Politics cited in school naming

The idea was to honor Randal Simmons, the first Los Angeles SWAT officer killed in the line of duty, by naming a new high school after him.

Not just any high school, but one serving the students of Carson, the city where he was a church minister and where he spent hours mentoring youths, trying to keep them from gangs.

The head of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s teachers union sent a letter supporting the idea, and so did Los Angeles Police Department Chief William Bratton. The measure passed the Carson City Council unanimously in October.

But 2 1/2 months later, the effort has turned into an ugly political battle.

A council member and the mayor, both of whom originally backed the naming, tried to rescind it. And some residents in the heavily Latino neighborhood say the school, which will open in 2012, should be named after farmworkers union leader Cesar Chavez.

The sudden opposition to naming the school for Simmons has friends and family of the SWAT officer, who was black, shaking their heads in disbelief. They believe critics are trying to turn the school name into a political issue, with city elections coming in March.

“I wish they wouldn’t even have mentioned it if his name is going to be a political football,” said Walter Clark, a spokesman for Glory Christian Fellowship International, where Simmons was a minister. “I don’t even know why it’s an issue. It’s ridiculous.”

But a council member who switched his vote said he did so not because of back-room politics but because local residents -- most of them Latino -- felt they had been left out of the decision-making.

“It’s not a racial thing,” said Councilman Harold Williams, who is black. “It had more to do with political ambition and self-interest by a couple of my colleagues.”

Simmons was shot and killed in February during a standoff with a San Fernando Valley gunman who had killed three members of his own family. The gunman also was killed. Another SWAT member was wounded.

Simmons had been in the LAPD for 27 years, 20 of them in SWAT. About 10,000 people showed up to his funeral.

The high school is being built by L.A. Unified just over the Carson border in Long Beach. The Carson council’s vote was a recommendation, and the district’s Board of Education must approve the name.

District guidelines say high schools must be named after dead U.S. presidents “and other nationally as well as internationally famous men and women.” A cross-section of the community is supposed to be consulted about the name, and a survey performed.

Councilman Mike Gipson pushed the measure to honor Simmons, who lived in Rancho Palos Verdes.

“We recognize his faithfulness to our community, to the children and young people who face challenges growing up and what he has given them and to making their lives better,” Gipson said. “One person said Randal spent more time in Carson than his own community. He was someone who gave selflessly.”

Lisa Simmons, the officer’s widow, said she was shocked when she heard of the attempt to reverse the council vote. “I was very hurt because if you go into housing projects and talk to some of the Latino families, even the ones that can’t speak English, they will tell you how much they loved Randy,” she said.

Residents who oppose naming the school for Simmons say they respect the officers’ bravery and work in the community, but object because they were never given a chance to offer their opinions.

Julie Ruiz-Raber, a former council member who is running again, is leading the fight to rescind the Simmons recommendation. She said she her first choice is to name the school after Chavez.

Ruiz-Raber, a political ally of Williams and Mayor Jim Dear, said she’s not opposed to the use of Simmons’ name, but to the process by which it was selected.

“Frankly they tried to railroad the name,” she said. “That was the political ploy, and that’s a shame.”

Williams, the councilman who switched his vote, said he was moved by Simmons’ supporters. When the council first voted, he felt it would be wrong to speak out against the naming.

“I saw myself in a situation that was very uncomfortable. If I said anything contrary to where this steamroller was going, you’d be accused of being opposed to the officer,” he said, adding that he decided to change his vote after hearing from neighborhood residents.

Williams wrote a measure last week to rescind the original recommendation on the school name, and the mayor joined him in reversing his vote. The vote was tied, so the original decision remained in place.

Dear said Simmons had few ties to the community and that he thought there should have been more input from city residents before the vote.

“Councilman Gipson is using death, grieving and mourning of these family members to promote his political agenda,” Dear said.

Carson politics have been especially bitter and corrupt in recent years. Dear in November defeated a recall attempt. His predecessor, Daryl Sweeney, was convicted in a bribery scheme. Sweeney was the second mayor and fourth City Council member to plead guilty in the corruption case.

Gipson, a former police officer, said politics should have nothing to do with the issue. “The issue is doing the right thing for a fallen hero,” he said.

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jeff.gottlieb@latimes.com