South Bay : PARK SAFETY

When a youngster playing at Jane Addams Park in Lawndale found a handgun in the sandbox last week, parents and school officials decided it was time to take back the park.

Neighbors, parents, police and Lawndale officials will meet today to discuss the gang problems at the park, which is adjacent to an elementary school. Frank Noyas, principal of Jane Addams Elementary School, says there has been some debate as to who owns the park: the city or the school.

“I’m here for the kids,” Noyas said of his school’s 850 students. “During school time, the park belongs to them and it should be closed off to everyone else. On the first day of school, there was a man in the park passed out with a beer bottle in his lap. These things shouldn’t happen.”

Noyas, along with members of the school’s PTA, supports building a fence around the park to keep gang members and vagrants out during school hours, then opening the gates after 3 p.m.

Lawndale’s community service supervisor, Josette Espinosa, is against a fence enclosing the open space. Her staff at the city’s parks and recreation department is studying other options, including better lighting and more community services in the park.

The meeting will start at 7 p.m. at the school, 4535 W. 153rd Place.