Labor leader warns against replacing school police officers

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2004 | 9:28 a.m.

Fifteen years ago labor leader Danny Thompson was asked to join a committee studying the rising rate of violent crime at Clark County's public schools.

The committee's suggestion was to turn the Clark County School District's campus security services into a full-fledged police agency, a recommendation approved by the Legislature in 1989.

But now the district appears to be taking a step backward by having "security monitors" take over some of the duties of campus cops, Thompson told the audience at a community forum on school safety Tuesday.

When the committee was established, campus violence had reached "epidemic proportions," said Thompson, who is now secretary-treasurer of the Nevada AFL-CIO. "Teachers and students were scared to come to school."

The security officers on campus at the time were dismissed as "rent-a-cops," neither respected nor effective, Thompson said.

"Today I'm concerned we're about to make the same mistake again," Thompson said. "We need school police -- we need them more than we ever did. You can have the greatest teachers and the best buildings, but if children are afraid, they are not going to learn anything."

About 50 people turned out for the community meeting at Hoggard Elementary School off Washington Avenue near U.S. 95. This was the seventh -- and final -- meeting in a series in which the Clark County School Board invited community leaders to discuss a variety of education-related topics.

Facing a shortage of officers and an ever-growing number of campuses to patrol and students to protect, the district has been forced to ration its roster of 146 officers, said Phil Gervasi, president of the school police union.

Three new high schools opened in August, but additional officers were not hired to cover those campuses, Gervasi said.

Instead, the district has added the position of "security monitor," specially trained individuals who are supposed to handle crowd control, operate metal detectors at special events and free up school police officers for patrols and investigations.

The total number of criminal citations issued on Clark County campuses dropped 37 percent between the 2002-03 and 2003-04 academic years, district records show. School Police Chief Elliot Phelps has said he plans to continue having two officers assigned to every high school and one officer at most middle schools. With the help of security monitors, officers will be able to do more patrols and be more of a presence at the district's elementary schools, Phelps said.

There is nothing that can replace the effectiveness of an on-campus officer, said School Police Sgt. Jaime Sanchez, one of Tuesday's panelists.

"Whether it's walking the halls or patrolling the campuses, the high visibility of our officers is a big deterrent," said Sanchez, who has spent most of his 23-year career with the district's gang prevention unit.

Students get to know and trust their campus cops and often provide tips that lead to arrests, Sanchez said. In one case a student reported that a classmate with gang ties was planning to bring a gun to a football game, Sanchez said. The individual was arrested later that day with a loaded revolver, Sanchez said.

Most children know their school is the safest place they could be, Sanchez said.

"We picked up a girl on runaway status -- she wouldn't go home but she went to school," Sanchez said.

Las Vegas Councilman Lawrence Weekly, who graduated from Western High School, told the forum audience he regrets many of today's students can't share the relatively carefree environment he experienced.

"We felt safe -- we had opportunities to participate and learn," Weekly said. "Why are so many of our kids being caught up in the negative environment around them? For many of them, it's being afraid that the teachers and school can't protect them ... so they join gangs instead."

It may be time for the business community to take a more active role in helping schools create safe environments, Pat Shalmy, president of Nevada Power, said.

"It takes a lot to give teachers the backup and support they need to do what they're there to do -- teach," said Shalmy, whose grandson began first grade this fall in Clark County. "Whatever funds we can find to make our schools safer is money well spent."