L.A. Schools Boost Anti-Crime Efforts

Alarmed by the recent surge in murders and violence in Los Angeles, school officials have bolstered security to prevent those crimes from spilling onto school grounds.

The Los Angeles Unified School District, already facing rising crime rates this year in its facilities, has increased the number of school police officers from one to two on 10 campuses in the most crime-ridden areas. Some schools also plan to hire more aides and install video cameras, while administrators across the district say they are being more vigilant.

“Schools are a microcosm of society,” said Willie Crittendon, the district’s director of school operations and safety. “We’re seeing an increase of violent behavior on school campuses. We’re asking schools to review safe school plans and modify them. We’re reaching out to parents, the community, staff members.”

The district’s other 39 high schools have one full-time officer on campus from the school district’s independent police force. Forty-five of the district’s 75 middle schools each have one officer. Many educators and police officers, especially in the San Fernando Valley, have complained for years that Los Angeles Unified’s police department is understaffed.

Alan Kerstein, who became chief of the 309-officer Los Angeles Unified School District police department in June, said he plans to submit a proposal that would expand staffing to four full-time gun-carrying police officers for every high school campus, and at least one for every middle school campus over the next five years.

“A lot of crime is committed by 14- to 18-year-old males, which is our students,” said Kerstein, a former Los Angeles Police Department officer who also was chief of police in the West Valley City Police Department in Utah. “Increased truancy translates to increased burglary rates in the area.”

Although budget problems may curtail his plans, such extra policing has the support of some educators.

“The resources are all going to the instruction side,” said Denny Thompson, principal of Canoga Park High.

He said he feels the recent focus on test scores and balancing the budget has compromised security.

“We need more campus aides, whether older adults or young adults,” he said. “A lot of times, the problem is outsiders who come onto campus.”

Some principals and students, however, don’t want too much of a police presence.

Erran Daniels, 17, a student at Manual Arts High School, said administrators are already reaching out more to students to prevent fights or violence. “They promise to protect [us] on campus now,” she said.

But she does not want more police or security guards because they make students feel they are being “labeled as violent criminals,” she said.

The violence off campus in recent weeks has many students worried. Although none of the killings occurred on school grounds, some involved students or took place near high schools. Many educators fear retaliation or fights between rival gangs may creep onto campuses or affect students coming from or going to school.

“None of the students feel safe,” said Kenneth Raymond, 17, a junior at Dorsey High School who recently helped form a student group that meets with district officials and police to discuss ways to prevent violence.

Raymond said students were jolted in July when two of their classmates were shot just outside the school.

He said he’s seen staff members put themselves in danger to break up fights on campus.

“Before you see school police, you see our principal or assistant principal come running to break up a fight,” Raymond said.

“But they can only do so much.... They don’t have guns or bulletproof vests.” And extra campus police won’t change that, he said.

Crenshaw High School students recently mourned the death of Clive Jackson, 14, a freshman basketball player. He was slain Nov. 21 in front of a South-Central doughnut shop after a fistfight.

Crenshaw Principal Isaac Hammond said that “as the violence goes up you see more huddles at lunch ... you hear about retaliation.”

Christine Clark, principal of Francis Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley, said gang battles have erupted nearby. “If it happens out in the community, you just hope it doesn’t come onto campus,” she added.

But administrators and teachers say they are also experiencing a more volatile climate inside their schools compared with a year ago because of intensified gang rivalries. This is discouraging, they say, because they have long thought of their schools as havens.

“Particularly for us in the south area, we have been aware of it heating up months ago,” said Sgt. Mike Bowman of the Los Angeles school police. “We’re really seeing an upward swing in activity.”

Crime on L.A. Unified campuses has increased for the first three months of this school year compared with last year, according to district statistics.

In the 737,000-student district, crimes against people rose from 556 during August, September and October last year to 606 this year.

Among those, battery crimes against a school employee rose from 28 to 45. Assaults with a deadly weapon rose from 66 to 84. Robbery and extortion crimes rose from 72 to 95.

The number of property crimes in the district rose from 1,522 in 2001 to 1,790 in 2002. And the number of weapons violations rose from 111 to 155, including 12 involving firearms possession.

Buren Simmons, director of the Los Angeles Unified Youth Relations and Crime Prevention Unit, said the district is also focusing on improving student mediation programs and boosting staff training, as well as working with community groups, the Sheriff’s Department and the LAPD.

Recently, some LAPD officers agreed to alter their shifts so that staff rotations would not occur around 3 p.m., when most students are getting out of school.

The school district police force recently added a drug-sniffing dog for schools and its only motorcycle officer to improve traffic around campuses.

In recent months, Chief Kerstein also reassigned a second police officer to the 10 most violent high schools: Washington Preparatory, Crenshaw, Manual Arts, Locke, Fremont, Jordan, Gardena, Belmont, Los Angeles and Dorsey.

Washington, which last month was called “out of control” after a teacher wrote a letter to the district complaining that students were having sex, gambling and fighting on campus, is receiving more video cameras, security aides and two additional bicycle patrol police officers.

On a recent afternoon, when school was letting out at Washington Prep, Ed Woodruff, an L.A. Unified crime prevention worker, was warned by a student that a shooting was about to happen nearby.

Sure enough, minutes later a few blocks from the school a shooting resulted in an overturned car and three injured people, Woodruff said.

“It’s sad that these things are happening,” Woodruff said.

“The killings and those issues, whatever spills over from their homeland they bring that baggage to school. It affects how young people participate in the classroom.”

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

School crime rising

Los Angeles city schools have seen a spike in assaults, robberies, burglaries and weapons possessions compared to last year.

2001-’02 ‘02-’03 Percent increase Crimes against persons 556 606 9.0 Assault with a deadly weapon 66 84 27.3 Battery against school employees 28 45 60.7 Robbery/extortion 72 95 31.9 Property crimes 1,522 1,790 17.6 Burglary 296 416 40.6 Graffiti 212 282 33.0 Theft (personal) 140 196 40.0 Weapons crimes 111 155 39.6 Brandishing a firearm 8 10 25.0 Possession of other weapons 84 126 50.0

Note: select crimes for Aug. 1-Oct. 31

Source: Los Angeles Unified School District Police Dept.