District police prepare for worst

Terry Webster

Thursday, Aug. 23, 2001 | 11:25 a.m.

There is one skill the Clark County School District police force never wants to use.

Back-to-school training for the 155-member department included a practice drill last week at a local high school, so officers are prepared if they ever face "a Columbine."

The April 20, 1999, shooting spree that ended in 15 deaths at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., continues to rankle school officials everywhere.

School districts throughout the country, including Clark County, tightened campus security on the anniversaries of the shooting, after rumors of copycat attacks ran wild.

Adopting a zero-tolerance policy -- even jokes were taken seriously -- the district has had no significant problems.

But that peace has not keep school police from preparing for the worst this year.

One of the biggest criticisms after Columbine, school district police chief Elliott Phelps said, was that officers waited until SWAT teams arrived to enter the school.

During Clark County's recent training drill, officers practiced storming the school -- without SWAT backup -- looking for staged gunmen hiding throughout the building.

"This is not the kind of thing people want to hear about for back-to-school," Sgt. Ken Young, police department spokesman, said. "We just have to be prepared."

Phelps said school police will be the first to tackle any outbursts on school campuses, with other agencies being called in, as needed.

Although serious problems are not expected, security will be increased on the first day of school Aug. 30, officials said. Municipal police agencies also will be on hand to watch campuses.

On opening day, Phelps noted, students who had problems with each other last year are seeing each other again on school campuses. Issues that festered over the summer can explode when students meet again at school, Phelps said.

To avoid problems school police rely on anonymous tips from students to help monitor the school climate. School police also work closely with other law enforcement agencies to help keep their finger on the pulse of the community, Phelps said.

School police will rely more heavily on other agencies later this fall, when new legislation goes into effect that reassigns investigations of the worst crimes to the local police force.

Any homicides, sexual assaults or other crimes that would bring a prison sentence of 20 years or more now will be passed over to Metro, Henderson, North Las Vegas or Boulder City detectives, Metro officials said.

Other changes the law will bring in October, when it goes into effect, are still being worked out.

Meanwhile, school police are honing their own skills, taking brush-up courses in law, self-defense and gang awareness, Young said.

Officers also expect to increase their presence in the classroom, speaking to students about everything from bicycle safety to the hazards of drug use and gang activity.

"We really want to increase our presence in the middle schools," Phelps said.

That's the time students may start skipping school or experimenting with drugs and getting involved in gangs, he said.

Police will even have a nationally approved curriculum that will allow them to give instruction in classes, Phelps said.

Safety awareness efforts in the district continued this morning as school police held a press conference on back-to-school safety near Desert Inn and Pecos Road.

"There's going to be a lot of students out on the streets," Mary Stanley Larsen, the school district spokeswoman, said. "The first day of school is just one week away."

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