Palmer Trinity School

FOR THE PAST 26 YEARS, Victor Calderon has been a consistent source of warmth and kindness for our students, parents, faculty, and staff. He maintains a watchful eye around campus, always ready to escort an injured student to the nurse's office, and constantly making sure our campus is safe. Victor has worked as a security guard for PTS since July 7, 1993. We wanted to learn more about his time at Palmer Trinity, and so he sat down for an interview. Where are you from? Guatemala. I've been living here in Miami for 27 years, but I lived in Montreal, Canada from the age of 17, and later in Toronto for 15 years. I raised my children here in Miami. What do you love most about PTS? I love everything, but the kids are the most important to me. We have very nice kids, they're respectful, and they're kind to me. I try to be the same with them. How have the students impacted you? The kids have shown me that if you give respect you receive it back. I try to be as kind as possible with everyone because they're so kind. They have impacted and changed me. What is one of your fondest memories here at the school? There was a student who graduated from here, Pace Weber, who always chatted with me. I remember him as a young 7 th -grader. When he graduated, he went into the military and was killed in combat. I remember the military coming in to do a funeral service. It impacted me a lot because I loved him. What changes have you seen happen at PTS over the past two and a half decades? When I started working here, the library was half its current size. The gym and the cafeteria were both very small. The dining area was a tent with picnic tables because Hurricane Andrew blew away part of the cafeteria, and the portables were in the courtyard. Beyond the fence separating us from the Hester property (the current south campus) was a large field of mango trees. Andrew also damaged the gym roof and the trailers, so they had to renovate everything. Around this time, they put glass panels in the library, relocated many of the offices, and started building lockers. The tennis courts were located where the Humanities building is currently located. Later on, the school purchased the Hester property and began to develop it. That was the most important change I saw. As for changes in my job, the school put a guardhouse on the north side of the campus. I had a heart problem, and my boss at the time said that they would put me in there because of my health and I could watch the kids. I would make sure students didn't skip school, and I would collect their passes. That was in 2004. The guardhouse was really small and hot, and only had room for a stool. When Paul Zamek was hired, he began to fix up the guardhouse, and then asked me to start patrolling the campus in a golf cart. Since then, that's what I've been doing. How has school security changed over the past two decades? With the rise of school shootings we've had to change the way we handle school security. We now we have a police officer driving around campus. We have more security guards, more patrolling, lots of cameras, we verify visitors when they come on campus, and if we need to, we call the police. In the past two decades I have never seen anything dangerous at Palmer Trinity. It's quiet, and we hope it stays like that for a long time. VICTOR CALDERON An Enduring Face at Palmer Trinity School By Ashley Valentin palmertrinity.org 22 PERSPECTIVES

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