Reward Considered for Contraband Tips : Antelope Valley: District would pay $25 to students providing information leading to the seizure of drugs and guns on campus.

High school students in the Antelope Valley could earn a $25 reward for informing on classmates with guns or drugs on campus under a proposed new program that will be considered at a school board meeting tonight.

Officials in the Antelope Valley Union High School District hope that the rewards will reinforce their “zero-tolerance” position concerning weapons and illegal substances and say that the identities of student tipsters will be concealed to protect them from retaliation.

“Every precaution would be taken to prevent that,” said Sue Stokka, a school board member who expressed few reservations about the plan. “We certainly would not want this action to backfire on us. The intent is to reduce violence on campus.” The measure, which backers expect to be adopted, would provide the money for tips that lead to the seizure of banned items.

Although other school districts, including Los Angeles Unified, operate hot lines to gather information on illegal activity on campuses, cash rewards for such tips are much less common.

Ventura County’s Conejo Valley Unified School District distributes promotional materials on behalf of the local WeTip program, which offers rewards of up to $1,000 for information about crimes on or off campus. The program and its reward money are managed by a local nonprofit group.

Earlier this year in Memphis, Tenn., the City School District launched a “Weapon Watch” program that promised $50 rewards for student tips that led to the seizure of guns and knives.

Administrators in the 12,000-student Antelope Valley Union district, which includes five four-year high schools and a continuation campus, were unavailable Tuesday to describe exactly how their proposed reward program would work.

At their meeting tonight, school board members will be asked to add a new provision to the district’s operating policies, authorizing “a reward of $25 to any student who will provide information to school personnel which will lead to the confiscation of any weapon or illegal substance on campus.”

Board president Billy Pricer said board members endorsed the idea during a public discussion last spring. He said the program was not brought before the board sooner, for official adoption, because of a clerical oversight.

Pricer, who plans to vote in favor of the rewards, said he believes the tips will come from youngsters who are tired of seeing drug abuse and intimidation with weapons on their campus.

“The vast majority are good students,” said Pricer, who runs a nonprofit counseling program for troubled teen-agers. “They’re like a lot of people in our society, saying ‘enough is enough.’ ”

He believes the board will adopt the program with little dissent. The Antelope Valley board, led by a highly conservative majority, engaged in a bitter legal dispute with state officials earlier this year after refusing to administer the controversial California Learning Assessment System (CLAS) tests.

More recently, the Antelope Valley district declined to join other public agencies in court challenges against Proposition 187, which denies public education to undocumented residents and requires school officials to report “suspects” to immigration authorities.

Board members said the reward proposal is in line with the district’s tough stance against truancy and crime on campus.

“We have come out with school posters and bumper stickers that emphasize that we have zero tolerance for weapons, drugs and graffiti,” said Stokka. “This adds to the zero tolerance (message). We want it out there.”

But Dave Kennedy, a history teacher at Quartz Hill High School, questioned whether many students will inform on their classmates for $25.

“The size of the reward is not persuasive,” he said. “So the question is, what do they hope to achieve by it? If there’s a code of silence, $25 is not going to break down that code. Students who are going to talk will do it anyway.”

Robert Fields, director of campus security at Antelope Valley High School, acknowledged that some students already tell his staff about weapons and drugs, even without a reward.

But he added, “The $25 may increase students’ involvement, as far as letting someone know there are perpetrators around.”

Fields said the success of the program may hinge on how well it protects the identity of student informants. “They do not want to have their names become public knowledge for fear of some type of retaliation,” he said.