Officials Are Shocked Over Sightings of Guns at Simi Valley Schools : Education: Knives, threats and intimidation are also common. Results of survey are consistent with other findings.

In a report that reveals a surprising number of weapons at Simi Valley schools, researchers report that nearly one of every 10 secondary school students surveyed had seen a gun on campus in the last month.

About 5% of the 5,000 students polled last June said they have been threatened with a gun, and 5% of teachers said they had as well, according to the new report.

In addition, 29% of the fifth- through 12th-grade students polled said they had seen a knife on their campuses during the previous 30 days.

Acts of intimidation and physical assault were also common at school: Nearly one-third of students said they had recently been stared down or grabbed. About 21% reported being punched, 10% reported robberies, and 6% said they had been cut.

For a city that ranks among the safest for its size in the nation, the results shocked some administrators.

“Everyone’s reaction was, ‘Oh, my gosh!’ ” Assistant Supt. Susan C. Parks said. Officials expressed dismay at the number of students and teachers who said they had seen weapons on campus because few weapon sightings had been reported to administrators, Parks said.

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“If kids are really seeing those things, we need to work on the message that (they) need to share that information with an adult,” she said.

Trustee Norm Walker was also startled by the findings.

“Those numbers are disturbing to me,” he said. “This is something that is going to have to have more study.”

The extensive poll marked the first time the Simi Valley Unified School District has surveyed campus safety.

The survey, created jointly by UC Santa Barbara researchers and the county superintendent of schools office, was administered by the Simi Valley district last spring after Chad Hubbard, 14, was stabbed to death by a classmate at Valley View Junior High School.

The district’s safety task force, which was also created after the Hubbard slaying, received the 28-page report last week.

Using its findings, the panel of about 30 school and community representatives will develop recommendations for improving school safety and will present them to the school board in March, Parks said.

“It really provides a point of dialogue in the district and community,” Parks said. “It kind of gives a base line.”

The results of Simi Valley’s survey did not shock Ronald Stephens, director of the National School Safety Center in Thousand Oaks, which advises school districts across the country on how to deal with campus crime.

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“They don’t surprise me, but they are intolerable,” Stephens said. “It is very difficult for kids to concentrate on learning when they have been threatened.”

Stephens said surveys are a useful tool for discovering what may really be happening on school campuses.

“There is a code of silence,” he said. “Unless you ask, you won’t find out.”

Simi Valley is one of the first districts in Ventura County to assess school violence. Moorpark Unified administered the same survey last spring and found that about 5% of its students had been threatened with a gun, 6% had been threatened with a knife and nearly 3% of teachers said they had seen weapons on campus.

Although the findings surprised both Moorpark and Simi Valley school officials, the numbers are comparable to statewide percentages.

A survey of California students in grades 5-12 conducted by UC Santa Barbara and the county superintendent’s office found that nearly 10% of suburban students reported seeing a gun on their campus, and about 5% reported being threatened by a gun.

Some teachers and students in Simi Valley were bewildered by the findings in their district, while others said they were not surprised.

“That amazes me,” Valley View teacher Peggy Noisette said. “I have heard nothing of teachers being threatened with guns or knives, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.”

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Valley View eighth-grader Elizabeth Strayhorn said she was not alarmed by the survey results because she has seen weapons at her school.

“Oh, I’ve seen knives,” the 13-year-old said casually. “But I’ve never seen any guns.”

According to the Simi Valley report, about 12% of students said they worry about school violence. About 57% said their top concern, however, was getting good grades. About 15% worry about being accepted by their peers, the report said.

A grade-by-grade breakdown showed that fifth- and sixth-graders were most concerned with school violence, followed by junior high and high school students.

Responding to the question, “How often do these things happen at your school?” more than 30% of Simi Valley students said fights and bullying occur quite a bit or very much.

The most frequent incidents involved intimidation, the report said. Nearly 60% of the students surveyed said they had been made fun of by another student and 60% said they had been cursed at.

“The stare-downs, the cursing and the bullying never make the statistics,” Stephens said. “But these things usually happen first.”