Deputy to Hired for Paramount High in Wake of 3 Shootings : Security: The school district and city will share the cost. Supervision also will be increased at two intermediate schools.

PARAMOUNT — Paramount High will soon join a growing list of area schools to station an armed law enforcement officer on campus.

School district officials voted this week to hire a sheriff’s deputy for the high school in the wake of three recent shootings near the campus that left two students dead and injured another last week.

Although officials with the Paramount Unified School District pointed out that the shootings did not occur on campus, the Board of Education unanimously voted Tuesday to spend $25,000--about half the cost--for a full-time deputy who will be stationed at the high school and also be on call if needed at the district’s two intermediate schools. The Paramount City Council last week agreed to pay the other half.

The board also authorized spending $62,000 to increase supervision in the locker rooms of the two intermediate schools, Alondra and Clearwater, and install an emergency communications system at the district’s alternative high school, Michelson.

Having a sworn officer on campus is becoming more common in Southern California secondary schools. The Lynwood Unified School District has spent about $100,000 a year for three years to fund two deputies for its junior high and high school campuses. The Long Beach Unified School District hired a sheriff’s deputy for Jordan High School last spring after gang-related shootings escalated at a fast-food restaurant across from the campus, area Supt. Mary Anne Mayes said.

“We didn’t have a lot of activity on the campus,” Mayes said. “But there is a greater sense of security among students and staff that if something should happen, it would be taken care of quickly.”

The Jordan High deputy spends some of his time teaching classes about law enforcement at the school.

The decision to hire a deputy at Paramount High comes after three episodes of violence involving students. In the first, Paramount High honors student Alfred Clark was killed in June inside the McDonald’s restaurant across from the school on the day before he was to graduate. In September, Sheila Lorta was killed by gang cross-fire as she was returning from the same restaurant to school for cheerleading practice. And last week, 16-year-old Herminio Munoz was wounded when he was shot by suspected gang members at a mini-mall on Rosecrans Avenue, about three-quarters of a mile from the school.

Although district officials have maintained that school campuses are safe, Supt. Michele Lawrence said in a memo to the school board that “recent acts of violence which have occurred on the streets near our high school (have) caused us to re-evaluate our security and supervision procedures at Paramount High School and elsewhere.”

At Paramount High, “the deputy will help beyond the campus, get to know the students and help control rumors and defuse fights,” Lawrence told board members.

The deputy is one of a series of new safety measures, Paramount High Principal Maureen Sanders said. The school has also restricted students from leaving campus at lunchtime. Sanders said that although the new restrictions made some students unhappy, safety was the main concern.

“If it could happen after school, it could happen at lunchtime,” she said. “We did not want to take that chance.”

Two unarmed private security guards have been stationed at school gates, fences around the campus have been repaired, and deputies have stepped up patrols before and after school. Students are required to show identification when they enter the campus, and teachers and staff members are required to wear identification cards at all times. The district also is considering installing surveillance cameras, Sanders said.

“We are trying to prevent people who do not have business at the school from coming onto campus,” Sanders said.

But while the school has taken measures to ensure student safety, Sanders said, grappling with violence will require a more comprehensive approach in the city of 48,000.

Gang violence “is not a parental problem. It’s not a school problem,” Sanders said. “It’s a community problem.”

Lawrence said she plans to organize community leaders, students, parents and school staff to find long-term solutions to stem the violence.

Paramount students said they feel relatively safe at school but are afraid when they leave.

Senior James Tai, 16, said he worries because he has to wait for a ride home every afternoon.

“Before, the McDonald’s across the street used to be just a McDonald’s,” he said as he waited on the corner. “My mom was going to pick me up there, but my friends told me not to wait there. Before, I used to worry about getting jumped. Now, I worry about getting shot.”

Some students, such as senior James Sevire, 18, complained about the new restrictions on campus.

“It’s crazy . . . you can’t go anywhere,” he said. “They’re just keeping us in, like we’re in prison.”

Litia Enoka, 16, said she does not feel safe walking home. “We don’t know when we’re going to die or what’s going to happen,” she said. “I don’t know what the school is going to do to make it stop.”

Munoz, last week’s shooting victim, said he transferred to Paramount High because he feels safer there than at the school he would have attended in Long Beach. He went to live with an uncle in Paramount so he could attend Paramount High.

The attention he received from being shot may force him to leave Paramount High.

School officials withdrew him from the roster after sheriff’s deputies discovered that Munoz’s parents live in Long Beach, outside the high school attendance area.

Munoz cannot attend the school without a special permit if he lives outside the school attendance boundaries, Sanders said. She said she had not talked to Munoz or his parents about his transfer.

Authorities cautioned that the three recent shootings do not necessarily indicate increased gang activity in the area. “It’s just a situation where two rival gangs came together and it happened to be near the high school,” Sheriff’s Lt. Robert Briggs said.