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 Cash-Strapped
School Districts Opt to Trim or Disband Police Forces
Systems in California and across the nation are choosing to
cut spending on security in academic programs.
by Erika Hayasaki, LA Times, February 8, 2004
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In the aftermath of the 1999 Columbine school shooting, school
districts around the country beefed up their campus police and
security forces, hiring extra officers with the help of state
and federal funds.
But that trend is starting to reverse in some cash-strapped
districts in California and elsewhere in the nation that are
trimming the size of their school security corps rather than
cutting academic programs further. The Oakland, Walnut Valley
and Pomona school districts recently discontinued their campus
police departments to save money, relying instead on municipal
or county law enforcement to patrol school grounds.
Such reductions have prompted an outcry from parents afraid they
will lead to rising campus violence. But the school districts,
while acknowledging they are forced to make tough choices,
contend that safety will not be jeopardized.
Over the last year, districts in California, Oklahoma, South
Carolina, Michigan and other states have eliminated school
police officer positions. The initial layoff numbers nationwide
are in the hundreds but many more are expected this year,
according to the National Assn. of School Resource Officers,
which represents 12,500 school police officers. In addition,
training, hours, patrol routes and funding for bullets, radios
or vests are being reduced in some districts.
School officials expect security forces to shrink further
because post-Columbine federal funding for more than 6,000
campuses is drying up and other money under the federal Safe and
Drug Free Schools initiative has been reduced.
Paul Houston, executive director of the American Assn. of School
Administrators, said many districts are cutting police forces or
considering such a move because school security has been
eclipsed by efforts to boost academic performance. Unlike
academic testing, security officers are not mandated under state
and federal law, he added.
After the Littleton, Colo., rampage, in which two students at
Columbine High School killed 12 students, a teacher and then
themselves, districts reacted by adding metal detectors, guards
and officers. "Now we've had several quiet years," Houston said.
"No Child Left Behind is driving everything now," he said,
referring to the federal law that emphasizes school testing and
accountability. School safety "is not a front-burner issue.
Obviously, now people are responding to what the front-burner
issue is now, which is test scores."
Curtis Lavarello, executive director of the national school
resource officers group, lamented that change: "In these times
when we seem to be very interested in safeguarding bridges,
ports and government buildings, we're not considering a viable
target, which is our children.
"It's a very disturbing trend," he said. "It's likely to get
worse before it gets better," he said.
The San Diego Unified School District Police Department, which
protects 143,000 students in 183 schools, has reduced its force
from 52 officers to 35, Chief Don Braun said. Twelve positions
were eliminated with the loss of the federal funds.
"You have less people trying to handle the same volume of calls
for service," Braun said, adding that schools may end up waiting
longer for a response to "calls that don't require an immediate
response," such as burglary, battery and drug- or
alcohol-related incidents.
Other school boards are deciding that municipal police and
sheriff's department officers are better trained and equipped to
deal with campus crime than school officers and may be willing
to do so at no additional cost.
A Jan. 15 shooting at Pomona High School alarmed the community
recently, especially because the school board in December had
voted to save $600,000 by disbanding its police department.
Deveda Steward, 16, was accidentally shot in the chest when a
gun that a boy brought to school discharged in class. Steward is
expected to fully recover from her wounds.
"That put us all in shock. We haven't had a kid shot on campus
in years," said Emett Terrell, a deputy superintendent.
But he and others doubted that the school police department
could have prevented such an incident, because its officers were
not stationed on each campus full time.
The seven officers were responsible for patrolling more than 40
schools each day.
"They're not at the gate asking questions," Terrell said.
Beginning this month, the district will rely on the Pomona
police and Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department for
protection. Officers will field calls and patrol school grounds
as part of their other rounds at no cost to the district,
although they will not be stationed on campuses, Terrell said.
Kenneth Steward, Deveda's father, is pleased with the district's
decision. He said he feels more comfortable relying on local law
enforcement to protect his daughter.
"I know a few of the school police officers," he said. "They're
too laid-back."
Some parents and teachers say school officers are useful because
they pay attention to smaller crimes, such as graffiti and
fights, and develop relationships with students.
School police officers "know who the drug dealers are on campus,
and the kids are comfortable enough with them to say, 'Hey,
something is going to go down,' " said Darlene Alvarez, a mother
with five children enrolled in the 14,820-student Walnut Valley
Unified district in the San Gabriel Valley, which will disband
its department this month.
Alvarez's oldest daughter was threatened after school one day
last year by a teenager wielding a pellet gun. Her daughter
fled, and school police were notified. Within minutes, campus
officers arrested the suspect and several of his friends,
including one who had allegedly pulled a knife on another
student.
"My kids are very nervous about the idea of the officers not
being around," said Alvarez, who has since quit her job at a
hospital so she can pick her children up after school.
Donna Waggener, 40, who has worked as a school police officer
for eight years, helped arrest the youth who threatened
Alvarez's daughter. It was not the first time she has stepped in
to prevent a dangerous situation.
Last year, a student warned Waggener that a gang fight involving
knives and a gun was going to take place at an upcoming football
game. She talked to school counselors, administrators and
parents. She also patrolled the football game.
Her actions helped avert that fight, she said.
Waggener said she is not convinced the Sheriff's Department
would be as effective as school police officers. "We're
proactive," she said. "The sheriffs are reactive."
Diane Hockersmith, assistant superintendent of business services
for Walnut Valley, said the district, which had to trim $4
million from its budget this year, chose to disband its
department to save money and because it was difficult to recruit
qualified officers. Many top-notch applicants were lured away by
regular police and sheriff's departments, she said.
"Obviously the concern was: Will our schools still be safe? And,
yes, they will be," Hockersmith said. "We've been assured by the
Sheriff's Department that they will be there."
The Los Angeles Unified School District so far has spared its
309-officer police department from severe cuts.
"They have scrounged around and in some matter or another found
resources to help us out," said Chief Alan Kerstein.
Nevertheless, the department has about 40 officers available to
staff the district's 80 middle schools. He said those campuses
need at least one full-time officer each. Its night patrol force
is "razor thin," he said.
In California, incidents of battery, drug and alcohol abuse,
graffiti and burglary on school campuses rose between 1998 and
2001, the most recent years for which data are available, state
officials said.
Kenneth Trump, president of National School Safety and Security
Services, said it is disturbing that funding to protect students
is being reduced at a time when "school violence is alive and
well."
"The real issue is where you place your priorities," Trump said.
"We can hear from elected officials that school safety is a
priority. But the ultimate indicator is in the line item of
their budgets."
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