LAUSD Incumbent Scott Schmerelson on Student Safety

“School police are still a necessary part of the safety and protection of students, teachers, administrators, staff and parents.”

– BD3 Incumbent Scott Schmerelson

In March LAUSD Board Member Scott Schmerelson will face the voters for the third time. Should he successfully defend his BD3 seat, it will be his last term in office as term limits would prevent him from running again.

Of the four candidates Schmerelson will face on the ballot, Andreas Farmakalidis and Raquel Villalta have both participated in the ongoing Candidate Forum series. Janie Dam, who is running a write-in campaign, has also answered questions for the voters. Elizabeth Badger and Dan Chang have yet to respond to any of the questions that were sent to them.

In the past months, Schmerelson has answered questions about PROP-39 co-locations and District Governance. 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 Schmerelson’s responses, published as provided with only minor formatting changes:

• In non-emergency situations, should uniformed police officers be operating on LAUSD campuses? YES

School police are still a necessary part of the safety and protection of students, teachers, administrators, staff and parents. Their presence is a deterrent to crimes occurring around our school campuses. Upon reading my BD3 iStar reports on a daily basis, I see how many crime incidents could have been avoided if school police were on campus.

• 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

Through the iStar system, vehicle incidents at school sites are being monitored and evaluated on a daily basis. We are implementing procedures that will be in effect at our schools. I am personally advocating for more LADOT crossing guards and parent volunteers doing morning valet duty at our schools.

• 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? YES

• 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? YES

This should also include co-located charters and any charter on district property that performs alterations and improvements without permission from LAUSD. All A&I must be done by the LAUSD and inspected by the LAUSD.

• 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

It is my understanding that water fountains that do not meet district standards have been removed or disabled.

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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.