LOOKING IN ON: EDUCATION

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Monday, Sept. 25, 2006 | 7:15 a.m.

Since the academic year began Aug. 30, School Police have confiscated six guns from individuals on campuses, including a loaded .40 caliber handgun taken from a student at Bonanza High School.

Also in the arsenal: a compound bow and 14 knives, found in a vehicle cruising the Centennial High School campus.

And on Friday , School Police arrested two 17-year-olds for their alleged involvement in a bus-shooting incident the previous day.

Phil Gervasi, president of the Clark County School Police Officer's Association, says such incidents are evidence that more campus cops are needed. A "severe staffing shortage" in the School Police department, Gervasi says, is compromising student safety.

The association, with help from local AFL-CIO affiliates, hopes to make its point at a rally outside Thursday's meeting of the Clark County School Board.

The district's comprehensive high schools have two campus police officers. But nighttime football games are understaffed, Gervasi said, and some athletic events have no police presence.

During a recent game at the new Legacy High School in North Las Vegas, a 16-year-old was arrested after he fired a handgun in the campus parking lot.

School Police Chief Hector Garcia said that when enrollment figures are firmed up he will likely rearrange some officer assignments. That may include sending more manpower to middle schools in need.

"The magic number is 1,575 (students)," Garcia said. "That qualifies a middle school for a police officer, or, if they choose, a campus security monitor."

Not all middle schools want police officers - a good thing, because there aren't enough campus cops to go around. Requests for officers are approved based on availability. Variables such as past incidents and problems in surrounding neighborhoods are also a factor.

During the 2005 legislative session, Assembly Bill 408, which would have required every middle school in Clark County to have its own police officer, died in committee.

School Police officers are in short supply nationwide. The Clark County School Police Department currently has 132 officers, with 18 vacancies. The department has lost 48 officers in 10 years to law enforcement agencies in surrounding municipalities, which typically offer better pay than the School District.

If his department was fully staffed, Garcia said he would have an easier time assigning officers to middle schools. There would also be more people available for patrols and investigative work.

When a fight broke out among students at Cortney Middle School on Monday , the two campus security monitors had a tough time holding back the three combatants and the dozens of spectators.

Cortney Principal Teresa Holden called School Police and Metro Police, and both agencies sent officers.

Holden has been asking for a police officer for her campus since last winter, when she took over as principal of the school on East Hacienda Drive off Nellis Boulevard.

"There have been some opportunities for there to be volatile situations on campus, things that spill back over from the neighborhood onto the school," said Holden. She emphasized, however, that the campus is safe and that parents should feel comfortable sending their children to school.

School Police officials say Cortney is high on its priority list. Holden expects to be assigned a third campus security monitor until a school police officer is available.

The Nevada Department of Education is investigating a handful of allegations that teachers improperly assisted students during state-ordered tests.

The annual test security report, obtained by the Sun, includes incidents that appear to be genuine misunderstandings of the rules and regulations for administering the tests. In one case, a principal allowed students to briefly leave a testing room in order to take part in a senior class photograph. And at another campus, an answer sheet went missing after a teacher forgot to count the materials before dismissing the class. But there was one obvious winner in the "What Were They Thinking?" category:

At White Middle School, two students wrote their answers to a writing test in Spanish, then used a classroom computer to access a Web site that translated their papers into English. "The teacher allegedly believes that it is permissible for students to use a Web site in order to complete their essays," according to the state report.