Officials Try to Ease Parents’, Students’ Fears After Shooting : Violence: A crowd at Reseda High is assured that steps to increase security are being taken. But many worried adults still have questions.

Stunned by the fatal campus shooting earlier this week of a 17-year-old student, more than 250 parents and students gathered at Reseda High School on Thursday evening to hear school officials recount the facts of the killing and to seek assurance that the usually placid school will remain safe.

“In the wake of what happened, we felt it was critical to provide an opportunity for students, parents, teachers and the community to come together,” said parent Marianne Hudz, chairwoman of the Reseda High School Community Advisory Council.

“We want to provide reassurance to the community that this school is safe and will continue to be safe.”

Michael Shean Ensley was gunned down Monday in one of the school’s busiest hallways during a midmorning snack break, prompting officials to pledge to equip all high school campuses in the Los Angeles Unified School District with hand-held metal detectors.

The slaying was the second fatal shooting on a district campus within a month.

At Thursday’s meeting, school officials told the standing-room-only crowd that the district is training campus personnel to use the metal detectors to search for weapons and is posting signs warning students they could be subject to the inspections.

“Clearly the idea of frisking people . . . is difficult,” said district administrator Donald Bolton, “but it’s here now.”

Parent Alice Dabboussi--one in a long line of parents who peppered school officials with questions--asked why the two metal detectors already owned by Reseda High School were not being used regularly prior to Monday’s shooting, especially in the aftermath of the shooting death of a student last month at Fairfax High School.

Principal Robert Kladifko said the devices had been used only for athletic and social events but that the school would begin using them more as more staff members received training.

The school also will search lockers if officials suspect that students are storing weapons in them, he said.

Dabboussi said she still worries about sending her two teen-agers to the school, but “right now, I think it’s the safest school in the district because of the attention it is getting. We’ll see what happens in the future.”

Another parent drew loud applause when he criticized the district’s “opportunity transfer” policy, which allows students with discipline problems to move to another school.

Both the victim and the teen-ager arrested in the slaying were enrolled at Reseda under the policy.

Parents and students, some of whom wiped away tears, listened as speakers, including City Councilwoman Joy Picus, a police captain and school psychologists, described how they responded to the shooting and tried to soothe grieving students.

Elvira Garay, Reseda’s student body president, exhorted the parents in the audience to become more involved in the education and social lives of their children.

She said student leaders are drafting a letter to assure parents that the campus is safe.

“Students must not fear school. . . . Violence already rules our streets--we must not let it take over our education,” Garay said.

Hudz, whose son is a senior at Reseda High, said efforts to bolster security at the school are only a partial solution to the problem of campus violence,.

“It’s a reactive rather than a proactive stance. We have to treat this like we treat tobacco and like we treat drugs--as a public health issue,” said Hudz, who suggested that parents help patrol the campus to stem violence.

“We’re not going to find any quick answers. An hour-and-a-half meeting at Reseda High School is not going to do it. . . . But I hope we can start.”