Off-Campus Incidents Raise Caution Flags in Ventura

VENTURA — On this city’s east end, where the streets are usually safe and the schools even safer, a spate of troubles in recent weeks has driven home some old lessons and stirred some new fears.

In response to a series of off-campus incidents, ranging from reports of strangers lurking outside elementary schools to a gang shooting that pinned a group of Balboa Middle School students in the cross-fire, a renewed spirit of vigilance has taken hold.

At some campuses last week, more parents than usual arrived to pick up their youngsters when school let out. Police patrols were out in force while school principals spent more time roaming their campuses, maintaining a higher profile.

In some cases, teachers and principals even boarded school buses or trailed behind in their cars, trying to put students at ease while keeping an eye out for trouble.

The response might have been overkill, school officials acknowledge.

But in a world where bad things sometimes happen to kids, it is better to be safe than sorry.

“From the time these kids step out of the door in the morning until the time they get back home, they are our responsibility,” said Balboa Vice Principal Lane Jackson, who spent much of last week dealing with the aftermath of the May 2 shooting at the Cabrillo Village community in east Ventura.

The after-school shooting sent scores of Balboa students scrambling for cover and sent a 12-year-old girl to the hospital with a gunshot wound to the arm--the innocent and unintended victim of warring gangs in that area.

“I think you can never warn your kids enough about the dangers that are out there,” Jackson said. “When these kinds of incidents happen, it really raises the need to be aware of everything that is going on in our community.”

As a rule, Ventura County schools--particularly those in Ventura--are relatively safe.

Students in classrooms across the county are less likely to experience assault with a deadly weapon, robbery, extortion or homicide than their peers across the state, according to a study released this year.

At the 16,650-student Ventura Unified School District, school administrators reported fewer robberies, property crimes and weapons violations than districts of similar size in Ventura County.

Such reports, however, only measure on-campus incidents. And there is growing concern about violence that occurs away from school, beyond the protection of teachers and campus staff.

Last month, for example, police arrested five suspected gang members in connection with an off-campus attack that sent two Buena High School teens to the hospital, bloodied and beaten.

The attack took place March 25 while the students were on a “power walk” with their classmates and instructor as part of a physical education class.

“We have spent a lot of time and energy trying to make campuses safe,” said Lt. Carl Handy of the Ventura Police Department. “Unfortunately, that kind of influence and control doesn’t extend off campus. These kinds of things don’t happen a lot, but when they do, they certainly get our attention.”

In recent weeks, a series of unrelated incidents has jolted the usually tranquil neighborhoods of east Ventura.

It was only last month that the body of 10-year-old Anthony Martinez was discovered outside the Riverside County town of Beaumont, a victim snatched in broad daylight as he played with friends.

The abduction drew national attention. And it exposed the core of every parent’s greatest nightmare: a child stolen by a stranger, carried away and never seen alive again.

So when children at three east Ventura elementary schools--Junipero Serra, Saticoy and Portola--reported run-ins with strangers on their way to or from school in recent weeks, officials took those reports to heart.

Principals at all 17 elementary schools fired off letters to parents, informing them of the incidents and reminding them of ways to keep their children safe on their way to and from school.

“We wanted to assure parents that we were doing everything we could to keep children safe,” Supt. Joseph Spirito said. “I wanted parents to know that we cared about these kids and that we were doing our best to protect them.”

At Junipero Serra and Saticoy, children reported being frightened by strangers driving near those elementary schools. In both cases, the students ran away and were not pursued. Police investigated both incidents and determined that no crime had occurred or been attempted.

But it was a different story near Portola two weeks ago. There, a 10-year-old boy riding his bike to school at 7:30 a.m. was robbed of $20 at knifepoint near the County Government Center.

The fifth-grader was unharmed and the suspect is still at large.

“Basically what we’ve been doing is just reminding students that if they walk or ride their bikes, go with a group. Have a buddy. Make sure your parents know where you are at all times,” Portola Principal Jeff Davies said.

“It’s just a situation where we have to be ever vigilant,” he added. “Unfortunately, we seem to be living in a society where we have to take these precautions.”

Bill Bateman, co-president of Portola’s Parent-Teacher Organization, said he has been waiting a few extra minutes in front of the school every morning after dropping off his 7-year-old son, Alex.

“I just stand out there and watch to make sure everything is OK,” he said. “I see other parents doing the same thing. Something like this kind of gets you down to what the reality is.”

For school officials, that reality is a fine line to walk.

They do not want to whip up fear or panic. But neither do they want to take these reports lightly, dismissing them as the products of overactive imaginations.

“I think basically people are hypersensitive because of the Anthony Martinez situation,” said Dan Munday, principal of Junipero Serra.

“We’ve had a number of reports, including a strange man on campus that turned out to be me,” he said. “There tends to be a real heightened sense of awareness. We’re trying to be as calm as possible, trying to make sure that the campus is patrolled and that parents are informed. But we also have an obligation not to be alarmists.”

At Saticoy Elementary, parents and staff members have been on alert since two students reported that a man gestured at them, perhaps motioning for them to get in his car.

Those concerns were compounded by the shooting at Cabrillo Village, a low-income neighborhood where some Saticoy students live.

“The only thing I can see right now is that parents, teachers and administrators need to be very cognizant of the fact that this stuff goes on,” said Claude LeMonde, the father of three Saticoy students who volunteers to do traffic control in front of the school as the final bell rings.

“It’s a matter of being sufficiently aware that this type of thing does go on,” he said. “By golly, when it gets down to a place you’re at, it really is a whole new ballgame.”

To help ease any fears, Principal Paul Jablonowski boarded the bus to downtown Saticoy every day last week. Combined with added police patrols, Jablonowski said he believes there is little to worry about.

“Our concern is for the safety of the kids at this point,” he said. “But the police do a really good job of jumping on things. I feel really fortunate to have that partnership.”

That relationship was put to the test last week as school officials and police officers scrambled to respond to the shooting at Cabrillo Village, a housing cooperative of about 1,000 residents that began as a farm labor camp more than 60 years ago.

The enclave, incorporated into the city of Ventura in 1994, has been plagued by problems over the years, including a series of shootings in the early 1990s that left three men dead.

On May 2, as the school bus deposited a group of kids in the neighborhood, gang members drove through the community, yelling at one another. Passengers opened fire, exchanging about 10 rounds.

One of those bullets struck the Balboa seventh-grader in the left arm, near the elbow. She was taken by ambulance to Ventura County Medical Center, where she was treated and released.

Two days later, Jackson, the Balboa vice principal, visited the community to talk to kids about the incident, only to find Ventura police officers already there.

And the next day, even as counseling was being offered at the east Ventura middle school to students who witnessed the shooting, officers were meeting with Balboa administrators to ensure that the violence did not spill into the school.

“The student who was injured was one of our students, a very good student, but the shooting itself had nothing to do with Balboa kids,” Jackson explained. “It’s just one of those unfortunate things you always hear about where someone accidentally gets shot. We just want to let the kids know that in case they’ve got any fears, we’re here for them.”

That is little comfort, however, to Carol Schliecher, whose 14-year-old son, Jason, is an eighth-grader at Balboa.

The Schliechers live near Cabrillo Village, in one of the new housing tracts that have sprouted on the city’s east end in recent years.

Jason does not take the bus home, so he was not around when the gunfire erupted. But some of the Schliecher’s neighbors’ children were close enough to hear the gunfire and were forced to duck for cover.

“It’s awful. It’s scary, I guess. Real scary,” Schliecher said. “It makes you talk to your kids about situations you wouldn’t normally think you have to talk about.

“He’s very trustworthy,” she said of her son, “but it’s not him I’m worried about. I’m worried about the outside world.”