RESEDA : Chick Vows Efforts for School Safety

At a summit called to refocus attention on an issue that surfaced in the fall with reports of a serial molester who was attacking San Fernando Valley schoolchildren, Councilwoman Laura Chick vowed Thursday to work with school administrators and parents to improve crime prevention programs in and around campuses.

But the scanty turnout in the Reseda High School auditorium where Chick spoke stood in stark contrast to the emotional crowds that gathered at similar meetings in the fall when the reports first surfaced--reminding those present that the issue has shifted to the sidelines in the wake of the Northridge earthquake and lack of new attacks.

“I am a realist,” Chick told the two dozen principals and parents in the audience. “I know there was a fear factor going on with the child molester. I know we’ve lost some of the momentum we had in terms of making our community safe. But we all know that we don’t live in safe neighborhoods anymore and our schools are not safe anymore.”

Chick invited principals and parent representatives from about 150 Valley schools to the summit, a follow-up to a December meeting attended by representatives of several dozen schools. Chick called the low turnout disappointing, but said the effort would not be derailed.

“It takes a small nucleus to get something going,” she said. “We are going to start something with this.”

At the meeting, Chick discussed a number of crime prevention programs, some already under way, others still ideas.

One was a Safe House program that officers in the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Valley Division launched in January, which the LAPD hopes to have in all 32 West Valley elementary schools by June. Working with schools, police designate pre-screened houses and mark them with green triangles to give children somewhere to flee in case of an emergency.

Another program in place is one at El Dorado Avenue Elementary School in Sylmar where parent volunteers walk groups of children home from school.

Other ideas included an extension of morning and afternoon supervision at schools and a parental notification program in which parents would be called immediately if their children did not arrive at campuses.

Christine Disimile of Canoga Park, who has two school-age children, attended the meeting to voice support for the parental notification program.

“If schools take time to call, it sends a message to our children that somebody cares about them,” she said. “Our first step is awareness.”