School Bus to Football Field

The youngsters and adults who attended a high school football game in Southwest Los Angeles last week reasonably expected that the violence of their surrounding neighborhoods would be checked at the entrance gate. But the thugs who sprayed the crowd with gunfire at Jackie Robinson Stadium on Friday seemed hellbent on destroying whatever normality remains in the schools and community.

An afternoon game between Crenshaw and Dorsey high schools was called off after shots were fired from Rodeo Road into Robinson Stadium. Miraculously, only two students out of the 1,000 people attending were injured, and then only slightly. They were hit by ricocheting bullets during the final minute of the game.

That evening a second shooting incident, near Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights, caused school officials to cut short a game between Franklin and Lincoln highs.

Obviously, security at high school football games could be improved by posting more guards and more police officers on the streets surrounding stadiums to discourage hooligans from driving past and shooting. That wouldn’t solve the problem of guns and gangs, of course. The more far-reaching issue is how to protect a generation of youngsters that has become a target. That demands sustained attention.

There is something seriously wrong when our attention wanes in the interval between shooting incidents. That a school bus was raked by gunfire near the City of Industry only the week before Friday’s shootings suggests a disturbing pattern.

Time and time again citizens express horror, shock and outrage over the succession of despicable acts of violence. It’s high time that energy was channeled into demanding our leaders address these problems.