Simi Schools Cancel Trips, Citing Attacks : King case aftermath: Officials restrict class and athletic travel because district buses outside the area are pelted with rocks and verbal abuse.

Concerned that anger over the verdicts in the Rodney G. King case might put Simi Valley students in danger, school officials have canceled most field trips and plan to keep their sports teams out of riot-torn areas of Los Angeles.

The safety measures were implemented after people in Santa Barbara and Oxnard hurled rocks and slung harsh words at students in buses bearing the Simi Valley Unified School District’s name, district officials said Thursday.

“Basically, we’ve eliminated 90% of our field trips,” said Robert Purvis, the school district superintendent. “No one in our district has been hurt. We just want to make sure there are no serious incidents. We’re taking every precaution possible, and we’ve been encouraged by parents to do so.”

Simi Valley leaders have been trying to disassociate the city from the recent trial that ended in not-guilty verdicts returned against four Los Angeles police officers accused of beating King. But the city’s name has continued to be a flash point among people who are angry about the trial’s outcome.

Because of threats directed at buses identified with Simi Valley, Purvis said the district’s few remaining field trips have been restricted to the city limits and nearby communities such as Thousand Oaks and Camarillo.

High school athletes who must travel longer distances will use chartered buses or other private transportation, the superintendent said.

In addition, any postseason contests pitting students from Simi Valley or Royal high schools against teams from South Los Angeles, Long Beach or other areas where riots erupted will be played in Simi Valley or at a neutral third location, said Stan Thomas, southern section commissioner for the California Interscholastic Federation.

No playoff games will be canceled, he said. But Thomas said his federation and Simi Valley’s high school principals proposed changing the playing fields as a precautionary measure.

“It was a mutual decision that will be in the best interest of the student athletes,” Thomas said. “It’s common sense. We’re not going to risk anything for those athletes.”

Purvis agreed with the extra precautions. “Simi Valley teams will be scheduled to play in situations where no team’s safety will be in danger,” the superintendent said.

Spring sports include baseball, track and field and volleyball. Simi Valley teams will compete in some postseason games that could involve schools in a riot zone, school officials said.

“If we had to play someone from that area, the (other) principal and I would probably get together with the CIF and try to come up with a mutually acceptable site,” said David Jackson, principal at Royal High School.

Jackson said he does not believe that any trouble would erupt among the athletes themselves. “It wouldn’t worry me to play any of the teams from those areas,” he said.

Nevertheless, Jackson said he is keenly aware of the anger that may be directed against students from Simi Valley. Three days after the verdicts in the King case were announced, Royal High School’s drum team was verbally harassed aboard a school bus in Santa Barbara, the principal said.

“My kids were so good on the bus,” Jackson said. “They didn’t yell back. The kids showed tremendous class by not responding to ignorant people.”

On a recent field trip, a Simi Valley school bus filled with students was pelted with rocks in Oxnard, said Judy Barry, a Simi Valley school board member. No one was injured in the attack.