Torrance Police Tape Students to Make Case for Closed Campuses

The video begins with a glimpse of three high school students stopping a car in the middle of a busy street before jumping in. The next frame shows students nonchalantly tossing wrappers on the shrubbery of a fast-food restaurant. Later, teen-agers are seen hanging out on the sidewalk and sitting on the grass of a residence in which none of them live.

It’s not “I Witness Video,” but an eight-minute tape recently produced by the Torrance Police Department in an attempt to persuade the Torrance Unified School District to prohibit students from leaving campus during lunchtime.

The Torrance district is the only one in the South Bay without a closed-campus policy. But, after nuisance complaints from businesses, the Torrance Police Department hopes to change that.

“In the video, you see kids jaywalking, littering, just sitting in the street,” said Torrance Police Chief Joe De Ladurantey. “It looked like a lot of trouble waiting to happen.”

De Ladurantey said videotaping the students may have been unorthodox, but it was the best way to document what happens during the lunch hour. The video has been shown to Superintendent Arnold Plank and other district officials, who are talking to school and parent groups about changing to the closed campus policy.

“We didn’t want the video to be viewed as anything sinister. The purpose was to identify problems and come up with recommendations,” De Ladurantey said.

Last year, district officials had discussed closing the campuses during lunch, but no action was taken. Plank said the matter was brought up again at the beginning of the school year by the Police Department.

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Torrance police worry that students roaming off campus might run into trouble with gangs, which have been encroaching on the schools’ grounds.

Officer Dave Crespin said that Torrance police have issued a number of traffic and excessive-noise citations to students. Most of the citations, however, have been issued to students from other districts, he said.

Crespin shot the video over a four-day period last month. He spent 45 minutes near each of the district’s four high schools, taping students as they made their lunchtime visits to nearby mini-malls and fast-food outlets.

District officials were not notified of the taping, he said. “If I were working on a project involving the parks, I wouldn’t notify the Parks Department,” he said.

Video surveillance is sometimes used by police departments to assess complaints. As long as it is done in a public place and without sound, the procedure does not violate individuals’ privacy, said John H. Weston, a Beverly Hills attorney who specializes in First Amendment issues.

“The video was an accurate substitution for the officers’ visual observation,” Weston said. “I would be more concerned if they used hidden microphones and taped their conversations.”

Robin Toma, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union in Los Angeles, said: “If they simply turned (the videotape) over to the district, then that’s OK. But if they were to use it to prosecute kids or keep it on file then there is a concern for privacy rights and due process rights.”

Crespin said he does not intend to use the tape for criminal cases against the students.

Some parents seem to be leaning toward favoring closed campuses during lunch.

“I agree with the superintendent when he says let’s do something before something serious happens,” said Claudia Noble, parent of a South High School student.

It’s safer for the students to remain on campus, said another parent. “Some of the kids attract trouble,” said Shina Ash, parent of a South High sophomore.

Yet her daughter disagreed. “It’s the student’s responsibility to act right,” said Tina Ash, 15. “Keeping kids on campus should be the parents’ decision, not the district’s.”

Implementing a closed campus policy, said South High student Luis Burmudez 17, would probably be more trouble than it’s worth.

“Now, half of the people leave campus during lunch, but the cafeteria still gets crowded,” he said. “If everyone had to stay on campus during lunch, there would be chaos in the cafeteria.”

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Some small businesses close to the high schools say a closed campus policy would ruin their business.

“Most of the kids who come here are good,” said Sam Panah of 20/20 Games, a video arcade next to South High. Panah said he admits 15 students at a time during lunchtime, and said they spend at least $30 on his machines each day.

“If the district goes to closed campus, I’ll sell my business,” Panah said.

However, others complain about lunchtime student crowds.

“The kids are out of control,” said Nam Nguyen, an assistant manager at a Taco Bell near South High. Nguyen said he had called the Police Department at the beginning of the school year, and officers would sometimes stop by during lunch.