LOS ANGELES : Rape Prompts Schools to Start Buddy System

Students in the Los Angeles Unified School District, from pre-kindergarten through adult school pupils, will be asked to take a buddy to the bathroom under a new safety policy approved Monday night.

The system was proposed by Board Member Barbara Boudreaux in response to the rape of a kindergarten pupil two weeks ago in a bathroom at 66th Street Elementary School in South-Central Los Angeles.

Boudreaux said requiring that students travel in pairs or threes when they leave class for any purpose is essential for elementary and middle school students and should also be applied “as appropriate” at the secondary and adult school level.

“I hope this motion would tighten it up for all of our schools,” she said before the 4-2 vote was taken.

Dissenting board members Mark Slavkin and Vicky Castro expressed reservations about making the policy mandatory in a district that is working toward more local control of schools. Board member Julie Korenstein, who abstained from voting, said that including the upper grades was extreme.

“I can’t imagine . . . a burly football player having to have another player accompany him,” she said.

Boudreaux had promised to legislate what is already common practice at many schools after parents of 66th Street students complained that the kindergartner should not have been left alone. Two days after the Jan. 23 incident, a 16-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of committing the rape.