The Fight Against Crime: Notes From The Front : Summer Is No Vacation for School Police

The trouble started when a Portola Middle School student got up to accept his diploma, and his proud mother rose to snap a photo.

The beaming mom, however, was blocking another mother’s view of her child’s moment of glory. The result, recounted Sgt. Steve Masters of the Los Angeles Unified School District Police, was “quite a verbal altercation” between the stylishly dressed moms, which his officers swiftly defused.

Such spats are usually the worst disturbance school police see at graduations, but they say they must stay on their toes during the ceremonies anyway.

But what do they do all summer, with the students gone?

While thousands of students celebrate their emancipation from the classroom, school police still must keep the peace at many summer and year-round schools in the San Fernando Valley. Like the students, school police get summer afternoons off. But while the kids play video games or go to the beach, the police are in class--training.

It all starts with high school graduation ceremonies, when school police are in high demand, Assistant Chief Gwenn Perez said. “People are looking for a pristine environment,” she said.

Trouble often comes a few days before graduation, as student pranksters disrupt preparations for graduation, sometimes knocking down piles of tables or chairs stored for use in the ceremonies. “The intent is not to harm anyone,” Perez said, “but unfortunately that does cost [money].”

This year, things are grimmer at Taft High School in Woodland Hills, which Masters patrols. Masters said the recent slaying of 16-year-old sophomore Ramtin Shaolian, allegedly by two Van Nuys gang members, has prompted rumors of revenge at Taft, where Ramtin belonged to a loose-knit group called “Persian Pride.”

“Tensions are running high,” Masters said.

To keep the lid on, extra school police and LAPD officers will watch Taft’s graduation Thursday, Masters said. But authorities say they doubt there will be any problems.

Once the teen-agers toss their caps in the air, many school police officers are sent to year-round and summer schools, where they must defuse tensions between members of rival gangs, based miles apart, who suddenly are being thrown together.

“We’re symptomatic of what’s happening in the city,” Perez said, “and in the city, crime never ends.”

Masters said many of the problems come from teen-agers who are out of school returning to their campuses to hang out, only to find that a new group of summer students and teachers has taken their place.

“That’s the bulk of the problem--not kids on the campus, but the kids outside,” Masters said.

One factor that makes summer somewhat quieter, Masters said, is that administrators have greater leeway to expel troublemakers from summer school.

But since the advent of year-round schools, Perez said, summers have been virtually as busy as the regular year for most officers. “There really isn’t any break,” she said. “It’s not always what people envision summer school must be like for us.”

Masters says he views summer much the same as the rest of the year, with two important differences--it’s the time when he takes his vacation, and when his kids are out of school.

“My biggest problem,” he said, “is coming up with things for my own children to do.”