On the next-to-last night of her summer class, teacher Lorena Fernandez wanted to give her students a gift as a reward for completing her six weeks long evening government class at San Benito High School. Her gift was for them was to hear Jimmy Panetta, Democratic candidate for the 20th Congressional District, to speak on immigration, which, she reasoned, would mean more to these particular students because nearly all were children of migrant workers.
“I struggled through the summer because I had never taught government and they had really intense questions I couldn’t answer,” Fernandez said. “I thought, ‘what could I give my students at the end of the semester?’ so I invited Mr. Panetta. I was very surprised he accepted because, usually, you have to schedule months in advance to come to your school.”
Fernandez is a substitute teacher with an emergency teaching credential. She said she felt a bit like a fish out of water and had to have some help setting up a lesson plan, and that it was challenging the first few days. She said she has always respected teachers before, but after this experience she has an “extra respect for teachers.”
When considering guest speakers, she admittedly leaned toward Democrats, even reaching out to retiring Congressman Sam Farr, because of volunteer work she had done for the party. She said she had thought of also inviting Republican candidate Casey Lucius, but didn’t know how to contact her. She seemed genuine in her desire for her students to hear someone who could answer their questions, more so than the party line.
As Panetta stepped into Room 475 precisely at 7 p.m. Wednesday, nearly 60 chatting students went silent—with a little shushing from other classmates. Panetta stripped off his sports coat and rolled up his sleeves—to a few catcalls and a chorus of giggles—and more shushing. Seemingly at ease with the classroom of teens, he went on for the next half hour to tell them about himself, all with the underlying themes of “never stand still, always do something” and “serving others, including their country.”
In his warm-up comments, Panetta told them he was very comfortable at San Benito High School because when he was in high school he had wrestled and played football against the Haybalers a number of times. He remembered, in particular, his senior year when he wrestled against Hollister’s Woody Vega, who defeated Panetta twice during home matches, but when it came time for the championships, Panetta said, with an amount of nostalgic pride, that he finally beat Vega.
He told the students that when he was their age, he had no idea what he wanted to do after high school, but he abided by one rule: “always go forward and always do something.” He told them to get out and do stuff, even if they didn’t know what they wanted to do.
“I’m running for congress partly because of that,” Panetta said. “Where I’m from, what I’ve done and what I feel I’ll continue to do, if I’m fortunate enough to be elected for the congressional seat on Nov. 8.”
Then he took the students on a trip through his life experiences, beginning with growing up in Carmel Valley. He emphasized that he attended public schools and a community college, and said it was great that his two daughters would be attending the same schools that he did. Then he explained that he only ended up in Carmel Valley because his grandfather was an Italian immigrant, who came to the country in 1921, passing through Ellis Island, working in the gold mines in Wyoming, and eventually settling in Monterey, where he opened a restaurant in the early 1940s.
Panetta said that being raised in a tight-knit Italian community gave him a sense of belonging and respect for service. He said his parents reminded him the life he was experiencing was because his grandparents had left what they knew, family and friends, to come to the unknown.
“The reason he did that was to give his children a better life,” Panetta went on, as he strode between the rows of children of immigrants. “My parents told me because of his sacrifice you have a better life, then you damn well better give back to this country and community that gave you so much. That’s why I chose to serve in my adult life. It took some growing up before I got to that part.”
While he admitted to being focused on sports rather than academics growing up, Panetta had a strong work ethic. He said to the class that no matter what their plans are, whether they plan to go to college or not, they should use their time always moving forward, as he did. He said his first job was at the U.S. Department of State as a clerk, where he worked on the proliferation of chemical weapons and missile technology, which taught him he did not want to be a bureaucrat, always working in an office.
From there he bounced around for a number of years, working on a NOAA ship conducting oceanographic research off Alaska; waiting tables at a restaurant in Monterey; and working for a nonprofit providing legal services for seniors. He said that even though he was not sure what he wanted to do, he was always “doing something,” and by the time he was headed to law school, he was ready.
“When I was in high school I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but by constantly taking these steps forward, I figured it out,” he said. “I didn’t even know if I wanted to be a lawyer, but I knew law school would be a good education to have. It would help me with my written word and my verbal word, and help me speak better.”
Panetta told how he became a prosecutor, while his wife was a judge, in Oakland, and eventually in Monterey. He said while serving in courtrooms was fulfilling, he had always wanted to also serve in the military, so, at the age of 33 he joined the Navy Reserves.
“I thought I should do this now or I’d regret not having done it,” he said. “Once again, always doing something.”
Panetta said that in 2007 he enjoyed being a “weekend warrior,” but he realized there was more to be done so he volunteered for active duty and was deployed to Afghanistan, serving at a Special Operations command as an intelligence officer for the Special Operations Task Force working with Navy SEALS and other Special Forces units.
When Congressman Farr announced he would not seek reelection, Panetta decided to run for the office because he believed it’s important to give back to the community and country. He said he wants to work on several issues: immigration reform, resources in small counties for mental health treatment, and student loan reform so students can pay back what they owe through service in the Peace Corps or the Marine Corps,.
“It’s important to encourage students like you to serve,” he said. “That’s why I hope providing a National Service Act would encourage you to serve in one form or another to give back to your country. This is a country about ‘we the people,’ all of us doing something.”
After his speech, Panetta said he would take questions from the students, but not before Fernandez took a moment to explain to him that he had been speaking to “migrant students.” He asked how many and she asked for a show of hands. Nearly all the students raised their hands.
When Panetta asked if there were any questions, the room went silent, and he had to coax the kids. Finally, one teen asked him what was the hardest part in the long road to get where he was. He answered that, “Sometimes the hardest thing is the easiest, just making the decision to do something.” He went on to say that none of the decisions he made along the way were easy, but he made them anyway. “Some jobs can be fun. Some jobs can be miserable, but you just have to have the work ethic to get through it.”
Another boy asked him who his hero was. Panetta said his hero was his father, Leon Panetta, who held the congressional seat prior to Farr’s election and served in the Obama administration as director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2009 to 2011, and as Secretary of Defense from 2011 to 2013. The elder Panetta also served as chief of staff for Bill Clinton.
During his speech, Panetta stayed clear of politics, but when a student asked him about the presidential race, he toed the party line, criticizing Donald Trump and the Republican platform.
“When you look at these two candidates, it is the most important presidential race in our lifetimes,” he said. “The vitriol that comes out of this candidate and what he says is playing on fear. And you have another candidate who basically just wants to get things done. She has her faults, there’s no doubt about that, but there’s definitely more light than darkness. When you look at the Republican candidate, I see more darkness than good. When you look at the Republican platform versus the Democrat platform, that should help you make your decision.”
Panetta went on to say, without naming names, “I think there are stupid things that are done. We all make mistakes, but you hope that they learn from their mistakes and continue to go forward.”
There didn’t seem to be any more questions and Panetta pushed for just one more. That’s when 16-year-old Vivian Sierra, who came prepared with two questions, said, “I know this is an opinion-based question, and I know there’s a lot of controversy on abortion laws and I’m not going to push that issue, although I’d like to know why a 13-year-old is allowed to have an abortion without any parental consent, but no minor can be given any medication without parental consent?”
This caused a “gotcha” sort of reaction from the other students.
“That’s the last time I’ll ask for a last question,” Panetta quipped over the nervous laughter of the kids, and then he responded, “To be honest with you, I don’t know the answer.” Some kids moaned at his response, and he went on, “I’m sorry, but I’m willing to say I don’t know.”
Not knowing didn’t keep him from hypothesizing that the pain medication part of the question probably had something to do with schools not wanting to risk liability in case the child became addicted or had a reaction to the medication.
Then he joked and asked for another question because the one on abortion was tough. When no one responded, Sierra said she had a second question.
“Police brutality violates the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments,” she said. “What is your opinion on this hot topic and what can we do before it impacts California?”
Again, her question raised a commotion in the classroom and Panetta asked her to repeat the last part of the question. After she did, he recounted his time serving as a prosecutor and working with the police and how tough the job was.
“What it comes down to that with type of question is, it’s all about respect, from both sides,” he said. “The best officers I worked with were the ones who showed respect to the community that they served. If, as a prosecutor, I saw an officer committing police brutality I’d be the first to come forward. They should be prosecuted. I realize we’ve had a rash of shootings that are being brought to light by our iPhones and video cameras that is exposing something that a lot of people didn’t see before.”
He added that the officers who brutalize people aren’t doing it because of what is in their hearts, but in their heads in the form of the training they received.
“They resort to force. That’s what they’re trained to do,” Panetta said. “It’s incumbent on us to change the training standards as how these officers use force. We want our officers to not be combatants of the police force. We want our officers to be guardians of our communities. In order to get to that, it takes training on how they deal with certain situations, situations that you and I will never be in. But it comes down to having that respect for another human being.”
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