Jeff Godown: I joined LAPD in 1981, was there during Rodney King, was there during the riots. Los Angeles was really the breeding ground of how to do things right and how to do things wrong. I have seen a lot, and I’ve learned a lot. But I will tell you that school policing was a whole different eye-opening experience for me.

Francisco Navarro: So the mindset around cops in this community, if I had to give you an honest opinion, it’s not a positive one. We obviously need police to protect our cities and citizens, so I definitely think that there’s a place in schools, but it has to be a very honest and working relationship.

Jeff Godown: I started to understand that there are pieces to the law enforcement tool box that are much more successful than that gun, or the Taser, or the OC spray. The biggest weapon that the police officer is armed with that they don’t use is their mouth, that mouth, that ability to have a discussion. So for me, that SEL component is really, really important. When I went in to roll call, and I sat the officers down, you’d have thought I was speaking French to them. Most police officers across the country never understand the complexities of what this person is going through, understanding life and all the other nuances to why you’re there handling that call.

Ron Singh: The typical calls I go to day to day are fights, burglaries, and a major, major calls I go to are sexual assaults. People bring guns to school, knives to school. It’s dangerous. I grab one cup of coffee, and then I head to my assigned school, which is Castlemont High School in East Oakland.

Francisco Navarro: Historically, over the last few years, Castlemont has not been the first choice of schools. This has been more like the last option. The neighborhood around this area is still one of the highest in crime in the city. Many of our students go through a lot. The challenges that they face to get up in the morning and be at school, focused, we try not to make excuses for them. We try to teach them to be able to utilize the folks that are here, and it’s a work in progress.

Ron Singh: The chief of police always told us, take 10 seconds, breathe, see what you got, assess it, and then we’ll go from there. I’ve always taken that into mind, and maybe I’ll talk to the students and find out the story. I try to share my experiences with them on some of the same experience that they’re going through. I try to get them help. I try to counsel them.

Francisco Navarro: Although he wears a uniform and his job is a police officer, we view Officer Singh as a Castlemont staff member, partly because of his efforts to really build relationships with folks here. And it really has changed the landscape of how many of our students think of the police.

Michael Gozony: My friendship with Officer Singh has changed my outlook. Just remembering that police officers are people too. He’s just like me. He’s a pretty cool guy. I do believe that he makes a great effort to meet people and get to know them on a one-to-one level.

Francisco Navarro: I believe the approach that we take here at Castlemont is a true example of how police and schools can work together, where the focus is not, okay, let me be punitive, and let me punish kids, but more so, how can I support kids?

Jeff Godown: If you can’t understand and have empathy for these kids and these families, you’re not going to be very successful. And that has nothing to do with Oakland. It could be Los Angeles, it could be anywhere. Going to radio calls and arresting people and throwing them in jail is not working, and we all know that. And I would not have said that to you in 1982.