Curtailing School Violence

That old adage about an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure is especially applicable to a new effort being organized by Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona to prevent school violence and identify and help troubled youths before they wreak havoc on themselves and others.

It’s an ambitious plan that calls for sheriff’s deputies to be assigned to schools and to team up with sheriff’s, probation and district attorney’s investigators, psychologists, counselors and a prosecutor.

They will identify, monitor and work with problem students to assess and head off the dangers of school violence.

It’s an innovative approach that goes a bit beyond other stepped-up security efforts at schools around the nation.

The aim is to monitor closely activity at the school campus so police and school officials have a better chance to intervene early and defuse situations before they can even get started.

The plan, while raising some valid concerns, does offer a more enlightened approach by law enforcement to juvenile crime than just making more juvenile arrests, having more Juvenile Hall beds and throwing more youths into the justice system.

The best long-range approach for troubled youths, and the community, is prevention--and diversion.

That means not only putting in the extra effort to identify young people who may be prone to violence or have other behavioral problems but also adequately funding the prevention and diversion programs such as anger management, alcohol and drug abuse and counseling that can help them.

The plan, which mostly will cover schools in areas patrolled by the Sheriff’s Department in South County, has the approval of the Board of Supervisors. It will receive operating funds from the $10-million grant the California Department of Corrections just allocated to county programs involved in curbing juvenile crime. It is expected to be in operation by April.

Efforts to control school violence have been stepped up in the wake of a series of assaults including the killing of 12 students and a teacher at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999. Within days of that school slaughter, deputies investigated rumors predicting a similar assault at Capistrano Valley High School in Mission Viejo. Last year in Fullerton, a student was arrested for allegedly threatening to kill a classmate and planning a Columbine-style slaughter.

So there’s no question that violence on campus must be addressed aggressively. The problem is how to do it without violating the students’ right to privacy. The American Civil Liberties Union has expressed concern that youngsters may be deprived of their rights simply because of their age and that they may face intrusions that would be resisted more successfully by adults.

That’s a valid fear. It’s always troubling when police keep a file on what may be noncriminal behavior by students, or anyone else. And in Orange County there have been instances of just that kind of police activity. It has especially troubled minority residents.

Several years ago, parents of Asian American teenagers in Fountain Valley complained about police photographing their children. In 1993, the 4th District Court of Appeal wisely ruled that the Orange Police Department had violated the constitutionally protected civil rights of youths suspected of gang involvement by taking their pictures but not arresting them on suspicion of any crime.

Sheriff’s officials insist they will not violate students’ rights or target them by things such as their dress. Their plan to monitor problem students differs somewhat from the police photo-taking cases in that the campus deputies would be reacting to signs of potential violence rather than randomly picking out individuals.

The approach is worth trying. It makes sense to put the effort into avoiding campus violence rather than reacting to it.

But the program must pass legal muster and be closely monitored by the sheriff and the community to be sure that, no matter how well-intentioned, it stays within constitutional bounds.