Schools Report 84 Crimes So Far This Fall : Safety: Violence and vandalism may seem rampant, but district officials say statistics prove that there has not been a dramatic increase over past years.

REGION — Violence and vandalism went back to school early this year along with most Westside students.

Although Los Angeles Unified School District officials assure concerned parents that public schools are essentially safe, a spate of disturbing incidents has marred the fall term. In the last month, a pre-kindergarten classroom at Stoner Avenue School was vandalized, a student was assaulted at gunpoint at Hamilton High, a teen-ager was shot at Westchester High and epithets were sprayed on the walls of several other schools.

There have been more than 84 crimes--including robberies, burglaries, arsons, shootings and weapons violations--reported at the Los Angeles district’s 13 middle schools and 10 high schools on the Westside, and even a few minor incidents at its elementary schools since classes began Aug. 18.

Just how dangerous are Westside public schools? According to statistics provided by school district Police Chief Wesley Mitchell and random interviews on campus, they are neither the blackboard jungle they are made out to be in stories that surface at polite parties nor the sanctuary most parents remember from their own youth.

There are occasional chilling incidents, but no dramatic increase in the numbers over the last few years, despite widespread misperceptions to the contrary. Gang members are not brandishing guns on Westside campuses or shaking down their victims in school bathrooms, and students interviewed say they are not fearful.

Kris Hawkes, 13, an eighth-grader at Paul Revere Middle School in Brentwood, says he has seen a couple of pocket knives (“guys just showing off, not threatening anybody”) and a few shoving matches (“some big kids will take advantage of their size”) but says going to school is not an exercise in overcoming fear. “There’s nothing to worry about. Not really .”

What about gangs? “Well, some guys say they are gang members, but. . . . “

Kris says Revere is “not really safe, but it’s safe. Pretty safe.” He explains that although “nothing has happened--you don’t have to worry about being beat up real bad or shot or robbed--”it doesn’t feel as safe as the schools I went to in Salt Lake City, Palm Desert and La Jolla. They were smaller, and most of the kids lived in my neighborhood. We have mostly bused-in kids here, but actually they’re pretty nice.”

Mental health experts say some spillover of chaos from the community onto school campuses is unavoidable.

But the greater danger comes in traveling between home and school, says Loeb Aronin, who heads the district’s psychological services division. Once inside the classroom, the situation is one of relative safety. Aronin says gang activity during school hours consists largely of hanging out in certain high school bathrooms.

He said some campus incidents are triggered by students upset at grade time or out to get back at a certain teacher, and “every once in a while someone walks on campus with a gun. I don’t know if the incidence is greater now, but people logically ask, ‘Could it happen here?’ ”

The answer is yes. Since Aug. 18, weapons--usually a gun or knife--have been used in at least 20 crimes on Westside school grounds or involving students on their way to or from Westside Los Angeles schools.

As violence in society grows and the age of perpetrators declines, school becomes an obvious arena. Experts say school is where the usual conflicts of adolescence are acted out, school is where gangs interface, school is a ready marketplace for drugs.

Today’s schools are light-years away from those many parents remember, when the wildest thing they dared was painting the water tower after the homecoming game and violence stayed outside the schoolyard gate.

“There are no boundaries anymore; nothing is sacred,” said school mental health worker Deborah Johnson, noting that schools, churches and even hospitals are no longer neutral territory. “Negative energy is directed at all institutions today, so schools are sometimes targeted. They are symbolic, close, accessible and part of kids’ everyday life.”

She said youthful frustration and anger can erupt in the best neighborhoods, not just the inner city, “when parents are not available, when they give their kids money and tell them to amuse themselves, when there is ‘hanging out’ with no support or direction.”

Aronin says he can’t pinpoint when schools lost their immunity to surrounding violence. All he knows is that there are few resources to help sick, out-of-control children and families, and that when people with personality disorders want to do something, they do it--regardless of whether they are at school or whether there are innocent bystanders. “They are scary,” he said.

But Mitchell says the surge of violence many anticipated in the wake of the riots has not materialized.

“There’ve been no reports indicating an unusual pattern or an increase in problems,” Mitchell said. “School has been in session one month, and the first month is always difficult in that the student population is new to the site, kids are feeling their way back after the break, they are settling in and cutting up social turf on campus. It is not unusual to have discipline problems when school opens--there’s all kinds of testing the system, moving between campuses--but no significant criminal problems. But things should settle in the next couple of weeks.

“Overall, my sense is that the climate has improved from the ‘70s and early ‘80s, when there was open strife between gangs on campuses,” a change he attributes to better-trained school site staffs working closely with school police.

Mitchell described the school system’s present security levels as adequate, taken together with support from a team that includes teachers, administrators, parents, other police agencies and vigilant community members. Every Los Angeles district high school is staffed by at least one, and sometimes two, armed school police officers, and most Westside middle schools are assigned one such policeman. In addition, six school police patrol cars rove the Westside during school hours.

Even in the current budget crisis, there are no plans to cut police coverage, although some school police management jobs are under consideration for the chopping block.

Crimes at Westside schools make headlines, so some administrators make efforts to hush such incidents, which only creates suspicions that even more violence lurks around the next corner. But in reality, parents can probably relax.

Crime Report

During Los Angeles Unified School District’s first month of the fall semester, 46 incidents of violence, vandalism or other crimes took place at at Westside high schools, according to school district police reports; middle schools accounted for 38 crime reports. The following is a breakdown of incidents.

Crenshaw High School

1 assault against a student

1 assault against a teacher or

administrator

1 assault with a deadly weapon against a student

3 robberies

1 possession of a gun

2 possessions of knives

Dorsey High School

1 assault against a teacher or

administrator

1 possession of marijuana

1 possession of a gun

1 possession of a knife

1 possession of other weapon

1 theft of student property

2 vandalisms of school property

Fairfax High School

1 vandalism to employee property

Hamilton High School

1 assault with a deadly weapon

1 possession of a firearm

1 bomb threat

2 thefts of student property

Hollywood High School

1 possession of marijuana

4 burglaries

1 theft of school property

1 theft of employee property

1 vandalism of school property

1 vandalism of employee property

Los Angeles High School

1 assault with a deadly weapon

1 possession of a gun

1 possession of a weapon other than

gun or knife

1 vandalism of school property

1 vandalism of employee property

1 loitering/trespassing

Palisades High School

1 arson

University High School

1 robbery

Venice High School

1 assault against a student

1 bomb threat

Westchester High School

1 assault with a deadly weapon

1 possession of a firearm

2 vandalisms of school property