Antelope Valley Teachers Call for More Security

Spurred by a recent gang fight at one campus, more than 75 high school teachers in the Antelope Valley turned out at a school board meeting demanding increased school security and tougher penalties on student troublemakers.

Armed with reports of threats involving guns and knives, fights and intimidation of students by fellow student gang members, the teachers staged a loud protest Wednesday night before the board of the Antelope Valley Union High School District, which covers the entire valley.

“I have tried to believe we’re holding our own. But the truth is we’re not doing it,” said Chuck Keortge, head of the Antelope Valley Teachers Assn., which represents the teachers. “These people are angry because they see this district being destroyed. . . .”

The protest followed a fight Oct. 10 at Antelope Valley High School, one of six schools in the 9,800-student district. About 15 deputies helped break up an afternoon melee involving 12 to 18 people from rival gang factions, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. One adult and six students were arrested, but no weapons were found.

A sheriff’s spokesman, contacted after the board session, agreed with the teachers that gang problems, both on campus and elsewhere, have worsened considerably this year. “It’s taken off this year in a manner we have not seen before,” said Sgt. Ron Shreves of the Antelope Valley sheriff’s station.

Because of the fight, deputies more than tripled their usual presence at the high school’s football game Friday night, with 13 on duty instead of four, Shreves said. He added that the department and school officials are discussing various measures, “some drastic,” for bolstering campus security. He refused to elaborate.

District Supt. Kenneth Brummel said the students who were arrested were given five-day suspensions, the most severe discipline that the district can impose short of expulsion. But Brummel refused to say whether he agreed with the assessment of teachers, who argued that campus security has deteriorated to a dangerous extent.

The district’s board asked Brummel to report back on the costs of two of the teachers’ proposals: giving each campus at least one officer with arrest authority, which district guards presently lack, and installing telephones in each classroom.

But the board took no action on other demands by the teachers. Those included removing gang-affiliated students from campus, imposing a tough anti-gang dress code, using fences and gates to close off campuses to outsiders, toughening district policies on expulsions and verbal abuse by students, improving exterior lighting to make campuses safer at night and ensuring that schools are told when students commit serious crimes.

Board members appeared divided on how to cope with the issue, which has been a growing concern in the district in recent years. Since last year, the district has expanded the hours and staffing of its campus security force. But many other proposals, including some cited by the teachers, have not been implemented.

“We started this a long time ago, but we haven’t seemed to finish it,” said board member Larry Rucker, who complained, as did board President William Olenick, that the panel has moved too slowly. But other board members said the issue has been exaggerated and politicized.

Both Olenick and Rucker are running for reelection on the Nov. 7 ballot. Two other board members, Jarold Wright and Bob McMullen, said a lingering contract dispute between the district and its more than 400 teachers has helped inflame teacher complaints.

The district’s teachers have been working without a contract since the end of the last school year. At that time, negotiators for both sides reached a tentative agreement but teachers voted it down. They are seeking a 10% raise this year, but talks with the district have stalled.

“This is a political year,” said Wright, who suggested that the teachers themselves haven’t used their own authority to control troublesome students by kicking them out of class. “They have that, but it takes a lot of guts to do it.”

McMullen said he doubted that the board would seal off the campuses or take similar measures.

“It’s a political issue now and I believe it’s gotten blown out of proportion,” he said. “The time will come when we have to take some very drastic steps, but that time hasn’t come yet.”

Meanwhile, three black students from Antelope Valley High School voiced concern to the board about anti-gang measures resulting in the harassment of black students. “If I was white, I don’t feel I’d be harassed as much,” said Kaseem Baker, a 16-year-old junior.

But he and George Boykins, a 16-year-old junior, and Kevin Junior, a 17-year-old senior, applauded the teachers’ proposals for tougher security. Speaking of the growing gang problem, Junior said: “I think it’s bigger than people think. This meeting should have taken place last year.”