Oxnard to Post Police at All Its Campuses

The Oxnard Union High School District in January will become the first district in Ventura County to employ law enforcement agents to monitor each of its campuses, under a plan recently approved by the City Council.

The plan calls for three full-time police officers serving Channel Islands, Hueneme and Oxnard high schools from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays. Adolfo Camarillo and Rio Mesa high schools, the district’s two other campuses--which are not in Oxnard--have had Ventura County’s sheriff’s deputies on campus since the beginning of the school year.

The previous system, in which one officer served 8,400 students at three campuses, was a “nightmare,” said Eugene Rodriguez, the assigned police officer for more than three years at Oxnard’s high schools. “Logistically, geographically and timewise, there’s no way to do it. You’re always behind.”

During the 1994-95 school year, administrators at Oxnard’s three high schools suspended more than 900 students for violent acts on campus, according to statistics from the Oxnard Police Department. In 1995, about 500 students were cited for drug and alcohol possession and 347 were arrested for violent crimes.

Law enforcement and school officials said they hope to increase safety on the district’s campuses, which have recorded an increase in student enrollment of more than 20% during the past six years, said Richard Canady, one of the district’s assistant superintendents.

Although teachers are asked to step into hallways and make sure there are no fights or other problems during nutrition breaks, they have a wide area to cover, high school principals said.

“If you close your eyes and think about high school, it’s a large campus, and we have to have people who monitor the restrooms, hallways, lunch lines and cafeteria,” said Daisy Tatum, principal of Oxnard High School.

And since the district has for several years mandated adherence to the “zero tolerance” policy, which requires schools to report crimes such as weapons or drug possessions, having a police officer on campus will make it more efficient and easier to take care of the incident, Tatum said.

For about two months after the beginning of the last school year, the district tried the program and it proved successful, Canady said.

“Fights were down on campus. It was very easy to control rumors that somebody got drugs, or somebody has weapons, or rumors that somebody’s going to start a fight off campus,” Canady said. “A positive relationship was established between the officers and students so that they felt comfortable giving information that would make the schools safer.”

The school district and the city will chip in about $35,000 each per campus.

Officers begin training for the program in early January, and will arrive at the school sometime during the month, Oxnard Police Department officials said.

Camarillo High has had a full-time deputy and Rio Mesa High has had a deputy serving about 75% of the time at the campus since shortly after the beginning of the school year. Having a deputy on campus is not only a way to respond more quickly to the calls, but also a way to prevent crimes from occurring, said Mark Ball, spokesman for the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.

Yet despite the new moves in Oxnard, the county is just starting to catch up with what other counties in the state are doing to increase school safety, some law enforcement agents said. Los Angeles, San Diego and Pasadena all have police departments dedicated only to serving the school population.

“We’re way behind,” Rodriguez said. “We’re still acting like this is a small town. . . . Compared to the state, we’re in the dark ages, when it comes to school [security].”