Anti-Weapons Message Pushed

Reseda High officials pitched a fledgling program aimed at deterring students from carrying weapons on Los Angeles Unified School District campuses to student leaders and administrators this week.

Persuading students to “break the code of silence” by turning in weapon-carrying students could be a long-term solution to rising crime in schools, Reseda officials said during a conference at Sylmar High School.

“We’re trying to persuade young people why it’s right to tell an authority figure if they see a weapon on campus,” Jay J. Shaffer, Reseda’s student cabinet adviser, told a gathering of teachers who serve as student advisers.

The school’s student body president, Elvira Garay, made a similar pitch on the WARN (Weapons Are Removed Now) program to 40 fellow student leaders. Formed after the shooting death in February of Michael Shean Ensley on the Reseda campus, the program features high school students who preach to elementary and junior high students on the dangers of weapons.

Garay made a believer of Ana Verdin, the ASB president of San Fernando High School.

“I believe if I see someone carrying a weapon, I will call the hot line,” said Verdin, referring to a districtwide hot line to turn in students who carry weapons. “I don’t want to see the consequences and then regret it.”

About 250 people attended the conference for principals, presidents and advisers at Sylmar High School. The conference gives students and administrators a chance to exchange ideas on campus safety, finances and other educational issues, said Dan Isaacs, the district’s assistant superintendent of the senior high schools division.