Task Force Seeks Ways to Make Schools Safe

Relatively simple measures such as requiring see-through backpacks, praising teenagers more for what they do right or adding patrol cars to neighborhoods before and after school might prevent school violence, a task force on safe schools was told Tuesday.

Those suggestions came from among 50 or so Los Angeles-area community advocates, teachers, parents, students, police officers and campus administrators who spent Tuesday morning brainstorming at the Van Nuys State Building. At the first public hearing of the five-member Los Angeles Task Force for Safe Schools, those who testified had no definitive answers.

Instead, the task force simply listened, discussing what works, what does not work and what could help ensure safety in and around schools and prevent a tragedy such as the shootings in Littleton, Colo.

“I’m tired of people passing the buck,” said Jayne Murphy Shapiro, head of the task force and president of Kids Safe, a nationwide nonprofit group based in Los Angeles. “We have to come together to try to do something about youth violence.”

In September, the task force plans to compile a report on school safety and submit it to the governor, Legislature and Los Angeles Board of Education, among others.

Citing the incident in which two Lynwood High School girls were shot to death earlier this month while walking to school, Pepperdine University law professor Bill Haney said officials need to be more concerned about student safety before and after school. “There seems to be a gap there,” said Haney, co-director of the task force.

Safety is also lacking for many teachers, Haney said. Some have classrooms in bungalows, near chained fences and far from the main office. “There’s no way for them to escape or sound an alert,” he said.

Because of frequent attempts to smuggle drugs or weapons into Lynwood High, its security staff is considering requiring see-through backpacks.

“Students will go to no end to find different ways to do things,” said William Lee, senior security officer at the school. “You have to be on top of things.”

Dan Isaacs, an assistant superintendent for the Los Angeles Unified School District, said that if he had a wish list, he would want more counselors in the elementary schools. “To me, if we can intervene before they reach middle school or high school, we will have the greatest success,” Isaacs said.

As associate director of the Violence Prevention Coalition of Greater Los Angeles, Anthony Borbon said the best way to deter youth violence is to support and praise the young people who are graduating, helping their peers and, in general, succeeding.

Frequent negativity discourages teenagers, Borbon said. “[Adults] are good at stereotyping,” he said. “The majority of young people in grades K-12 are learning. Many are doing positive things.”