BREA : School District Joins War on TV Violence

The Brea Olinda Unified School District this week joined the battle against violence on television.

Trustees adopted a resolution supporting the national Citizens Task Force on TV Violence in its call for federal action against violent television programs.

The task force wants the U.S. attorney general to consider seven recommendations:

* Adoption of a code that would prohibit gratuitous violence in programming between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.

* Allowing parents to control what their children watch on television by installing mechanical or electronic devices that would block out violent programming and to help develop a violence rating system.

* That the Federal Communications Commission conduct hearings on possible voluntary and regulatory solutions to television violence.

* Strengthening the Federal Children’s Television Act by increasing “beneficial programming for children.”

* Eliminating violent television programs in prisons.

* Calling for a White House conference on violence to focus on the causes of the “nation’s epidemic of violence.”

* Calling for television industry discussions to “identify, control and reduce violent programming.”

District Supt. Edgar Z. Seal said even violent television cartoons encourage youth violence.

He cited a recent Cal State Fullerton study that concluded that allowing children to watch “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers,” a cartoon about spandex-clad super heroes who use karate chops and magic swords to conquer monsters, can be dangerous.