Antonio Cavasos Is Responder Of The Week

By Shawn Yorks

news1@ulyssesnews.com

Antonio Cavasos has seen generations of students pass through the halls of USD 214 schools as School Resource officer for the past 25 years.

Before that, Cavasos worked in the engineering department for the school district for 14 years.

“To be honest with you, I applied kind of like as a joke,” Cavasos said.

But he said God had a different plan for him, and that “joke” has turned into a successful career.

When then-school resource officer Ray Gutierrez went back on the streets, Cavasos took the opportunity, and hasn’t looked back.

“The best part of my job is being with the kids,” Cavasos said. “I love being around the kids, it reminds me a lot of me growing up because there’s a lot of kids who go to school and some have issues. My life wasn’t perfect, but I take what I’ve learned through life and tell the kids, ‘Your life can be different, you make of it what you want it to be. Just because people tell you you’re not going to be successful (or) you’re a nobody, that’s a lie, you are somebody.’”

Originally from San Antonio, Texas, Cavasos has encouraged a generation of USD 214 students, and it all began with his law enforcement training in Hutchinson. While the training conditions in Hutch during the winter was brutal, Cavasos also said it was “awesome.”

Cavasos moved to Ulysses when he was 16 and was originally supposed to move to California.

“Every summer I would come here to play baseball,” Cavasos said. “We were just passing through because my dad was going to go to California for a job there with his other brother. Then my dad got a job (in Ulysses), and we ended up staying.”

Cavasos said Ulysses is home.

And while working with the students has been a positive experience, there can also be bad experiences. March 27, 2008, was one of those tragic experiences that has stayed with Cavasos.

“That was when we had that tragedy of the four girls who passed away,” Cavasos said. “I think that was the hardest thing for me was to notify some of the parents.”

Seventeen-year-olds Victoria Dowell, Julia Alcala, and Veronica McDaniel, and 16-year-old Myranda Mason were killed in an accident at U.S. 60 and Stubbs Road.

Cavasos saw the girls get into the vehicle.

“That’s the hardest part,” Cavasos said.

Looking to the future, Cavasos said he would like to retire “Sometime,” but it’s not quite time for that, just yet.

“I feel God has me here for a reason,” Cavasos said. “I guess when I feel He says ‘Hey, I need you elsewhere.’ Then I will go. But right now, I’m pretty happy where I’m at. It’s been pretty awesome, it’s been tough at times, but that’s the life in law enforcement.

“Nobody said this was going to be a bed of roses, you’ve got a lot of thorns in there,” Cavasos added. “But you learn from it.”

Cavasos wants the students he sees every day to know they can be successful.

“I love what I do, this is an awesome job,” Cavasos said.