washington Elementary, the administration appears to subscribe to the “perception is reality” school of thought. They are hoping that if you squint – just so – you won’t see any needles. And lying to themselves that parental perception is that (in the immortal words of the “LEGO Movie”) EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!! at Washington Elementary School.

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