Helicopters Over Schools

* I appreciate seeing the state’s suggested “emergency kit” for school crises (“State Unveils Kit to Help Schools Deal With Shootings,” April 18). It would supplement the safe schools plan that all L.A. Unified School District schools must implement and update yearly to help schools get through a variety of crises.

I have been at school campuses numerous times to help principals and school staffs deal with news reporters, photographers and camera crews during emergency situations, and the mention of news helicopters over schools is right on target. In addition to the logistical concerns stated by law enforcement personnel, it is my experience that the noise of several or more helicopters all but drowns our the public address system that a principal uses to help keep order or to provide staff and students with information and instructions. Even nonemergency outdoor gatherings at schools and indoor class sessions are subject to helicopter noise pollution. Copters hovering over a school can cause concern among parents and neighbors if choppers are broadcasting “live shots” before news desks have checked out whether anything is amiss.

But rather than a principal contacting the FAA to divert helicopters away from a school during an emergency situation, as state officials have apparently recommended, it would make more sense for legislators to confer with the FAA and devise an appropriate permanent restriction on news helicopters flying closer than a third of a mile or a half-mile from the outside perimeter of a school campus. That distance would enable helicopters to get camera coverage without creating an annoyance or safety hazard.

SHELDON E. ERLICH

Senior Communications Officer

LAUSD