Fears over campus safety are hitting a fever pitch among the parents in Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), with a swell of petitions and demands for a stronger police presence at schools following a spate of violent incidents and drug-related problems. On Tuesday, LAUSD faces a reckoning as parents and the police association clamor for action at the school board meeting.
Undersigned by concerned parents, a petition is circulating with alarming statistics—they report violent incidents jumping from 3,954 to 5,680 within a year, and drug incidents soaring upwards by 62% in the same period. In an effort that seems to buck the current of past progressive actions, these parents want cops back on campus.
Since LAUSD cut the school police budget by a third in 2020, tragedy has tarried near school grounds, echoing in the halls with a sharp increase in violence and drug issues, including the shooting of a 15-year-old student from Washington Prep High School this past April. Maria Luisa Palma, a concerned parent, along with others in the Latino community, feels sidelined by the district. "Our message to the district is that the Latino community deserves a seat at the table to have these conversations about the lack of safety on our campuses," Palma recounted to KTLA 5. Their message is hardly a whisper, backed by a chorus of parent voices seeking a reversal of the decision to remove police from schools.
In response to the calls for action, LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho revealed the development a safety plan, hinting at a tailored approach, allowing individual campuses the autonomy to decide on police presence. Yet some parents are critical,pointing out overly zealous law enforcement response to after-school fights unrelated to broader campus safety threats, raising the question of the true efficacy of campus policing.
Amidst the outcry, Los Angeles School Police Association President Gil Gamez has echoed parental concerns, saying "Their experiment didn't work" in an interview with KTLA 5. Referring to an incident where security guards, alleged by Gamez to be underprepared, failed to intervene in a fight that escalated to a shooting, criticism of the current security measures being compared unfavorably to professional policing. "Nobody would try to do this with teachers – pull people off the street and tell them to teach – so you sure as heck don’t do that with police officers,” Gamez added. It's clear the community is grappling for control over the physical safety of their children, with Tuesday's school board meeting serving as the battleground for voices to be heard and reassurances to be sought.
