Program zeroes in on guns at school

Benjamin Grove

Thursday, Oct. 8, 1998 | 11:30 a.m.

Why do kids carry guns to school?

Their answers:

"For their backup plan."

"Protection, ego, self-assurance, kill."

"Some to be cool and some to survive."

Those chilling responses were given by both honor students and students who had run-ins with the law in a survey taken in June 1998 by the Clark County's Department of Family and Youth Services.

Motivated by those kinds of responses, police chiefs from around the county are launching a comprehensive program aimed at keeping guns out of schools.

"What brought everything to a head were the (school) shootings from around the country -- West Paducah, Kentucky; Pearl, Mississippi; Springfield, Oregon," Clark County School Police Chief Dan Reyes said.

The new program is called "Z-squared -- Zero Weapons, Zero Tolerance," to be unveiled today in a ceremony at Clark High School.

Police officials from around the county -- including Boulder City, Henderson, Metro, Mesquite, North Las Vegas, Nevada Highway Patrol, the school district and UNLV police, U.S. marshals and the FBI -- have hammered out the Z-squared plan in a series of monthly meetings during the last year. It includes:

* A media campaign, including 30-second television public-service announcements, aimed at kids and parents.

* Developing a manual on student violence for school staffers.

* Buying more portable metal detectors.

* Beefing up current anti-gun programs, including Operation Crime Free Schools, which encourages students to report gun sightings anonymously.

* Expanding student clubs at schools that work to eradicate drugs and violence.

The program, stamped with a flashy black, white, olive and gold logo, is being funded by a $600,000 donation from an anonymous source, said Alonza Robertson of R&R Advertising, which is coordinating the media campaign.

The media campaign will be aimed at both kids and parents. Z-squared organizers hope to begin airing their first 30-second public-service announcement this month. In that commercial, to be shown for the first time today at Clark High, one student asks another: "You think bein' strapped is the way to be a big man? That's stupid. You gonna be big in jail? You gonna be big if you're dead?"

In commercials to come, Z-squared organizers hope to target parents.

"It's essentially, 'Parents, do you know where your guns are?'" said Metro Gang Capt. Terry Lesney, program coordinator. "If we can identify the source of the guns, we can keep them out of the schools."

Last year, school police responded to 80 reported "gun incidents" at Clark County schools. Police actually collected 67 guns, which now sit in a storage locker, Reyes said.

The guns, some of which are still considered evidence, will likely be shredded, not sold, Reyes said. A few guns could be returned to the original owners -- but only if the guns were reported stolen before the weapons turned up in schools.

Seven weeks into this school year, school police have collected eight guns on school campuses. Those weapons include a BB gun found at an elementary school and a pellet gun found at a middle school. Six guns were found at high schools -- on trespassers, not students, police point out.

Until this year, police had not collected hard data on the origin of guns they find on students.

"We're tracking the guns now," Reyes said. "The officers are being trained to ask, 'Where did the gun come from?'"

But police say that a number of students have admitted in the past that the firearms they brought to school belonged to their parents or the parents of friends.

School police this year also are sending gun identification numbers to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which can identify where the guns were initially sold and who bought them, Reyes said.

Many students who have weapons are not violent gang members, but instead are scared kids, Reyes said.

"It's good to know what is going on with the gang culture in Las Vegas," Reyes said. "But those are not the ones who are committing these random acts of violence."

School officials have joined the list of organizations supporting Z-squared. District spokesman Ray Willis repeated his familiar refrain that schools are already the safest place in society. "But we embrace any responsible entity such as Z-squared who wants to help us to provide an even greater margin of safety for our students," Willis added.

Green Valley High School senior Shannon Scow, who worked with police designing the Z-squared program, said she has high hopes for the program. Scow, daughter of School Board member Mary Beth Scow, was a sixth-grader at Greenspun Middle School in 1992 when one student shot another in the leg.

"The next day the school wasn't a school," Scow said. "It was a crime scene."

Officials also hope Z-squared will draw more attention to a 4-year-old district program called Operation Crime Free Schools, which operates a hotline number. The program's visibility has waned recently.

Last year, roughly 70 students used the hotline to tip off police about weapons, Reyes said.

Many students simply tell teachers or principals instead of using the hotline.

Z-squared coordinators hope the program will not fizzle out. They say they designed it to provide a long-term umbrella program that police and the district can use as a guide to keeping guns out of classrooms.

"We didn't want to this to be a flash in the pan," Lesney said. "We took all the pieces of the puzzle, sat down at one table and came up with a comprehensive plan."