Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Schools feel staffing shortage in security department

It started as a campus food fight, and quickly swelled into a riot.

At least 20 students pushed, shoved and exchanged blows, as teachers tried to hold back spectators.

"If we had our police officer on campus, odds are the fight would still have happened," one teacher at Biltmore Continuation High School said. "But it would not have escalated the way it did."

Since the start of the academic year in August, Biltmore has shared Clark County School District Police Officer Michael Hanrahan with nearby Washington Continuation Junior High School in North Las Vegas. The campuses are less than two miles apart, but that's still too far for a quick response, say teachers, administrators and staff at both schools.

Washington and Biltmore serve students who have been suspended or expelled from their neighborhood schools. Each campus has about 120 students, a fraction of the size of the district's average middle and high schools. But by percentage, more criminal citations are issued at the two schools than at the district's other schools, where larger student bodies might be considered catalysts for more kinds of problems.

At Biltmore, 35 citations were written during the 2005-06 school year, and 14 citations have been issued since July, including for possession of a controlled substance, battery and assault.

And at Washington, School Police have issued 30 criminal citations to students this school year, three times as many as were handed out for the entire 2005-06 academic year. Offenses have included assaults, fights and in one instance, a threat toward a school employee.

Edward Goldman, the associate superintendent who oversees alternative campuses, said he was unaware that Biltmore and Washington were sharing one officer.

"This is not acceptable," Goldman said. "Those schools are where some of our most volatile students are. They need to have the utmost security."

School Police are short about 20 officers. Applications have increased after the School Board approved a 15 percent pay increase for new officers, which made starting salaries more competitive with other law enforcement agencies in the Las Vegas Valley.

The School District has 134 police officers, responsible for patrolling 326 schools as well as administrative buildings, facilities and bus yards. It's been the district's practice to place two officers at each metropolitan high school and one officer at middle schools that request assistance. All but one of the district's metropolitan high schools have two officers, and 14 of the 55 middle schools have one full-time officer.

School Police spokesman Ken Young said staffing decisions are made based on a variety of factors, including a campus' history of incidents .

The two alternative campuses weren't given a higher priority for officers, Young said, after considering the needs of all the district's schools.

"It's not our best choice, but as we get more personnel we'll be able to fill some of the slots," Young said.

Michael Kennedy, who is in his third year as principal at Biltmore, said he was disappointed when the School Police informed him in September that his campus was losing a full-time officer.

"We're short teachers, bus drivers, police officers," Kennedy said. "It's one of the taxing problems of a growing school district."

He described Biltmore as one of the safest schools in Clark County, thanks to diligent teachers and campus security monitors - as well as metal detectors at the entrance. But he also acknowledged that the absence of a full-time officer troubled him.

"Visibility is important," Kennedy said. "All of our teachers have supervisory duties, but there are tasks that they are not trained for."

At the Washington campus earlier this week, students lining up for a restroom break handed over their belts to teachers and emptied their pockets before being allowed into the restroom.

"Almost every single one of the students enrolled here caused major campus disruptions all by themselves at the school they came from," said Margaret Harmon, who is in her third year as principal of the alternative school. "When you get them all together, the potential for trouble is very real."

When Harmon needs help - and Hanrahan is elsewhere - she calls School Police, and an officer is dispatched as quickly as possible.

Young said Hanrahan would not be made available for an interview, in keeping with the department's policy.

But police officers' frustration in not being able to give one campus their full attention is well known.

The principals of both Washington and Biltmore praised Hanrahan as an outstanding officer, a law enforcement veteran who has a knack for keeping kids in line and earning their trust.

"On a good day we get him for three or four hours," Harmon said. "On a bad day we never see him."

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