Redondo Beach District 4 councilman Steve Sammarco spends every morning taking his children to school, seeing campuses up close and personal on a regular basis.
So he hopes that residents will understand when he gets a bit emotional about school security — particularly when he finds it lacking, as he has in light of recent threats against L.A. area schools.
Sammarco took time to speak his mind regarding the school district’s practices multiple times during Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, calling the district’s levels of communication “unacceptable” in times of potential concern.
“For a lot of you, it was difficult to send [your child] to school this morning,” Sammarco said early in the meeting, citing threats made against Los Angeles and New York-area school districts earlier in the day. “We all sat around waiting; nothing came, and so we took our kids, reluctantly, to school — and at 8:04 a.m., we get a message saying ‘We’re not closed.’”
Sammarco found that “unacceptable,” saying that friends with children in Manhattan Beach’s district were notified early and often through text, phone call and email. “It’s pointed out glaring inadequacies in our own emergency planning in Redondo Beach,” Sammarco said. He also found that, at his kids’ school, earthquake preparedness kits have materials in them that expired in 2005.
The councilman said that he had already met with RBUSD Superintendent Dr. Steven Keller, as well as Redondo Beach Police Chief Keith Kauffman, regarding safety procedures.
School concerns were on the minds of many that evening, as a resident with kids in the district said that his children’s schools have “no security whatsoever.” He pled with council, saying that Redondo’s schools need to install Maglocks and shatter-proof glass, “minimal stuff immediately to make it more secure,” he said. “We’re being lulled to sleep on this, and we need to do something now.”
City Attorney Michael Webb then noted that the City of Redondo Beach doesn’t have authority to make changes to district-owned buildings. Concerns with district facilities can be taken with the school district, at their monthly Board of Education meetings, he recommended.
Near meeting’s end, Sammarco continued his thoughts regarding the district.
“I want to be clear; it’s not just a school board issue. If I’m living next to a school that’s locked down, and I have no kids, I want to know my school is locked down. I want every resident to be notified by text, email, phone call, just like in Manhattan Beach. I think it’s level of service we’re talking about here, and the level I expect is not what we’re currently at,” he said.
“I know there’s been bashing on RBUSD, but so we’re all understanding, they review safety policy every year,” said District 5 councilwoman Laura Emdee, a former member of the RBUSD School Board. “Could their plans be better? You bet. But [Kauffman] and Dr. Keller have met on how to make them better.”
She also noted that school remodeling efforts have led to increased security features at campuses, including constructing barriers and limiting campus entrances during school hours.
“To say the school district has done nothing is a fallacy, and though I agree there’s more to be done, they’ve done a lot to make sure kids are safe.”
“What the public needs to know is that we are working with the district. They’re extremely receptive to changing philosophies and paradigms,” regarding safety procedures, Chief Kauffman said, saying that training procedures are getting ready to roll-out district-wide. “If you just preach philosophy without buy-in from the district and parents, the system won’t work,” he continued. “But Redondo has had an amazing response, and you should know that it’s coming.”
Keller, reached Wednesday morning, strongly disagreed with Sammarco’s characterization of RBUSD’s safety.
“I thank Councilwoman Emdee and the RBPD Chief Kauffman for their appropriate responses to Councilman Sammarco’s comments,” Keller said. “As we say in the business, you are entitled to your own opinion; you are not, however, entitled to your own facts. The safety of our students and staff is our number one priority. Comments from individuals who are not privy to the details and the context of any perceived or credible threat is not productive to our work in school safety.”
