'Calm before storm' for school district police

A thin net of Clark County School District Police spread out over the Las Vegas Valley today to greet about 200,000 students -- and a few testy parents -- on the county's first day of school.

The district's 107-member police force had prepared for the worst but pleaded for a quiet, smooth opener. By press time Monday morning, school police were handling mostly traffic tie-ups but no significant crimes.

"The first week will be mellow -- the kids are kind of feeling each other out," patrol officer Jesus Garza said as he cruised his patrol route in the south valley on Friday. "After that you'll start to see kids claiming their turf, fights."

Garza said he had a simple message for students: "We want to let them know we're the good guys."

This year, 43 bike-patrol officers are permanently stationed at the county's high schools, generally two per building, Sgt. Ken Young said. At least five middle schools also have one officer. Another 19 officers like Garza and his partner, rookie Troy Herring, drive from school to school.

"This is the calm before the storm, from what I'm told," Herring said Friday, patrolling the student parking lot at Green Valley High School, the largest school in the district with about 3,400 students last year.

School police typically deal with problems that vary from directing freshmen to class to directing traffic, breaking up fights and investigating stolen vehicles.

School police are academy-trained, gun-carrying officers, with powers of citation and arrest. School police sometimes work with Metro Police when serious crimes occur on school grounds.

They say building a rapport with kids -- their best tipsters -- is the key to their job.

"You don't talk down to them," Garza said. "You talk to them as if they were your own kids. If you treat them with violence, they respond with violence."

The district's worst first day ever came in 1990, when 16-year-old Donnie Bolden was shot and killed by another youth in the crowded Eldorado High School cafeteria, minutes before the first bell rang.

On the first and last day of school, school police chiefs huddle with Henderson and North Las Vegas police. They keep tabs on disturbances in a command center at the district's administration complex on East Flamingo Road.

The key to a smooth first day is being highly visible and diffusing tense situations early, school police say.

"We do a lot of assisting people to the right place," Young said. "We aren't expecting any violence."

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