(FOX40.COM) \u2014 If you\u2019re a Natomas parent, security at your child\u2019s school will soon look a lot different. Natomas Unified School District confirmed \u2014 starting in January \u2014 schools will no longer have school resource officers monitoring campuses.<\/p>\n
The school district clarified that safety positions are not going away. Schools will still have people assigned to monitor and protect students on campus, this just won\u2019t be through the Sacramento Police Department anymore.<\/p>\n
School safety has been a hot topic on the local and national scales for years. The California School Boards Association, or CSBA, reported 226 school shootings in California since 1970. According to the CSBA, in 2022, about 46% of traditional public schools had school resource officers, SRO\u2019s, as a primary form of protection. This included Natomas Unified School District schools \u2014 until now. Starting in January, the Sacramento Police Department will reassign SRO\u2019s to city patrol duty. Amid ongoing staffing shortages, the department said this is to ensure they can \u201cmeet emergency response needs citywide.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some parents told FOX40 they fear this could make schools less safe. They said they believe SRO\u2019s help deter violence simply by being present. Meanwhile, other parents told FOX40 that they welcome this change.<\/p>\n
Teyahnee Ridgle is the parent to a Natomas 12th grader, but she\u2019s been heavily involved with student safety in the past. She said students told her there\u2019s such thing as being too policed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey felt like it was more of a prison than it was a learning environment,\u201d Ridgle said. \u201cThey were like overly monitored.\u201d<\/p>\n
She served at Natomas Charter School as a campus monitor. These security ambassadors are not armed nor contracted with formal law enforcement agencies. However, Ridgle said students still said these monitors made them feel like they weren\u2019t trusted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t need to feel like they\u2019re criminals on the campus,\u201d Ridgle said. \u201cCampus supervisors are sufficient.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Natomas Unified School District said they are continuing other safety measures \u2014 including their Safety and Safe Schools Department, which focuses on training. They\u2019re maintaining partnerships with safety consultants and the \u201cSandy Hook Promise\u201d reporting system to encourage students to report concerns. Ridgle said she believes conversations about safety and proper school behavior start at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to teach our kids how to do more at de-escalating,\u201d Ridgle said. \u201cThey\u2019re going to need that, those skills in everyday life. We\u2019re not going to always have an officer there. I try to tell students to like, walk away from these situations. And sometimes that\u2019s all it takes is just someone giving them different ways of how to deal with situations.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement sent to the school body and FOX40, the school district\u2019s superintendent, Robyn Castillo, said safety is the highest priority and that leaders have developed a new safety plan. The district has developed a security position that will be assigned to each school. School leaders said \u2014 like SRO\u2019s \u2014 people in this new role will support schools in safety intervention and prevention duties. They\u2019re also increasing the number of \u201cCampus Safety Specialists\u201d at middle and high schools to \u201chave increased adult presence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ridgle said it\u2019s important to teach high school aged kids that actions have consequences in order to prepare them for the real world.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that students need to be aware of processes and procedures, and know that they will be held accountable for their actions if they are to do something that\u2019s inappropriate at school,\u201d Ridgle said.<\/p>\n
Natomas Unified School District is actively recruiting candidates for this new role. For updates you can visit Natomas Unified School District<\/a>\u2018s website. These new safety positions will be individuals hired by the school, rather than contracted through a law enforcement agency like school resource officers are now.<\/p>\n Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n