Fear on Friday Night : A look at how violence has affected high school football games in the Southland.

The Scene: Paramount at Lynwood, Friday, Nov. 1, 7:30 p.m. Estimated attendance: 700. Security: four Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies, 10 hired security, 10 ROTC students, six staff members in and around stands.

The Background: The teams are not main rivals in the San Gabriel Valley League, so neither school requested additional security. Still, security guards searched all entrants.

In 1988, the junior varsity teams got into a fight, but the incident was all but forgotten because many involved have graduated and there have been no incidents since.

Security officers were posted at each entrance gate, at the two gates leading onto the field, outside the locker rooms and around the stands. Four ROTC students and a retired school police sergeant guarded a closed parking lot with such confidence that they told attendants not to set car alarms because they were watching cars and noise would ruin videotape of game.

Lynwood Principal Mickey Cureton was not outwardly concerned about potential violence. “We average 10 to 12 security personnel and four sheriff’s deputies,” Cureton said. “For a school that we have a big rivalry with we would have extra people.”

A Cheerleader’s Perspective: Although Sandy Guerrero, a senior cheerleader at Paramount, says she has no fear of traveling to Lynwood or to any other school in her league, she vividly remembers a time when she did.

“I’ve been doing this (cheerleading) for four years, so I know what to expect,” Guerrero said. “My first year, of course, I had a little fright of what might happen. At first, the thing you hear about is the gangs. But they don’t really come to games, and the system we have is good.”

The Paramount cheerleaders travel to the games on buses with the band, a cheerleading adviser and a “cheer-mom.” A “cheer-mom” is a parent of one of the cheerleaders who makes sure all the cheerleaders are where they should be and is responsible for who escorts them to various places at the stadium.

Parents are invited to ride with the squad to the games.

For easy visibility, cheerleaders leave the bus and enter the game in single file. They use the buddy system to watch for each other and leave before the game is over. “Just knowing everyone is together makes you feel safe,” Guerrero said.