Strict Precautions Failed to Avert School Shooting : Violence: Despite tight security, a student is wounded outside Valley campus. ‘What else can we do?’ official asks.

Chatsworth High School, a place where no one had ever been shot, boasted a multitude of safeguards.

Administrators regularly conducted random weapons searches with hand-held metal detectors. Workers erected a chain-link fence around the school perimeter over the summer to keep strangers out and students in. Stringent attendance and tardiness policies discouraged youths from scooting off campus or dawdling in hallways. Leadership and communication groups meet daily to discuss peaceful ways of resolving conflict.

And despite it all, 17-year-old Gabriel Gettleson, a senior described as an unassuming and diligent student, was shot three times Wednesday afternoon in front of the school by attackers who demanded his backpack.

The school community looked for answers and found only anguish.

“It’s so frustrating,” Principal Donna Smith said Thursday. “What could we have done? We can’t make kids prisoners. What else can we do, short of having parents go into the classroom to pick up their kids?”

Karen Patterson, the mother of a junior at Chatsworth High, said: “This school has a priority of safety. What can we do in cases where it’s so random?”

Ed Humes, who was picking up his grandson after class, said: “We knew it was coming, but we were hoping it never would. I guess we’re not on an island here.”

In Wednesday’s attack, which occurred about 45 minutes before classes were dismissed at 2:25 p.m., Gettleson was waiting for his mother when a group of youths drove up in two vehicles and demanded his backpack, which contained only books. He refused, and one of the youths fired several rounds from a handgun, striking the boy in the chest, shoulder and hip.

Gettleson said the youth smiled as he shot him, according to a family friend, Gary Washburn. “He can’t believe it--not for books,” Washburn said.

The wounded youth was in serious condition Thursday afternoon at Northridge Hospital Medical Center, awaiting a decision on whether surgeons can operate to remove a bullet lodged near his spine, friends said.

Five youths who rode in one of the vehicles, a blue Jeep Cherokee, remained in custody at Sylmar Juvenile Hall on suspicion of robbery, authorities said. The youths, ages 15 to 17 and all from the San Fernando Valley, were not identified because of their ages.

Los Angeles police have not yet caught a shooting suspect, believed to be one of two youths riding in a white BMW.

In the wake of two fatal on-campus shootings last school year, the mammoth Los Angeles Unified School District has undertaken safety measures to curb school violence--from the metal detector patrols to a toughened expulsion policy for students caught with guns.

Still, “this is not just on campus--it is on the streets,” said Dick Browning, who oversees the district’s 49 high schools. “This is bigger than all the metal detectors in the world could solve.”

At Chatsworth High on Thursday, where a district crisis team and extra school police were deployed to allay students’ fears, parents and teen-agers expressed dismay and anxiety over the shooting of Gettleson.

But missing, for some, was shock.

“It could’ve happened to me,” said Becky Amiri, 16, who often waited with Gettleson and other students for a ride at the site of the shooting, near a tall brick planter and concrete sign bearing the school’s name.

“I thought I’d come here and everything would be fine,” she said, explaining that she left Cleveland High School in Reseda last year after a teen-age friend died in a drive-by shooting. “Nowhere is safe.”

Faeka Husain, 17, a senior who is in a history class with the injured youth, said: “I always thought these things happened to people in gangs--tough people. (Gabriel’s) a quiet guy. He’s not a troublemaker.”

Fears on the Chatsworth campus and elsewhere grew earlier this year after a youth was shot and killed at nearby Reseda High and another at Fairfax High.

Districtwide security measures adopted after those shootings have been in place at Chatsworth for months.

Any student caught on campus with a gun is immediately suspended and expelled under a toughened weapons policy approved by the school board. The district has set up a toll-free hot line for students to report weapons, and the phone number is advertised prominently on campus.

Administrators also meet with students during the year to impress upon them the importance of breaking the code of silence that often surrounds the possession of weapons by fellow students.

Among new district proposals under consideration are greater coordination among public agencies to deal with youth violence and the development of safety plans at each campus tailored to the school’s specific needs.

Unfortunately, Assistant Supt. Dan Isaacs said, budget cuts totaling $1 billion over the last several years have hampered the district’s safety efforts, eating into its ability to maintain a large enough staff to supervise and discipline students.

About 680 students were absent Thursday, up from 404 the day of the shooting, according to school officials. But the increase may have had more to do with the fact that Thursday was the last day of classes before the winter break than with the shooting.

At the end of first period Thursday at Chatsworth High, Smith announced over the public address system that Gettleson’s prognosis had been upgraded to good, but urged students not to let down their guards.

“Please be cautious and vigilant and observant at all times in this world today--especially coming and going to school,” Smith told the students.

Times staff writer Timothy Williams contributed to this article.

The Toll of Violence

Among the shooting incidents this year at or near public schools in Los Angeles County:

* Jan. 21: A 16-year-old boy was accidentally shot to death and a 17-year-old boy was wounded in a classroom at Fairfax High School on the Westside when another classmate handled a gun he had in his knapsack and it fired.

* Feb. 2: A teen-ager fired several shots at Juniper Middle School in Palmdale; no one was hit.

* Feb. 22: A student at Reseda High School died after being shot in a school hallway.

* Sept. 7: A 15-year-old boy seeking a transfer permit on the first day of classes at Dorsey High School in Southwest Los Angeles was caught in cross-fire and shot in the chest and back by three youths who came onto campus and started a fight with another student.

* Sept. 21: A 17-year-old senior at Leuzinger High School in Lawndale was shot during an argument with suspected gang members outside a school gate.

* Oct. 20: Two hours after a group fight at Venice High School, a 19-year-old student was shot from a passing car as he waited for a bus near campus.

* Dec. 8: A 16-year-old arriving at Wilson High School in Long Beach was shot in the leg after getting into a fight with two other teen-agers who were driving past campus. The shooting occurred just before state Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren arrived to talk about ridding campuses of guns.

* Dec. 15: A 17-year-old student at Chatsworth High School was shot three times in front of the campus, apparently because he refused to give his backpack to two robbers.