Our school has been given the distinctive honor of being named after a member of the community who nobly carried out his duty as servant and protector, but who subsequently lost his life in the process. On the night of November 12, 1991, Officer Ernesto Serna of the El Paso Police Department was shot and killed as he tried to detain a shoplifter at a local department store. Part of our mission here at Ernesto Serna School is to instill in our students the same hope, pride, and dignity that Officer Serna displayed as he gave the ultimate sacrifice for our city---his life.
On October 6, 2000, a special ceremony was held during which our school was formally dedicated to Ernesto Serna, an El Paso police officer who gave his life in the line of duty.
The Creation of Ernesto Serna School
Envisioned as a unique school where students from different cultures could attend school and become proficient in more than one language, the construction of our special campus was approved by the Socorro Independent School District in 1999. Mr. Ignacio Solis, Mrs. Becky Quiett, Mr. Mike Mackeben, and Dr. Elena Izquierdo were among the visionaries behind the project. Theirs was a dream which followed a school model that had already been successfully implemented in different parts of the country. Imagine a school in which children embrace their differences and freely use their native languages without apology, all the while supporting each other in their academic endeavors. They would help each other succeed! Such was and is the goal that the creators of our program hoped to realize.
This page is dedicated to Officer Serna, his family, and all the other brave police officers who put themselves at risk each and every day so that we may live life with a little less fear.
