School Bus Passengers Questioned on Attack

As police searched Thursday for the suspected gang members who tried to smash their way into a Buena High School bus, school officials interviewed all students aboard to determine what prompted the incident--including the possibility that some passengers provoked the attack.

Undercover cars and Ventura Police Department cruisers converged on the Buena campus. Special gang task force officers kept watch over students at lunch and at the close of the school day following Wednesday’s bus attack on Telegraph Road. Plainclothes officers tailed the bus along its route to Saticoy to ensure no more attacks took place.

Witnesses said a group of young men in their mid-20s jumped out of a black Chevrolet Blazer just as the bus left school about 3:15 p.m. They bashed the bus’ rear door with a baseball bat, yelling “Montalvo!” in an apparent reference to their gang turf.

Three of the 60 or so passengers were slightly injured by shards of glass from a shattered emergency exit window in the back of the bus. Students fought with the assailants, preventing them from boarding the bus.

Ventura Unified School District Supt. Joseph Spirito acknowledged there have been conflicting reports of what occurred, including accounts that some passengers flashed gang signs and might have thrown something at the car beside them.

If school officials conclude that some students endangered their schoolmates by provoking an attack, they will be severely punished, Spirito said.

“We’re interviewing all the students to determine whether these guys were provoked or whether this was road rage or what happened,” Spirito said. “I have never experienced anything like this before, where our buses were attacked like that. I really hope it’s an isolated incident.”

In the wake of the attack, school board President John Walker said he will propose making the flashing of gang signs an offense punishable by suspension.

“They’re endangering the lives of all the students on the bus, and they should be punished just like a kid carrying a knife,” he said.

He also planned to propose a town hall meeting to discuss gang violence.

Ventura police had not made any arrests as of late Thursday, but Lt. Carl Handy believes it will not be long before the suspects are caught.

“This stuff is not too difficult to solve,” Handy said. “You’ve got known players shouting out [the name of a] neighborhood during a criminal act.”

Handy declined to elaborate on the varying accounts of the incident.

“Kids from one neighborhood saw kids from another neighborhood, and however it happened, that set off the problem,” Handy said.

“This is such an unusual experience for Ventura,” he added. “The campuses have generally been quiet, and we work closer than a lot of people realize with the schools to make sure the campuses are sanctuaries. Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt.”

Outside the fast-food restaurants near the school, some students discussed the attack during lunch Thursday. They said they saw no reason to fear any other incidents on or around campus. Most also said they believed Wednesday’s attack was unprovoked.

“The buses stopped at a red light and a couple of homies attacked a bus with a baseball bat,” said Jennifer Biddlecome, a 17-year-old senior who had several friends on the bus. “Everybody dogs everybody--that’s just a given. But I think something else must have happened to set these guys off.”

Shortly after exiting the bus in Saticoy on Thursday, Dustin Lacroix )said he felt perfectly safe in continuing to ride home from school--particularly with the swarm of TV crews and police officers that had descended on the Buena campus.

“They [the assailants] would have expected that, so I’m sure they wouldn’t go and do it again,” he said while playing street hockey with friends.

Most passengers remained calm and in their seats during Wednesday’s attack, he said, adding that he did not see or hear anything that might have set off those in the car beside them.

“I wasn’t really scared, I just sat there and watched the whole thing,” he said. “I don’t think they did anything, but I was sitting in the middle of the bus, not in the back.”

Buena High School Principal Jaime Castellanos said school security officers will continue to do what they have always done--report suspicious vehicles around campus to police. Once buses leave school grounds, he said, there is little the school can do to prevent attacks.

“I think it’s a larger problem than the campus and the school,” Castellanos said. “My concern is, there are people outside the school, and we can’t control their criminal intent. Ventura Unified bus drivers are equipped with two-way radios and maintain contact with a central dispatcher, according to Assistant Supt. Joseph Richards. They also receive training in a variety of areas, including passenger safety, discipline and emergency evacuations, he said.

On Wednesday, the driver of the attacked bus immediately notified the dispatcher, who called 911, Richards said. She has declined to speak with the media for fear of losing her rapport with students, he added.

School officials will consider making changes to safety procedures only if their investigation finds that changes are needed, he said.

School board member Velma Lomax said she is willing to discuss safety improvements but she does not believe that Ventura Unified could have done more to prevent Wednesday’s incident.

“This is so bizarre,” Lomax said. “How could anyone predict this would happen? It’s such a strange thing for someone to attack a bus on the way home. Maybe it’s a wake-up call to Ventura that this can happen anywhere, even in such a nice city.”