Cipriano Vargas was the deciding vote to fire School Resource Officers from Vista’s schools. He voted to remove them despite parents, students, and teachers telling the board that the officers kept them safe. Since the removal of the officers, there have been a number of safety concerns on Vista schools.
On March 7th, 2022 a gun was reported on the campus of Rancho Buena Vista High School. Students were wrongly sent to the football field by admin staff due to a lack of communication which put them in harms way and made them an easy target to be killed. Students were confused during the incident and many were hurt trying to get to safety.
Students and parents agreed that the situation was handled poorly and would have been handled better had there been an officer on campus. One parent who is a former SRO described it as a “clown show”. A student also launched a petition on change.org to bring SROs back to campus, “we need our SROs back on campus, we need those resources at all times…we need people on campus who can be there for something like this”
In late August, a special needs student was assaulted in the locker room of Vista High School. Many in the community have blamed a lack of SROs in Vista schools as the reason why student delinquency is on the rise.
Cipriano Vargas’ vote to fire School Resource Officers from Vista schools has put our children in danger. Despite parents, teachers, and students imploring him to not fire them, he chose to do so. In doing so, he failed to protect the students he swore an oath to protect.
Related News Articles and Sources:
Vista school district votes to remove school resource officers
https://www.10news.com/news/local-news/north-county-news/vista-school-district-votes-to-remove-school-resource-officers
Vista school officials criticized for ‘poorly’ handling alleged gun threat
https://thecoastnews.com/vista-school-officials-criticized-for-poorly-handling-alleged-gun-threat/
VUSD needs to take action on the RBV lockdown stadium situation
https://www.change.org/p/vusd-needs-to-take-action-on-the-rbv-lockdown-stadium-situation-vusd-needs-to-take-action-on-the-rbv-lockdown-stadium-situation
Investigations continue into alleged misconduct of Vista High football players
https://thecoastnews.com/investigations-continue-into-alleged-misconduct-of-vista-high-football-players/