APPRECIATION: Campus aides have many tasks to help upkeep a happy and secure campus.
By Esther Whang, Staff Writer
A campus aide’s job is essential in maintaining the discipline and safety of a school campus. According to the Rowland Unified School District website, campus aides not only supervise students, but also monitor bathrooms for unsanctioned activities and notify authorities of abnormal behavior or unwarranted individuals on school campus. They have many important responsibilities as supervisors of a school campus. According to the Los Angeles Unified School District website, another job as a campus aide is looking out for gang activity, patrolling hallways to make sure nothing suspicious is going on, assisting in dealing with parents of students who don’t behave, supervising students, and notifying school administrators of campus tension. Their job is mainly to keep campuses safe. However, the relationship between campus aides and the students they’re in charge of protecting, depending on how they perceive each other, can result in some misunderstanding.
One of Poly’s campus supervisors, Lani Creely, explained the tasks and challenges of her job, as well as the benefits that come along with it. According to Creely, one of the negative aspects of being a campus aide is that they only get to interact with students who cause trouble rather than students who display better behavior. Because supervisors are known to discipline students who are acting inappropriately, students may begin to perceive aides in a negative way. Creely clarifies that “We’re not negative, we’re not always on you, always busting people; we want to keep the school safe. We don’t want to have all the vaping that happens, so we’re busting the bathrooms like crazy.” The increase of vaping on campus heightens campus aides’ desires to make sure students are safe and not endangering those around them. On the other hand, Creely expressed the positive side of her job when she stated, “I love the people I work with, and Poly is a good campus to be on.” Although campus aides are often seen in an unfavorable way due to dealing with unseemly students, in reality, they are simply doing what they’re supposed to do on a school campus: keeping students safe.
Another Poly campus supervisor, Timothy Glock, voiced his views on how students may regard campus aides. “We mainly enforce the rules,” Glock said. He continued, “Some people may not like that, but I think overall people need structure and I think most people appreciate having us here and having rules to go by.” Yes, there can exist those who don’t exactly appreciate campus aides, but it is important to remember that they are only on campus to do their job and keep both the campus and its students safe from harm.
Students should stop degrading campus aides. Rather than seeing them in a negative light, we should appreciate campus aides for what they do to maintain school safety, which isn’t an easy task.