By George Molina
“If I had my way, I would hire four more monitors to help with discipline problems at Pueblo High School,” said Ms. Joanna Medina, one of two monitors hired in 2021.
Specifically, Medina said that she would hire more male monitors to help balance the ratio between male and female security personnel.
“Female monitors are not allowed to enter the boys’ bathrooms without knocking first to inform them,” Medina said, “and by that time, bad behavior is missed.”
Medina knows exactly what it feels like to be in charge over hundreds of young people. She was a correctional officer and counselor for criminally troubled girls at the Gila River Detention Center near Sacaton, Ariz., in Pinal County, north of Tucson.
“My job is definitely easier here at Pueblo than at a detention center,” Medina said. “However, our students at Pueblo really need to follow the rules better, listen to authority, and take their learning more seriously. They also really, really need to get to class on time. Finally, I wish that a lot of girls would learn to dress better and not so revealing.”
Medina said that if she were an administrator, she would hire more monitors to enforce the rules—especially a few more male monitors.
Despite her challenges since being hired last January, Medina said that she is starting to feel the warmth of the Pueblo High School community.
“I really like working with the other monitors,” she said. “They all have their own distinct personalities, and all of our differences is what makes us strong and united.”
Medina said that she hopes that students start taking her and the other monitors more seriously as the first semester comes to a near-end.
“Most of our students are great,” she said, “but it only takes a few bad apples to tarnish that greatness.”
