$500,000 Grant to Boost School Security Expected

On-campus surveillance cameras and an armored police vehicle are among the items that the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department wants to purchase with a $500,000 state grant it is slated to receive to improve school safety.

The money is part of a larger pool of funds earmarked in the state budget specifically for school safety programs, a reaction to the Littleton, Colo., massacre in April and subsequent bomb threats at local campuses.

Although no specific spending plans have been made, Sheriff Bob Brooks said Friday that training teachers on safety procedures as well as installing special phones, radio systems and surveillance cameras in high schools would be among the top priorities.

In addition, the sheriff said he would likely spend the money on aerial surveillance photographs of high school campuses and on an armored vehicle that could be used in the case of a school shooting.

Brooks said there is a “crying need” to improve security in schools and prepare for the worst-case scenario.

“When you look at Littleton and all the other incidents, most of the schools were operating under the premise that it couldn’t happen there,” Brooks said. “Now it’s everybody’s responsibility to at least think about the possibility of those incidents occurring here.”

Local schools rely on a variety of safety measures to protect students, ranging from on-campus police officers to metal detectors to intercom systems. In addition, all schools have safety plans, and many run conflict resolution programs.

School officials said the new state funding, which is expected to be signed into the budget by the governor this month, could help make Ventura County campuses more secure.

“Anything that we can do in cooperation with the police that can make our schools safer is worthwhile,” said Pat Chandler, assistant superintendent for the Ventura Unified School District. “And in the unlikely event of some kind of disaster, having accurate maps and photographs is an excellent idea.”

School districts have spent significant funds on improving curriculum and classroom instruction, said Ojai Unified Supt. Gwen Gross, but haven’t been able to spend as much as they would like on safety programs. She said she would like a portion of the grant money to fund a full-time police officer at the high school level.

“This grant would allow us to have some additional law enforcement to really make schools more secure,” Gross said.

In the weeks following the massacre in Colorado, the Ventura County sheriff’s bomb squad responded to 12 reports of suspicious devices on and near local campuses. Pipe bombs and explosives were found in five cases, and fake devices were found in the other seven. There were also several school evacuations throughout the county.

And earlier this month, the grand jury released a report criticizing Ventura County schools for not doing enough to reduce the number of weapons on campus or to increase school safety.

The report said there were 130 incidents of weapons possession and 13 assaults involving weapons on campuses throughout the county. About 30% of students from six randomly chosen schools said they saw a weapon on campus or heard comments about students bringing them to school.

In addition, a state report on school safety released in February found that students were somewhat more likely to bring a gun or knife to school in 1997-98 than the previous year. But it also said Ventura County campuses are safer than schools elsewhere in California. That same school year, students committed fewer crimes against individuals--such as battery, assault and sex offenses--than in the past two years.