2 Shootings Prompt Campus Safety Push : Violence: After a Santa Ana High teacher escapes a gun battle near school, district has street closed, hires extra guard and gets promise of more police patrols.

Reacting to a recent incident in which a teacher narrowly escaped gunfire outside of Santa Ana High School, school officials have had a section of Ross Street closed off, hired an extra security guard and received guarantees of extra police patrols for the downtown campus.

“Our campuses are going to remain safe,” said Rudy M. Castruita, superintendent of the Santa Ana Unified School District. “There is no way we will let our teachers and students get hurt on campus if we can help it.”

The heightened security measures were prompted by two shootings this month outside Santa Ana High, including one two weeks ago in which special education teacher Jacqueline Russell-Garcia was caught in the middle of a gun battle when she was leaving the school.

The other incident was a drive-by shooting earlier that week. No one was injured.

Russell-Garcia said she was walking to her van about 3 p.m. on Sept. 11 when she saw a blue car cruising along Ross Street. She saw the driver pass another vehicle and then pull slowly in front of her, she said. The driver then pointed a handgun in her direction.

“I saw the gun and ducked,” Russell-Garcia said. “I heard boom! boom! boom! By the time I looked up again, the gunman was gone. The car he was firing on was gone. And I was the only one left on the street.”

One of the bullets penetrated the back of Russell-Garcia’s van and ripped through two passenger seats. Police later found the bullet casing embedded in a seat usually occupied by Russell-Garcia’s daughter.

Russell-Garcia said she did not think she was the target of the shooting and did not recognize the drivers or the passengers in the two cars. No arrests have been made.

Police reacted to the shooting by ordering Ross Street shut from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on school days as the district requested. Since the shooting and the subsequent street closure, no similar incidents have occurred on or near the campus, said Santa Ana Police Lt. Robert Helton.

There was, however, another shooting incident at a school in the county this week.

On Monday, lunchtime at Anaheim High School was interrupted when a gunman in a car fired a round at another vehicle on Lincoln Avenue at Citron Lane, outside the campus. Nobody was injured in the drive-by shooting, but students were not allowed to leave the campus until the end of the school day, said Principal Craig Haugen.

Haugen said some students witnessed the shootings and were able to provide descriptions to police. He added that Anaheim High students were not believed to be involved in the shooting.

After the incident, Haugen said that police have told school officials they will provide extra patrols on the campus.

Extra police patrols and other security measures were also discussed at an emergency faculty meeting convened by Castruita and Santa Ana High Principal Andrew Hernandez two days after the shooting there. Castruita and Hernandez, joined by police officials, informed teachers of the security measure and gathered feedback on how to better protect faculty and students.

In a Sept. 12 memo to the faculty, Hernandez wrote: “We had two major incidents involving firearms being discharged on the outside perimeters of our campus. We have been working closely with the Santa Ana Police Department to raise the level of police coverage.”

Castruita said the district will also update the school’s telephone and intercom system to make sure emergency calls are directly answered by police.

In an interview Tuesday, Castruita said the shootings were exceptions to the ordinarily quiet Santa Ana schools.

“We don’t have control on what goes on in the community, but we can do a lot within campuses to make sure our people are safe,” Castruita said. “We are not going to put up with this kind of nonsense. I refuse to let that happen to our schools and the school board feels the same way.”

He added that school officials are successfully curbing crime on campuses. Students are prohibited from wearing gang-related attire, and, as at other Santa Ana campuses, a police officer and five security guards are stationed at 3,000-student Santa Ana High.

Meanwhile, Russell-Garcia, who has been on worker’s compensation since the shooting, said she is almost ready to go back to work.

“I might be a little scared when I return to the campus,” Russell-Garcia said. “But the shooting is not going to stop me from being near the students. We just need to find ways to stop this kind of madness.”