Simi Panel Seeks Plan for Safer Schools

Armed with a report that shows a startling number of weapons in Simi Valley schools, a community task force agreed Wednesday night to devise a school safety plan that would employ hot lines, conflict resolution programs and tougher suspension rules.

The committee cautiously reviewed the report, which revealed that nearly 1 of every 10 secondary school students surveyed had seen a gun on campus.

About 5% of the 5,000 students polled last spring said they have been threatened with a gun, and 5% of teachers said they had as well. The survey also showed that 29% of the fifth- through 12th-grade students had seen a knife on school grounds.

The survey marked the first time Simi Valley Unified School District had polled students and teachers about campus safety, and officials have said they were surprised at the extent of the problem.

“I think that is something we need to review carefully,” Supt. Mary Beth Wolford said of the 28-page document. “It gives us a new sense of direction.”

But many task force members played down the survey’s findings on weapons possessions Wednesday night, choosing instead to concentrate on areas of the report addressing students’ attitudes about school and the campus environment.

“I think when you talk about a safe and productive learning environment, you’re not talking only about safe in the sense of no violence,” Chairwoman Ann Eklund told the group.

Task Force member Al Young echoed her statement.

“We would make a mistake if we focus too much on the dramatic responses,” he said.

The survey was created by UC Santa Barbara researchers and the county superintendent of schools office and conducted by Simi Valley officials last spring after the fatal schoolyard stabbing of a ninth-grader.

The committee, which was also formed in the wake of the student slaying, is using the findings to recommend policy changes and new programs for bolstering school safety.

Task force members and a small audience of parents discussed the report for two hours Wednesday night, and will submit several recommendations to the school board next month. Among the ideas discussed were:

* Encouraging students to report campus crimes such as weapons possession by using anonymous telephone hot lines.

* Establishing a pilot program for “in-house” suspensions, in which students would be required to serve suspensions on campus instead of being dismissed from classes for a day.

* Launching programs promoting conflict resolution and cultural awareness at all Simi Valley school sites.

The committee agreed that an area of concern was racial tension. The findings showed that about 13% of students surveyed last June had experienced ethnic conflict at their school in the past month.

Parent and task force member George Witham said programs geared at promoting diversity would help.

“If we can allow kids to be proud of who they are, . . . make that their badge instead of something to fight over, we feel that would take away a lot of the conflict over racial and ethnic tension,” Witham said.

The committee also agreed that schools must find a way to get children to “buy into learning” and respect one another.

County school officials said the task force and administrators at each school should use the findings as a starting point for addressing safety issues.

“The survey should be used in an overall context,” said Richard Morrison, co-author of the survey and director of pupil services for Ventura County. “It is important not necessarily to take the data literally, but to use the data to raise questions that you hadn’t asked before.”