To the editor: The return of school police to the most conflictive campuses of the Los Angeles Unified School District is necessary. (“LAUSD police deployment to 20 schools collapses after one day amid opposition and confusion,” May 17)
While activists and school board members debate the presence of school police on campus, one thing is certain: For many parents, the presence of police on campus shows a deterrent effect against crime, and it is a feeling That hasn't changed in the last 30 years. In fact, a 1993 article in the LA Times noted that parents “found comfort in seeing a uniformed officer.”
As an LAUSD teacher's aide in the 1990s, working at an elementary school in a community affected by gang violence and drugs, I remember the important role of school police in ensuring safe campuses and hallways. Unfortunately, many neighborhoods still face these challenges, which is why Latino immigrant families have called on LAUSD officials to restore funding for school police and return officers to campuses.
Latino families, whose children make up 74% of the LAUSD student population, will not risk sending their children to schools they perceive as unsafe. LAUSD needs to pay attention.
Evelyn G. Alemán, Reseda
The writer is founder of the group Our Voice, a Latino parents group.
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To the editor: Why am I not surprised that LAUSD's attempt to increase student safety at specific high schools by deploying officers to those campuses was a big deal?
Having recently retired from LAUSD after 34 years as a teacher and administrator, I found your article to be a very familiar description of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing.
There is no doubt that the district needs to address the rise in crime on certain campuses, and school police should play a vital role in this. But the problem is much more complex and solving it will require more than the deployment of agents.
Tom Iannucci, Los Angeles
