Eyes and ears of the campus

It’s break time at Costa Mesa High School and the lunch area is flooded with hundreds of seventh- to 12th-graders.

Lines form at food counters, kids drop off books at their lockers, and groups of students rendezvous at their favorite hangouts.

John Gates watches it all, but he’s practically invisible as he patrols the area on his bicycle. The kids say they really only notice him when someone breaks a rule.

“He doesn’t do anything. He just sits there and spots people with skateboards,” said junior Taher Ezzat, pointing to just beyond the lunch room.

“He’s here to get us in trouble, but it’s his job. He’s chill,” sophomore Leslye Acosta said.

But sometimes they turn to him for help, too. Gates remembers a student warning him, “So-and-so keeps staring me down. You might want to talk to him before I have to take matters into my own hands.” Then there was the time a student tipped him off to a boy brandishing a knife around school, but was afraid and wanted to remain anonymous.

As a student resource officer in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, Gates’ job is a delicate balance of trust. That’s true of students and educators. Some administrators might want to discipline a child to the extreme — like, say, expulsion — but they ask Gates’ opinion first. It could be just an isolated incident and overall the student is a good kid.

Still, he isn’t surprised at the cool reception from most students. The two other full-time security personnel have had more time to bond with the students. Gates is in his first full school year and he realizes it takes time.

“Getting to know the kids is not an overnight process. You have to work on it night and day. I see the value in their nurturing and becoming the leaders of tomorrow. You have to care about them,” Gates said. He acknowledges he knows only about 10% of Costa Mesa’s high schoolers.

School resource officers are in uniform and have the authority to arrest students, but enforcement isn’t their only role.

“In a nutshell, the student resource officers build relationships with students, faculty, staff, administrators and parents,” said Tom Monarch, Corona Del Mar High School’s police officer.

Newport Beach kicked off the student resource officer program in 2000 and Costa Mesa followed suit in 2001. Both cities have officers on their high school and middle school campuses.

“I’ll tell you right now a lot of kids come up to me with personal issues that they have no thought of approaching the administration with,” Monarch said. The issues sometimes involve problems with bullies, friends and family.

It’s one half authority figure, one half confidant. Those who volunteer to work at a school have to understand how to switch hats.

“The officers on a day-to-day basis try to create a positive relationship with all the folks. In the school community a positive relationship creates great results,” Monarch said.

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at joseph.serna@latimes.com.