Compton Declares State of Emergency for Schools

Reacting to a string of school arsons that they say has caused $1.7 million in damage, Compton city officials declared a state of emergency at local campuses Tuesday and vowed to mobilize citizen “sentinels” to help patrol schoolyards.

The declaration, announced by Mayor Omar Bradley Jr. after a closed-session City Council vote, directs city fire and police officers to supplement the efforts of the state-run school district to halt the arson wave and authorizes a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

Tuesday’s action fueled the feuding bonfire of political vanities between city officials who want to regain control of the Compton Unified School District and state officials who seized it in 1993 because of mismanagement and deep debts. The school district said it welcomed added help, but added that the emergency declaration was not needed.

Bradley said the city had grown tired of waiting for state officials to ask for help in the arsons. He called the school district’s efforts to stop the arsons as “too little, too late.”

“The problem is that the City Council, going into the eighth fire, is unsatisfied with the progress that the state has made as it relates to the educational investment of the people of the city of Compton,” he said.

However, a school spokesman said the district and its own school police have been cooperating with city police and fire officials all along to solve the fires. And he said the declaration of emergency would have no practical effect on local efforts to catch the arsonist.

“This is overdoing it,” said Fausto D. Capobianco, the district’s public information director.

The city’s move comes in response to the eight fires that have hit six Compton schools in the last five months. No one has been hurt in the blazes, which mainly have hit schools either closed for the summer or with light summer attendance.

The first occurred in March and the most recent was Friday, destroying a wing at a visual and performing arts school, which officials said has been unused since 1992. Among other blazes, three separate fires have gutted five classrooms, a weight training room, a computer lab and storage area at Centennial High School. One destroyed a vacated administration building at Compton High School, a block from City Hall.

Compton Fire Chief Milford Fonza declined Tuesday to say whether the fires fit a pattern but hinted that investigators have some clues. “There is reason to believe it’s more than a firebug at this time,” he said.

City and school officials said a special task force was established two weeks ago to investigate, but even that sparked disagreement. Bradley said it was the city’s idea, but Capobianco said the task force originated at the request of the school district’s fire insurance carrier.

Capobianco said it was too early to offer a financial estimate of total damages and so he could not confirm the city’s figure of $1.7 million. He stressed that the district’s insurance company already was offering its own $10,000 reward for arrest information, and that the city’s reward would supplement that.

Most problematic, however, was the city’s intention to draft a cadre of more than 100 volunteers to help school guards and city police patrol the schools. Early in the day, city officials said they intended to deputize citizens as the city’s eyes and ears at the 36 district campuses. Bradley said he envisioned volunteers checking visitors’ identification and, possibly, taking pictures.

Although Capobianco said the district welcomed more community help, he said it would stop such civilian sentinels from coming onto the campuses. “We just can’t simply open up the doors and say ‘Walk around,’ ” he said, adding the patrols would be a disruption to classes.

Later in the day, city spokesman Keith Davis scaled back those expectations. Davis said city officials decided against deputizing the citizen sentinels because the city would be liable if they got hurt.

As it is now, the volunteers will patrol at their own risk in pairs on the perimeters of schools, starting this morning. The city will provide walkie-talkies for volunteers to contact municipal police. The plan calls for 24-hour coverage for at least a week, with nothing definite after that.

Among the 112 people who volunteered was Sterling Bullock, a 51-year-old journeyman pipe fitter. “I think it was lack of respect that caused the fires,” said Bullock, a graduate of Centennial.

His weapon against future fires? “Just my presence and whatever the Lord gives me to say,” said Bullock.