School Halts Class Walks After Attack

A day after two students were attacked while walking with their gym class, Buena High School administrators Wednesday banned such off-campus excursions and called for increased caution around the school.

“We’ve decided to stay on campus so we don’t have any further incidents,” Assistant Principal Jim Morgan said. “If anything is gang-related it might cause an escalation of those kinds of problems.”

In Tuesday’s incident, which police believe is gang-related, two students out for a power walk with their physical education teacher ended up at the hospital after being chased down and beaten on a street corner near Ventura College.

A 15-year-old Buena student, stabbed in the lower back during the fracas, was released from the Ventura County Medical Center on Wednesday after a night of observation. A 17-year-old boy, who was punched and kicked, attended school Wednesday, albeit with a slight limp.

Ventura Police Department officials said they are continuing their investigation and suspect a number of continuation students from the Gateway Ventura satellite school took part in jumping the Buena students.

“We’re treating this as a gang-related incident and feel that the case is progressing satisfactorily,” said Det. Quinn Fenwick, who is investigating the case. “To the best of my knowledge, [the two Buena students] were a couple of innocent victims who have been attacked by gang members without provocation.”

Authorities said the incident happened shortly before 2 p.m. Tuesday as more than a dozen Buena students in a physical education class and their instructor, Betty Harrison, walked past the Gateway satellite school on Loma Vista Road.

Police said four or five continuation students flashed gang signs and went after the two Buena students. At the corner of Day and Loma Vista roads on the outskirts of Ventura College, the assailants stabbed the 15-year-old and beat the 17-year-old, authorities said.

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The episode occurred shortly after the Gateway satellite program at the Dorothy Boswell School on Loma Vista Road let its students out for the day. Officials at the school say they may consider walking their students to and from the bus stop after school.

But they added that they have not heard anything to implicate the continuation students--often sent to Gateway for discipline problems, truancy or minor criminal conduct--in the matter.

“There is a possibility that they aren’t even Gateway students,” said Jim Compton, Gateway’s director of secondary education. “There has been some discussion, that there was a car with students or some individuals that was near the college.”

Buena school officials received a number of calls Wednesday from parents wondering about the safety of their children.

“It’s an incident that is bringing violence and slapping it in our face, whether it’s Gateway students or neighborhood [residents] involved,” said Linda Logan, whose son is a Buena junior.

Logan, who volunteers to monitor the campus during lunch hour, urged parents to become involved in keeping the schools safe.

Students, too, expressed concern about the attack.

“It’s weird. I thought, ‘You know what, I once walked there and it could have been me,’ ” said Della Fletcher, a 14-year-old freshman who participated in a similar walk last month. “No one could believe it could happen, especially at a power walk at P.E.”

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Freshman Isaias de la Rosa, a friend of the 17-year-old victim, said the whole thing was very strange.

“I was feeling weird because he was my friend and there was nothing I could do. I feel bad because I couldn’t help him.”

In the wake of the incident, administrators decided to end the power walks, which typically last about 30 minutes around neighborhood streets.

But school officials said gym teacher Harrison did everything she was capable of doing during the walks. Typically the instructor is positioned in the middle of the procession of gym students walking down the street at different paces.

“She’s very capable, and we’re very happy with the way she handled what happened,” Morgan said.

Harrison tried to assist the kids once they were injured and probably scared off the assailants when they saw her, school officials said.

At Ventura High School, Principal Hank Robertson said the physical education classes will continue the occasional walks around the perimeter of the campus. The students don’t really come into contact with the neighborhood, he said.

While the attack has alarmed a number of parents and students, police said the schools in Ventura are generally safe.

“I think it is a simple incident,” Det. Fenwick said. “Ventura has good schools with a large staff and with a very good track record on safety.”