Wednesday, March 4, 2009 | 2:26 p.m.
A police crackdown on drug and gang violence in Southern Nevada schools appears to be working — and we hope police continue with this ambitious but necessary program.
After an alarming spike of violence in and around Las Vegas schools last year — including the shooting death of Palo Verde High School freshman Christopher Privett — Metro Police and Clark County School District Police reacted with plans for a higher profile in some schools.
This was the appropriate reaction.
Capt. Pat Neville of Metro Police said that in response to the high rate of teen violence and crime in 2008, Metro identified five "core" schools that needed more attention.
Each school now has at least four police officers on campus at any given time.
Metro and Clark County School Police did work with school officials and counselors to reach out to troubled youth and their families. This community-building outreach was fine and hopefully effective
But, in our view, solutions such as increased efforts at counseling wayward youth and engaging their parents are only so effective.
On the other hand, if there's something a young troublemaker understands, it's a uniformed officer handcuffing his buddy and taking him to jail. The lesson that needs to be reinforced daily at our schools is that if you commit a crime, there's a good chance you'll go to jail.
The Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition is now writing an application for a $9 million federal grant to finance programs aimed at further reducing youth violence. This sounds promising, since the grant would fund both additional counseling services and placing more police officers in the schools.
Whether future approaches to teen violence lean toward more police patrols or are weighted to the teen and family outreach approach, we're pleased that everyone involved is taking this situation seriously.
Richard Carranza, the CCSD's Northwest Region superintendent, offered a preview of what's to come.
He said ongoing efforts to curb youth violence will involve a "wraparound" technique that will include weekly meetings among counselors, police officers and the families of troubled teens.
"We don't want to be reactive, but proactive," Carranza said.
With violence at schools seemingly under control thanks to the efforts of police and school officials, the community must not lose sight of the overall local teen crime situation.
Unfortunately, local teens continue to be shot and wounded too often away from school. Just last month, two boys were shot during a party in Las Vegas.
One of the boys, just 16, died as a result of his wounds. He was Aric Michael Brill.
He was one of at least four local young people killed during or after teen parties in the past year where disputes broke out or uninvited guests arrived and caused trouble.
The death of Aric Brill is yet another tragic reminder that both in and out of school, our teens are in danger and the entire community must support police efforts to enhance their safety.
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