Gritty Deputy Puts Tough Choices To Students Kids Understand They’re On Front Line

A slim boy darted into the school office: “Hey, are you the man who’s coming to talk to us about violence?”

“Yeah,” Jesus Villahermosa shot back. “Are you the person I’m coming to talk to?”

Villahermosa is a Pierce County sheriff’s deputy, who also works with communities worried about youth violence.

Slim and not much taller than the student, Villahermosa took a simple message to Horizon Middle School and the six other schools he visited this week in the Central Valley School District: Bad choices lead to bad consequences.

He told kids it’s their choice to stay or leave places where violence occurs. And it’s their job to help keep their schools safe.

He paced the gym, microphone in hand, and unlaced a store of appalling stories into an audience of squirmy adolescents, until he had them rapt.

Villahermosa told of walking away from insults and refusing to be drawn into fights. His choice.

He told of gang members who died needless deaths and teens who will spend years in prison. Their choice. Their consequence.

He’s a walking dictionary of one-liners, anecdotes and statistics. In his first arrest ever, Villahermosa’s youth and stature so unimpressed the suspect, the tough told the deputy, “Son, if you’re going to arrest me, you’re going to have to go get your daddy.”

Villahermosa drew his gun.

“Sir, meet my father.”

The punch line drew a big laugh. He never tried that trick again, the deputy told the kids.

Instead, he learned to be prepared and pro-active. And to get kids involved.

Who knows first when a gun is in school, he asked? Kids or teachers? “Us kids,” came the answer.

Who knows first when a fight is going to happen? “Us.”

So, he asked, who has the responsibility to let adults know? “Us,” the students answered.

Villahermosa also met with parents and Valley business people Wednesday evening.

The Valley doesn’t have a problem with gangs, he said. But it does have a few kids dabbling with violence. And every community across the country that has ignored a presence of gangs and violence, has ended up with a problem.

Villahermosa advised a zero-tolerance policy at schools, in which kids watching a fight, for instance, receive the same punishment earned by the fighters.

He believes that kids should figure out their own ways to keep their schools safe.

He advocated that parents, teachers and business people set aside stereotypes based on kids’ clothes. Respect a teen for who he is, he urged, the same way most adults want to be respected as individuals.

And he underlined the need for a community that wants safe schools to develop not just a vision, but a strategy, specific goals and deadlines.

“Because talk is cheap. And our kids are waiting.”

, DataTimes