Safety First in LAUSD

“How could it happen?” asked Eugenia Hernandez after she and other parents met with crisis counselors at Roscoe Elementary School last week.

Her tearful question summed up the reaction of a stunned community to the accidental death of 7-year-old Steve Silva. The second-grader was crushed against a wall by a rolling utility cart left unattended on school grounds.

For the larger question--how to explain the loss of a child--there is never an adequate answer, no matter the circumstances. There is only the consolation of family and friends, of religion, of time.

But for the specific question--how did this happen?--there must be answers.

Accidents may by definition be unintentional, but they don’t just “happen.” An entire branch of public health called injury prevention is devoted to reversing that assumption. Take playground safety.

Each year more than 200,000 children nationwide wind up in emergency rooms after injuring themselves on swings, slides and monkey bars, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The number and severity of injuries could be lessened by such preventive measures as proper supervision and age-appropriate equipment. California was among the first states to adopt new regulations based on these recommendations; they go into effect in October.

Why, with this increased awareness of playground safety, was a 1,300-pound utility cart, used for maintenance, parked in an area where children play? What caused it to roll? Were there enough adults on hand to supervise the after-school play program, to anticipate the unexpected?

The Los Angeles Unified School District is conducting its own investigation of the accident, overseen by Supt. Roy Romer, as are the Los Angeles Police Department’s Valley Traffic Division and Taylor-Dunn, the Anaheim company that manufactured the cart.

Romer’s immediate and visible response to this tragedy is the right one; schools shoulder no greater responsibility than the basic safety of students. He rushed to the campus the day of the accident and returned the following day. He appropriately made helping the grieving family and the clearly devastated school community his priorities.

Now he needs to address his other top priority--preventing future accidents--just as forthrightly. How could this happen? How could it have been prevented? What will the district do differently? Eugenia Hernandez and other parents deserve an answer.