O.C. School Campuses Safer, Study Says

While Orange County schools on the whole appear safer than their counterparts statewide--and are improving in safety from year to year--a state report released today shows some campus trouble spots: property crimes in Huntington Beach, weapons possession in Anaheim, battery in Buena Park.

Overall, the state Department of Education report shows that crime incidents on public school campuses dropped in 1996-97 compared to the previous school year. Property crimes were down 8%; drug and alcohol offenses, down 6%; crimes against people, down 5%; and other crimes, down 15%.

Orange County’s school crime rate has been lower than the state’s in every category for two years in a row.

The statistics are the first to make statewide comparisons possible from year to year. They include incidents in which students and nonstudents are suspects.

The report comes as politicians have voiced renewed concerns about school safety. A package of new safety laws was approved last year in the wake of a campus slaying of a high school student in Sacramento County.

Delaine Eastin, state superintendent of public instruction, said property crimes were the largest problem for the 5.6-million student system, costing schools more than $22 million a year, mostly from vandalism, arson and burglary.

“That’s real money,” Eastin said. “It’s so mindless and senseless and crazy. It’s upsetting because it’s so unnecessary.”

State and local officials cautioned that the accuracy of the safety data depends on how effectively school districts report crime.

One school district where the reported crime rate topped the state average in some categories is Buena Park.

Yet Supt. Carol Riley, whose schools serve 5,400 students from kindergarten through eighth grade, said she is confident her campuses are safe despite logging 6.7 battery incidents for each 1,000 students in 1996-97. That compared to the state elementary school average of 2.62 such incidents and high school average of 4.95--a discrepancy that surprised Riley. The Orange County average was .88.

“My goodness, that’s something we sure need to think about,” Riley said Wednesday. “That’s amazing to me. We take this very, very seriously. [Safety] is the No. 1 issue to parents, clearly, in any kind of survey.”

Still, there was good news for Buena Park schools: drops in reported battery incidents, down 44%; weapons possession, down 72%; and property crime, down 70% from the previous year.

Another district exceeding the state average in one crime column was the 14,000-student Huntington Beach Union High School District, with 10.48 property crimes for each 1,000 students, more than twice the average for high schools. There was also the 27,000-student Anaheim Union High School District, with 3.05 weapons possession incidents for each 1,000 students, compared to 2.26 for high schools statewide.

Last October, a shooting at Anaheim High School drew notice to that district’s safety record. City and school officials there have cracked down on campus crime in recent years through cooperation with the Police Department’s anti-gang unit. They say the district’s latest weapons-possession totals--which dropped 22% from the year before--reflect vigorous enforcement and reporting.

Elsewhere in Orange County, the statistics showed that 16 of the 28 districts were below state averages for reported crime incidents in all categories.

One of them, the 54,000-student Santa Ana Unified School District, patrols campuses with its own police force. Alfonsina Q. Davies, an assistant superintendent, said the district employs five full-time and four part-time peace officers. In the past school year, the district posted decreases in every key crime category.

What the Santa Ana schools confront, though, are mounting bills for property damage. That cost the district $2.70 per student in 1996-97, or more than $140,000, more than double the previous year’s total.

“We’ve had a lot of money spent to repair vandalism,” Davies said. “That’s where we saw a big jump--graffiti tagging, kids coming on the weekend and damaging something on the property.”

Nick Anderson may be reached at (714) 966-5975. His e-mail address is nick.anderson@latimes.com

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Campus Crime

Over the school years ended in June 1996 and June 1997, most types of crime reported at Orange County public schools decreased at a faster rate than at schools statewide:

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Drug-alcohol offense -6% -7% Possession of a weapon -10 -33 Property crimes -8 -24

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Crimes against people State Orange County Battery -7 -29 Assault with a deadly weapon 17 23 Robbery-extortion -15 -22 Sex offenses 13 -50

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Source: California Department of Education/Researched by NICK ANDERSON/Los Angeles Times