Officials Target Campus Violence

On the same day their Oxnard counterparts responded to a gang-related knife attack at Rio Mesa High School, Ventura school officials met with county leaders to discuss how to address a recent spate of gang violence on and near their campuses.

No immediate action will be taken by the Ventura Unified School District. But those present at Monday’s meeting outlined the need for a bigger county juvenile detention facility as a long-term solution to campus violence.

There is not enough room in the current, 84-bed Juvenile Hall to house all of the teen criminals in Ventura County, authorities said, so many problem youths continue walking the streets and sparking violence at schools.

“It seems to be the age-old problem of not having enough money to do everything we want to do,” said Ventura Mayor Jim Friedman. “In this case, we have gang members getting arrested, and the judges are basically letting these guys go with a slap on the wrist because there’s nowhere to put them.”

Those at the meeting--including Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury, Ventura schools Supt. Joseph Spirito, Ventura Police Chief Richard Thomas, county schools Supt. Charles Weis, Supervisor Susan Lacey and City Manager Donna Landeros--outlined two possible funding sources for a new facility.

One is a bill by state Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) to float a bond that would give counties money for juvenile detention centers. Another option, if Wright’s bill fails to pass, is to launch a countywide initiative to pay for a new center.

“I think getting together with all these people will help,” said John Walker, president of the Ventura school board. “But I am a little disheartened that we do not have enough detention space. What happens is, dangerous individuals are convicted, but they’re still out there. It’s really disturbing.”

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City leaders plan to hold another meeting, tentatively scheduled Friday, to determine whether they can take any additional measures to ensure student safety in the meantime.

Ventura schools have been rocked by two gang-related incidents in the past two weeks--an attack on a school bus just outside Buena High School that left at least two students injured, and the beating of a 16-year-old Pacific High continuation school student in a classroom.

“You can’t be everywhere at every moment,” Friedman said. “The [Ventura police] gang-intervention program is not going to take care of everything. But maybe there are ways we can fine-tune it.”

In light of Monday’s stabbing of two students at Rio Mesa High in El Rio, Spirito said it is also time to hold a countywide meeting of school leaders to consider how they can address the problem together, because it appears to be growing.

“That [Rio Mesa stabbing] just goes to show this is not just happening here in Ventura,” Spirito said. “We need to get together and talk about this problem, because it may be one incident in Ventura, one incident in Oxnard and one incident in the Conejo Valley. But they are all part of the same thing.”

County schools Supt. Weis has already scheduled a meeting for next month.

“The good news in Ventura County is that we in the leadership positions get along with each other and can work together to solve this problem,” Weis said.

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Also on Monday, Ventura Unified officials and the city’s Boys & Girls Club announced that classes will continue under strict security. The club, in east Ventura, is the site of the continuation school satellite program where a 16-year-old student was beaten with a chair last week.

The new measures at the Johnson Drive campus include having a security guard on duty during all classes and daily visits from school officials, as well as a zero-tolerance violence policy.

“I’d like to say it was a fluke,” Boys & Girls Club director Jane Goldschmidt said of the beating. “With the precaution of the security guard, we’re ensuring it won’t happen again.”

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Some Pacific High students believe the school district’s reaction is overkill, however, saying that a few delinquent teens are presenting a skewed image of their school to the public.

“I think that’s outrageous,” said 15-year-old Alysa Barlow about the security plan. “I personally know that boy that got beat up, and that had nothing to do with school. . . . We really think we have a bad reputation.”