Everyday, students walk in and out of classrooms and through the halls of AGHS past fences and restrooms being guarded by campus security.
This year marks the largest security force AGHS has had for at least 13 years, with a total of four members. The newest addition to the security team is Sarah Winterberg, the only female member of AGHS campus security.
“Because I am a female I am able to go into the bathrooms,” Winterberg said. “It’s very beneficial to have a female to be able to take care of those roles that [the men] aren’t able to.”
However, for Winterberg, being a female in a traditionally male-run field is nothing new. Winterberg served for the Santa Barbara Fire Department before leaving to work for the Lucia Mar Unified school district after her kids were born.
Winterberg has a good relationship with the rest of the security team and doesn’t let her gender and recency affect her.
“It’s business as usual… there’s no difference as far as when I was in the fire service,” Winterberg said.
While Winterberg is the newest member to the security staff, Bill Flester is the oldest.
Flester was an Air Force member for over 20 years. Once he got out, Flester started looking for a job away from the military.
“This job popped up, so I tested and I was hired in 2013,” Flester said.
Over 12 years later, Flester is still serving the campus daily. People who drive by the school before school, after school, or at lunch, can find him in a hi-vis jacket holding a stop sign controlling traffic so students can safely cross.
“I’ve been doing it so long now they just recognize who I am,” Flester said.
Flester’s proximity to the local teen-hangout, Donut Delight, has led to some incidents where he had to call out certain events, such as a recent fight that occurred there.
“Bill had eyes,” Joseph Williams, 10th and 12th grade admin, said “He called it out on the radio, said there was a large group of students, and in need of additional support.”
Martin Cano and Jeremy Adams, while not the oldest or newest members of the campus security team, are still vital to AGHS’s students’ safety.
The two usually guard the 500-hall bathroom and back fence of the school, while the aforementioned patrol the 900-side of the campus.
The spread of campus security is vastly important to their success.
“We are the eyes and ears of the admin,” Cano said.
Campus security may not be directly responsible for discipline, but they do provide admin the information they need to enforce discipline upon students.
“[The security team] will help with searches sometimes,” Williams said. “But for the most part, [when it comes to] discipline, I’ll handle [it].”
Additionally, with the new privilege system that’s been applied to the campus this year, changes have occurred with students leaving campus.
“It seems like kids are trying to do the [right] things so they don’t get restrictions,” Adams said. “They are either really following [the system] or really going against it.”
It seems that everyday there is another issue that they have to deal with. According to all members of the security team and Williams, the student-caused problems are abundant, with students getting in trouble being a “daily” occurrence.
“Its a small percentage of the students, but always the same students [in trouble],” Adams said
The security staff members fill the vital role needed to keep the campus safe and play a part in the comfort and peace of mind of AGHS.
