Clovis mourns death of school officer known for work with Latino students

A long-time Clovis Unified School District police officer — noted by officials as “one of the good guys” — died on Monday.

Officer Jesse Ceron left behind a legacy of helping students.

“Thousands of young people benefited from his mentoring and because of the positive role model he was for our kids,” CUSD spokesperson Kelly Avants said.

Ceron began work with the district in 2006 and was assigned to the Reagan Educational Center and Clark Intermediate School before working at Kastner Intermediate school.

Prior to joining the school district, Ceron spent 14 years with other law enforcement agencies, starting as a reserve officer with the Fresno Police Department in 1992. He worked for the Parlier Police Department before returning to Fresno, where he spent nearly a decade in the central and southwest policing districts.

He last worked served in the department’s training unit, integrating a Computer-Aided Dispatching System, according to a tribute posted on the department’s Facebook page.

At Clovis United, Ceron was widely recognized for his work, especially in support of Latino students. While at Kastner, he started a district-wide Latino Middle School Student Conference and grew the school’s Latino Club to more than 100 students. He also served on the District’s Latino Advisory Board.

“I saw this as a perfect opportunity to give back,” Ceron said in a speech in 2020 accepting the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools’ Barnett Award.

“When you have 100-plus kids at a monthly meeting, that speaks volumes of what we’ve done and what we can do,” he said.

That same year, Ceron was honored with the Crystal Award, Clovis Unified School District’s highest employee award, and was selected to be the district’s nominee to the Fresno County Classified Employee of the Year program.

Ceron is survived by Yvonne, his wife of 25 years, and his children Andrea and Nicholas.

The district has not released his cause of death at the request of the family, but said he was last at work in June.