Other Schools Wonder: What Does It Take to Be Safe?

Three months ago, after a Cadillac barreled into a Costa Mesa day-care center yard and killed two children, the child-care staff of St. George’s Episcopal Church held a special meeting about security.

After a brief discussion, in which it was determined that the preschool at the La Canada church was far enough from the street to discourage a similar attack, church officials decided there was little action that could be taken.

Now, in the wake of Tuesday’s bloody shooting at the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills, the church will meet again about security. And, as with other acts of sudden violence, church officials fear there is next to nothing that can be done to prepare for, or to prevent, such a tragedy.

“There’s just no rhyme or reason to a crazy person,” said Rachel Sanger, the church’s administrator. “There are some people who are just bent on doing things, whether it be at a high school, college or even preschool. It’s very sad.”

Hundreds of Southland preschools will be reviewing security in the coming days. Currently, most centers follow the nonbinding safety standards of the American Academy of Pediatrics, child-care experts say. Those recommendations, which St. George’s has enacted, are to maintain closed gates and doors, to require parents and visitors to sign in and out, and to encourage staff to be on alert to strangers.

However, most states, including California, do not have specific laws governing security at preschools.

At least one preschool wasted no time in taking special precautions. At the Hebrew Academy in Huntington Beach, school officials hired a full-time security guard hours after the shooting. The unarmed guard will stand watch over the 11-acre campus of 500 students.

However, such immediate action is the exception, say experts.

“What can you really do?” said Ruth Neil, a spokeswoman for the National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care, which tracks children’s safety issues. “It’s so hard to pinpoint any one way to prevent something like this from ever happening again.”

The issue of child safety is a deeply sensitive topic among day-care providers. Two national child-care providers declined to comment, fearing the publicity would needlessly worry their clients and possibly hurt their business.

Nevertheless, in the light of Tuesday’s attack, experts say more attention than ever will be paid to security at preschools.

“It was getting to be an issue anyway,” said Neil, whose center is based in Denver, not far from Columbine High School, where two teenagers killed 12 fellow students and a teacher last spring. “And now it’s going to get even bigger.”