Stronger Anti-Gang Enforcement Urged : Education: Parents and administrators are stunned by the number of students bringing weapons to school.

In Ventura, the fatal stabbing of a 17-year-old Ventura High School student has triggered calls from parents and community leaders for stronger anti-gang enforcement efforts by police and schools.

In Oxnard, the community is still in shock over the assault of a junior high school principal last month by a student wielding a miniature baseball bat.

In Thousand Oaks, eight students have been expelled for carrying knives and five for carrying guns in the last 18 months.

And in Simi Valley, the numbers are even higher--14 students expelled for possession of knives, four for packing guns and one for carrying a homemade Molotov cocktail.

Throughout Ventura County, parents and school officials say they are stunned by the number of students bringing weapons to school and the increasing potential for violence on campus. They also express fears of the growing influence of gangs in their communities.

“I think the police are really making an effort, and I think the schools are trying,” said John Strobel, father of Jesse Strobel, the Ventura youth who was slain. “But I just don’t think they know how bad the problem is.”

In response to the outcry in the community, Ventura school officials are looking at ways to tighten security on school campuses and are considering adopting a new dress code policy to ban clothing associated with gangs.

The City Council on Monday will discuss the possibility of closing down a section of Poli Street, which divides the Ventura High campus, to lessen the possibility of drive-by shootings.

Mayor Greg Carson said the city also plans to hold a town hall meeting Wednesday to let residents give their views about what more can be done to curb gang activities.

“I want to take this uprising in the community and use it to come up with some kind of solution,” Carson said. “When gang violence gets to this level, it cannot be tolerated anymore.”

Officials in other school districts across Ventura County said they plan to continue to update their anti-gang programs and work with police to track gang activities in and around school campuses.

Some of them are experimenting with new security measures.

Two high schools in the Conejo Valley Unified School District this year began their own crime stopper programs. The schools reward students for information about pupils carrying weapons or drugs. Rewards range from $100 on up and are paid for with donations.

“It’s a good program because the kids are basically policing themselves,” said Supt. William Seaver. He said he did not know how many students have actually participated in the program.

Despite the uproar in Ventura and elsewhere, county school officials maintain that violence on campus, whether committed by gangs or others, is rare. They point out that Strobel’s slaying occurred off campus.

But the potential for violence on school grounds was brought home last month when Pete Nichols, principal of Haydock Intermediate School in Oxnard, was hit over the head with a small club by a high school student.

Nichols was trying to shoo a group of continuation school students off the campus when he was assaulted. The blow to his head opened a two-inch gash that required three stitches. Nichols’ assailant was later arrested.

“The boy that hit me was wanted by the police for other crimes,” Nichols said. “I view what happened to me as a failure of the juvenile justice system and the state of California in dealing with out-of-control kids. It is clearly not the role of schools to deal with out-of-control kids.”

Yet teachers and school administrators find themselves taking on more responsibility for keeping their campuses safe from crime and gangs, Nichols said.

“Any time I go out in the parking lot and confront complete strangers carrying deadly weapons, like knives and baseball bats, I am taking over a police function,” he said. “No one ever said we were supposed to be the police, the district attorney or probation officers. But, nevertheless, that is what we have become by default.”

Supt. Joseph Spirito of the Ventura Unified School District expressed similar frustrations when he met recently with Strobel’s family and members of the community to discuss the youth’s death.

“We’re not the police,” he said. “We’re educators. We used to teach the three R’s. Now we have to teach kids about gangs, drugs, AIDS and sexual harassment. Sometimes we wonder when we’re going to have time to teach kids how to read.”

During the last 18 months, the Ventura school district has expelled one student at Cabrillo Middle School for slashing the hand of a classmate with a knife, and another for carrying an unloaded gun on campus at Ventura High.

But students said these are isolated incidents and should not be a reflection of the entire district.

Sarah Knox, a 17-year-old senior at Ventura High, said there are a number of gang members who attend her school but they seldom cause trouble. Most gang activities, she said, occur off campus.

“The problem is not the high school,” she said. “The problem is with the community.”

Classmate Kara Spivey, 16, agreed.

“It’s sad that it took something like what happened to Jesse to get Ventura to wake up and see what’s going on,” Spivey said. “But they don’t want to realize how bad it is.”

Strobel’s father said his son told him last month that gang members at Ventura High School had severely beaten one of his friends and had told Jesse, “We’re going to get you.”

But Ventura police have not confirmed that Jesse Strobel’s death was gang-related. He was stabbed in the chest Jan. 29 as he walked home late at night from a part-time job at his father’s pizzeria in the Pierpont area.

Lt. Don Arth said there is also no evidence to link the slaying with two other stabbings that occurred earlier in the day.

Anthony Ortega, 18, was stabbed three times in the back in the 100 block of West Mission Street shortly after 2 a.m. Three hours later, police found Jose Olvera, 30, nearby, also suffering from stab wounds.

It was the second time that Ortega, a student at Ventura Adult School, has been attacked in four years.

In March, 1989, Ortega, then a freshman at Ventura High School, was shot six times as he and a friend walked along Main Street two blocks from campus in the middle of the afternoon.

Ortega survived the drive-by shooting engineered by four members of a Santa Paula youth gang. The four were later arrested and convicted.

Ortega blamed the first incident on a case of mistaken identity. He said he is at a loss to explain the second attack but does not believe it is gang-related.

“My life is just not lucky, I guess,” Ortega said last week from his hospital bed.

However, Ramona Ortega, the youth’s mother, said she feels gang members may have been responsible. She said her son sometimes associates with gang members and that she lives in constant fear for his life.

“It’s got to stop,” she said. “My son has worn out his nine lives. He cannot pull out of another tragedy like this.”

Meanwhile, in Oxnard, Police Chief Harold Hurtt said police and school officials need to work more closely together to help stem the gang problem in that city.

“We can do a very good job of keeping the peace in the community if we can gauge what’s going on in the schools,” he said.

However, the Police Department has been forced to drop some of its gang and drug-prevention programs with area schools because they can no longer afford to keep them going.

Only two of six schools in the Oxnard Union High School District still have a police liaison: Oxnard High School and Channel Islands High School. Each school pays about $10,000 a year for the service.

Christine Smith, director of student services for the high school district, said the program is vital in helping to create a strong relationship between students and police.

“Students need to have contact with police, outside of a problem situation,” she said.

In the past year and a half, the district has expelled 26 students for carrying knives, three for carrying guns, one for threatening a teacher and one for attempting to run down another student with a car.

Smith said many students caught carrying weapons often tell her that they are afraid of walking through certain neighborhoods on the way to and from school.

“But I think they’re afraid of kids in school, too,” Smith said. “They fear other students.”

Fines Stevenson, a 16-year-old junior at Oxnard High School, said racial tensions run high among Latino, black and Anglo students. Stevenson said he has been in several fights over the simple fact that he is black.

“It’s not a gang thing,” he said. “It’s a race thing. Sometimes I feel like I’m back in Arkansas. You can’t go to any secluded places by yourself or you get hassled. What it’s all about is watching your own back.”

Smith acknowledged that there are racial tensions on campus.

“Schools are a reflection of society,” she said. “Whatever is going on in the community is going on in the schools.”

Students at Simi Valley’s Royal High School said their school is also plagued by racial tensions, primarily between Anglo students and Latinos affiliated with local gangs.

Carla Gerber, a 15-year-old freshman at the school, said that while the majority of gang members are not violent, they occasionally harass white students on and off campus. For this reason, she said, students often bring knives to school for protection.

One of Gerber’s classmates showed a reporter his knife. He said it was not for protection but for use as a tool in one of his classes.

One admitted gang member said his friends often bring weapons to school.

“One of my homeboys brings a gun to school on a regular basis,” said the 17-year-old youth, who uses the gang nickname Little Travieso.

But Travieso, which translates roughly as one who gets into trouble a lot, said gang members rarely bother other students. He said if they get into fights, it is usually off campus and with other gang members from Moorpark or the San Fernando Valley. Travieso said he himself never carries a gun or knife to class.

“I don’t think I need a weapon at school,” he said.

School board member Debbie Sandland, who was elected to the panel in November, said she is alarmed at the number of students bringing weapons to school.

“This is completely unacceptable,” she said. “Maybe we need to do like the Los Angeles Unified School District and install metal detectors at the schools. We have to ensure the safety of students regardless of the measures we have to take.”