Searching for Security : After Slaying, Simi Schools Want 2 Safety Committees

Bombarded with calls from concerned parents, Simi Valley school officials have decided to form two safety committees instead of one following the slaying of a 14-year-old junior high school student last week.

The district will form one task force to address security concerns at Valley View Junior High, where Chad Hubbard was stabbed to death, and another panel to consider districtwide safety issues ranging from emergency plans for future earthquakes to precautions against student violence.

Last week, school officials had announced plans to form only one safety committee.

“It just became clear to us from the number of responses we were getting that there were lots of people interested and one districtwide task force would not be adequate,” said Leslie Crunelle, director of secondary education, who will help lead the Valley View safety committee.

In another development, Simi Valley police said Monday an officer had, by coincidence, searched the suspect in the stabbing, 13-year-old Phillip Hernandez, in a graffiti investigation prior to the Feb. 1 killing.

Officers failed to find spray paint or other graffiti utensils on Hernandez. Nor did they find the three-inch folding knife that the boy is suspected of using that afternoon on Hubbard.

Police say they believe the boy may have given the knife to someone else prior to the search.

As police continue their investigation into the killing, school officials are scrambling to cope with community concerns about the violence.

Officials said they received about 30 calls by midmorning Monday from people wanting to serve on a safety committee. The number of applicants is expected to increase to 50 by the end of the week.

The Simi Valley Unified School District will pick 20 to 30 parents, school staff, community residents and students, and at least one police officer to serve on the Valley View committee, Crunelle said.

The panel will consider ways to boost security and discipline at Valley View, which may range from increasing parent involvement on campus to enacting a stringent dress code, officials said.

In contrast, the districtwide panel, called the Safety Task Force, will have 35 to 45 members, representing many sectors of the community, said Director of Elementary Education Ann Eklund, who will head the committee.

Besides parents, students and school staff, the larger task force will include police, fire officials and representatives from agencies that serve children, such as the local park district.

“We need to look at safety in a much larger concept than just violence in the schools,” she said.

Simi Valley school officials had been planning since last spring to form a safety task force, Eklund said, but the killing at Valley View in addition to the recent earthquake speeded the process.

Simi Valley schools suffered more damage from the Jan. 17 Northridge earthquake than any others in Ventura County. Three weeks after the quake, Simi Valley High remains closed for repairs, with its students attending Royal High in the afternoons.

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School officials want to review emergency plans for how they would deal with a quake that occurred during school hours, Eklund said.

“A lot of people want to make sure their schools are safe,” she said. “You always, after any kind of disaster, you want to go back and debrief.”

The task force will probably be limited to about 45 people, but the district will also appoint separate subcommittees to look into specific issues such as earthquake preparedness, traffic safety at schools, discipline and dress codes.

The districtwide safety task force will hold its first meeting on Feb. 16 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., probably at the district offices, Eklund said.

The Valley View committee will convene some time within the next two weeks.

In the police investigation, Valley View students have told police they saw Hernandez carrying a knife in his shoe prior to last week’s stabbing, Simi Valley Police Detective Sgt. Andy McCluskey said Monday.

But some people interviewed have also indicated that the boy did not have the knife earlier in the day when he reported to the school office, where he was searched by police.

“It looks like he did not, that he had passed it off to someone,” McCluskey said.

Police Sgt. Mike King said Hernandez was one of about seven students at various schools whom officers searched last Tuesday after receiving reports that the youths had been involved in tagging. In such searches, officers check lockers and ask students to empty pockets and backpacks, he said.

Based on interviews with students, investigators believe Hernandez had carried knives to school in the past, McCluskey said. They have uncovered no evidence that he was planning to stab the victim when he allegedly brought the knife last week.