LAUSD Candidate Janie Dam on Student Safety

“I will optimistically remain in the race and will give it my all.”

– BD3 candidate Janie Dam

After meeting with the Los Angeles City Clerk’s office, Janie Dam now agrees “that they followed the guidelines set out by the Election Code” when disqualifying the signatures that she had collected to appear on the March Primary ballot. She believes that “too many of the registered voters who signed [her petition] had moved, and did not re-register under their new addresses.” Dr. Dam hopes that a change will be made to the election code so that a signature will still count “if the signer still resides in the same district.” While Dr. Dam’s name will not appear on the ballot she is continuing her candidacy as a write-in candidate.

In past iterations of the ongoing Candidate Forum series, Dr. Dam has answered questions about PROP-39 co-locations, Special Education policies, and District Governance in prior months. For the December edition of the series, the questions focus on student safety issues. For background information about the questions, please see the introductory article: LAUSD Candidate Forum: Student Safety.

The following are Dr. Dam’s responses, published with only minor formatting changes:

• In non-emergency situations, should uniformed police officers be operating on LAUSD campuses? NO COMMITMENT

Emergency situations are occurring too frequently at school. As a teacher I feel much safer on campuses that are prepared for the worst. I don’t think we should assume a state of non-emergency and rely solely on LAPD emergency response to prevent violent harm to students and school staff. In too many cases law enforcement arrives on the scene too late; injuries have already been inflicted, lives have already been lost. There should always be security officers visibly present on campus.

At the same time, I strongly denounce police brutality and show of force, especially on school grounds. What kind of example are we setting for our children when we do that? Bullying is already a very big problem.

All things considered, I would advocate for the proper training and deployment of younger cadres of campus officers who reflect the ethnic, cultural and linguistic diversity of the student body that they serve. I would support the recruitment, training and mentoring of more female police officers by female police officers to protect school campuses. The body of research shows that female officers get the job done with less use of force and proportionally fewer citizen complaints as compared to their male counterparts. Over time they instill more trust and can gain more cooperation from the community that they serve.

But that is still not enough. Everyone has an important role to play in school safety. We should prioritize funding for more mental health professionals, guidance counselors, wellness staff, restorative justice coordinators.

As a board member I would reach out to LAUSD moms and dads who own firearms. When parents have guns in their home, I hope and trust that they are responsible toward their own childrens’ safety. But are they aware and vigilant enough about the safety of the other kids, whom their kids may invite over to their house, or who may be having a conflict with their kids? I think it’s critical that we all respectfully work together to sort out these sensitive but incredibly important issues.

• The Superintendent has commented “that unacceptable and preventable frequency of vehicular incidents are impacting the health, well-being and safety of our children.” Is the District doing enough to prevent these incidents? YES

First of all, I am glad to see that the district acknowledges on its website that traffic collisions are the leading cause of death for children between the ages of 5 and 14 in Los Angeles County. The recently lowered speed limit (15 mph, down from 25 mph), combined with speed bumps installed around school campuses, I think will prove to be life- saving. I would also advocate for celebrating Walk to School Day more often than just once a year in October, to spotlight the importance of traffic safety alongside the health benefits of walking.

• Last year an LAUSD student overdosed on fentanyl that was provided to her by a student at a co-located charter school. Do multiple schools that do not share a common leadership structure increase the possibility that hazards will not be fully mitigated? NO COMMITMENT

This question leans toward charter co-location, but that’s not the crux of the problem. The crux of the problem is that SB 10 mandates are still not being properly implemented across the board to prevent student harm from fentanyl. Every California public school, whether charter or traditional district, must have a Comprehensive School Safety Plan (CSSP) under which employees are trained on opioid prevention and life-saving response. All students and adults need to understand the growing risk of youth fentanyl exposure, and have access to the resources needed to prevent and effectively respond to fentanyl poisoning and overdoses.

• While charter schools are required by policy to notify parents when the district issues a Notice of Violation, families at Granada Hills Charter High School were not specifically told that construction projects had endangered “the health and safety of students, staff, and other individuals.” Should the refusal of a charter school to keep parents informed of these types of hazards result in the revocation of the charter? NO COMMITMENT

LAUSD owns the facilities that its schools occupy. Typically charter schools lease facilities from the district. Given that in this case the school did disseminate a notification letter to the community reflecting the exact applicable legal language, I don’t think this is the best example for “refusal of a charter school to keep parents informed of these types of hazards”. But if the district has grave concerns about potential hazards on its own property, the district has every right to, and should just go ahead and issue a warning to the school community and not wait for its charter school tenant to do so. As a board member I am not keen on school closures and disruptions to student learning. Prior to shutting down a campus, whether it’s a traditional district or a charter campus, I think the district should first give the administrative team fair warning and opportunity to remediate, which in this case would be to immediately notify everyone about possible construction hazards.

• After a 2008 NBC 4 report exposed the existence of lead In LAUSD Facilities, the District instituted a "stop-gap measure" requiring schools to run “every fountain ‘a minimum of 30 seconds’ before school each day.’” Fifteen years later, the district still warns users of these fixtures to "flush cold water for 30 Seconds prior to use.” As a Board Member would you prioritize removing old fixtures containing lead from all school facilities? YES

The harms of lead poisoning are well-documented. To address this problem I would charge the Superintendent with tapping into federal funding for school infrastructure upgrades.

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Carl Petersen is a parent advocate for public education, particularly for students with special education needs, who serves as the Education Chair for the Northridge East Neighborhood Council. As a Green Party candidate in LAUSD’s District 2 School Board race, he was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action. Dr. Diane Ravitch has called him “a valiant fighter for public schools in Los Angeles.” For links to his blogs, please visit www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own.