Simi Valley School Safety Committee Backs Dress Codes : Education: In effort to stop campus violence, panel also recommends lessons in conflict resolution and other strategies.

Tightening dress codes, keeping suspended teen-agers on campus and teaching students to diffuse anger are among the top recommendations of a Simi Valley committee charged with finding ways to make schools safer.

Comprising parents, school officials and a handful of students, the School Safety Task Force was formed following the first on-campus killing in the history of the Simi Valley Unified School District.

The recommendations, discussed at a meeting Wednesday, marked a major step toward the task force’s goal of developing strategies to quell violence and making students more comfortable on campus.

Parent Sharon Hushka was encouraged by the task force’s progress after being disappointed by the sluggish pace of earlier sessions.

“I was feeling that it was bureaucracy and not action,” she said. “But seeing that (the list of recommendations) is going to go to the school board before the end of June and there’s going to be a result, that’s encouraging.”

From a list of 22 ideas, task force members selected six to present to the board at its June 28 meeting. The 22 ideas were listed on large sheets of paper and members voted by placing colored stickers next to their preferences.

In addition to a stricter, districtwide dress code and lessons in conflict resolution, task force members backed classes on cultural awareness, buying more walkie-talkies and fax machines, and surveying each campus for less visible areas where fights could erupt.

A number of other suggestions received little support from committee members. Those included using hand-held metal detectors, providing badges for campus employees and establishing a toll-free number for students to report crime.

School board President Carla Kurachi, one of two board members on the task force, spoke in favor of the dress code, saying it would discourage discipline problems and promote a better academic climate.

But at least one student, as well as board member Debbie Sandland, disagreed.

“I think kids need that little bit of freedom to express themselves,” Sandland said.

Sandland also noted that banning hats--as some schools in Ventura County and elsewhere have done--could pose a health risk.

“The ozone is breaking down more and more and skin cancer is a serious medical threat in our society,” she said. “It might be putting kids at a medical risk.”

Jerry Garon, a physical education teacher at Hillside Junior High, said he strongly supports establishing an on-campus suspension class for students in trouble.

In most cases currently, suspended students are sent home for several days.

“The ones who are being suspended, they like to go home and watch MTV,” he said. “In fact, they come back and tell you what a great time they had at home.”

Garon said establishing an on-campus suspension program would require more money to hire a supervisor but would also help recoup the $17 a day in state funding lost for every student who is absent from school.

Hushka said several task force members want suspended students to remain on campus and be taught ways of dealing with their anger. A survey of those students could be done later to determine if they stayed out of trouble.

Simi Valley administrator Ann Eklund, who oversees the task force, said the committee will meet again in two weeks to hash out details of each recommendation.

“We may present a majority and minority report” on each item, she said. “If there’s a real strong difference of opinions, we think the board needs to hear that.”