La Cañada school officials stay focused on safety, security improvements
Weeks after parents converged on a Feb. 27 school board meeting with heartfelt pleas for student safety following drug incidents at La Cañada High and increasing fervor over school shootings, officials updated the community Tuesday night on an action plan taking shape.
Members of the La Cañada Unified School District Governing Board shared with parents their recent renewed effort to employ a multifaceted approach to address the safety and emotional well-being of students while ensuring the security of all campuses across the district.
Tuesday’s meeting followed on the heels of another shooting at a high school in Great Hills, Md., during which a male and female student were shot by third minor student later subdued by a school resource officer.
“Unfortunately, we know that there was another incident today in Maryland. And we are grateful for the safety of the majority of the students, but we continue to look at what we can do to make sure our students are safe [and] our teachers are safe,” LCUSD Board President Kaitzer Puglia told an audience of about 50 parents.
Supt. Wendy Sinnette highlighted actions taken so far, as well as initiatives still on the horizon. Officials are engaging in frank talks with students, training faculty and staff on lockdown procedures and considering active-shooter training drills that would help high school students practice potentially life-saving skills without causing undue stress or trauma.
LCHS Principal Ian McFeat is looking into a central mechanism that would lock all campus doors during an emergency, Sinnette said, and staff members are in the process of engaging in a new security audit to inform the district about the needs of each campus. Talks about more counselors at school sites and possibly a wellness center and peer listening program at the high school are also in the works.
“These are initial steps on a long journey, but we’re making sure we make progress and heed the call,” the superintendent said.
Sinnette encouraged interested parents to apply for a seat on a new safety and security task force that will convene to study a range of issues and make recommendations to the board. She shared the preliminary success of an anonymous Spartan Tip Line, unveiled earlier this month, where students and parents can report troubling behavior. So far, 52 tips have been reported.
“They’ve ranged from tips notifying administration of student self-harm to threats about drug and vape usage,” she said. “Students have expressed to administration they feel safer being able to report incidents anonymously.”
In a public comment, LCHS senior and founder of the non-school-affiliated club Activism USA Jack Weirick shared students’ recent activism in favor of stricter gun control legislation, which began with a March 14 protest and candlelight vigil and will continue Saturday with a bus trip to Los Angeles for the March For Our Lives demonstration and an April 20 march from the high school to Memorial Park.
“The students of La Cañada have spoken and will continue to do so until federal gun control is tightened and strictly enforced,” he said. “Tonight I come to speak to all of you, not just to inform, but to ask you and the community to listen to our voices and join us in these efforts — if your kids can get involved, so can you.”
Several parents spoke in support of students’ efforts and their desire to keep an open dialogue about safety, wellness and making positive choices. Others asked pointed questions about having more and better surveillance cameras on campus and why administrators are planning to dismiss a second temporary school resource officer brought on campus in recent weeks.
“Why are we getting rid of an extra school resource officer?” asked parent Patty Corrales, adding that police presence sends a visual message of zero tolerance.
Sinnette explained school officers are contracted through the sheriff’s department and said administrators felt having walk-on sports coaches, who know student and are given security clearance and training was more effective than a second sheriff’s deputy.
After some discussion, board members agreed they would reassess the security situation and look into potential solutions, such as bringing on a second officer or volunteer retired deputy to help monitor the high school.
Puglia thanked parents for their input and promised all suggestions would be looked into.
“We have to explore all avenues,” she said. “We cannot close ourselves off.”
Board updates policy on canine searches
With an eye still tuned to student safety and wellness, board members discussed updates to their own policy regarding the district’s use of drug-sniffing dogs at La Cañada High School.
In a first reading, the board considered a policy that would allow canine searches to resume at LCHS and protect students’ constitutional rights without rendering the process ineffective.
The new policy states while dogs will not directly sniff students without reasonable suspicion, administrators will no longer read a script before each search notifying students of their right to vacate the room with their belongings.
“We’re not going to try to trick kids and we’re not going to hide anything, but we’re going to eliminate the board policy that has us discussing that each time,” Sinnette said.
Twitter: @SaraCardine
