Town Hall set for February 27 to discuss campus safety
Culver City schools are dealing with mounting criticism from parents who say their campuses have become sites of bullying, violence, and even racism.
The protests were prompted by several recent incidents at Culver City Unified School District (CCUSD) campuses, the most serious involving a student allegedly bringing an airsoft plastic pellet gun onto campus in January and the firing of a school security guard for alleged racist verbal abuse against a female Black student in February.
“Our schools are not safe,” said Melissa Overton at an angry rally on Friday morning. After her daughter Christina was physically attacked by bullies and returned home with clumps of her hair missing and bloody hands, Overton said she needs to see a therapist to handle the trauma.
“My daughter was told that Black people should die and she should go kill herself,” another parent Lakeisha Varrett told Superintendent Quoc Tran at the protest, in reference to the verbal abuse by the former security guard.
Kamora Reed, a sixth-grade student, said she is afraid to go to school due to violent students and potential retaliation from the fired security guard.
Culver City School District Superintendent Tran has called for a town hall meeting from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on Monday, February 27 at Robert Frost Auditorium to discuss campus safety with community members. Tran acknowledged that some students have been suspended in the past but noted that this hasn’t stopped the violence since it always seems to come from “the same small group of students”.
He added that one solution – enrolling disruptive students at Culver Park Continuation High School – is no longer possible as the district’s alternative program was closed during the pandemic.
Tran issued a statement Friday in a District-wide newsletter further addressing the fights.
“Over the past few weeks, I have heard from parents, students and staff about the issues on our campuses, and I want to take this opportunity to apologize to our families who are experiencing this harm and reassure the community that we are working hard to create systems that will address these issues immediately. ‘I want to be clear that everyone at CCUSD takes school safety and security very seriously. In particular, we want to engage the entire CCUSD community in the discussion and remain committed to providing all of our families better and more transparent communication in response to their students’ experiences.”
Parents also allege that discipline has been lacking at times and perpetrators of fights have not been properly sanctioned or suspended.
On Thursday, CCUSD Board President Paula Amezola sent out a message addressing the incidents.
“We apologize to our families who are experiencing this harm and we are being intentional about creating systems that will interrupt it immediately,” Amezola said. “The Board wants to emphasize that we heard you, we share and validate your concerns, and we take the safety of our students extremely seriously.”
According to the CCUSD, on February 10 the Identify, Reduce, Prevent and Eliminate Task Force met with the high school students who were recently involved in fights.
“Each of the students were able to articulately share their stories, from their perspectives as victims or active participants,” Assistant Superintendent of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Dr. Jennifer Smith said during a February 14 CCUSD Board Meeting. “We encouraged the students to speak freely; however, we did have some specific questions around a) the need for counseling or mental health support, b) a more restrictive cell phone policy, and c) what we could do to make them feel safe on campus.”
According to the CCUSD, through ongoing assessments of these incidents, administrators identified the need for qualified, responsive and engaged safety personnel. Furthermore, it was noted that a small subset of students was attempting to instigate fights and that many were suffering from boredom. To address these issues, steps taken included staffing up to monitor students before school hours, during passing periods, lunches and after-school. Additionally, district administrators provided additional support and supervision. Students, families and staff were also informed about access to WeTip for confidential and anonymous reporting of crimes. Social media posts that were inappropriate were also tagged while town halls with school site leaders had been planned in order to update the agreement with security personnel.
“The Board is working closely with Superintendent Tran to ensure an expedited response to these safety concerns. The number of fights has significantly diminished since these interventions were implemented,” Amezola said.
