CAMPUS LOCKS CHANGED TEACHERS UNION FEARS MOVE IS STRIKE-RELATED.

Byline: Harrison Sheppard Staff Writer

With school burglary and vandalism up 30 percent, the Los Angeles Unified School District has changed the gate padlocks at all 790 schools, citing a potential threat to campus safety, officials said Wednesday.

Prompted by concerns that too many keys had been lost or duplicated over the years, district officials changed the padlocks on perimeter gates at every school for the first time in nearly 30 years.

But with tense contract talks under way, teachers union officials see the lock change program and limited distribution of new keys as part of a plan to keep them out of the schools in preparation for the possibility of a strike.

``This is silly,'' said Day Higuchi, president of United Teachers Los Angeles. ``We've had two strikes and our picket lines are extremely disciplined. No one's tried to break into the school and attack someone. This is absurd. They don't have to lock us out. If we're on strike, we're not coming in.''

District officials, however, said the possibility of a teachers strike had nothing to do with the lock change program. The project was first suggested by members of the district's school safety committee, made up of principals, teachers and community representatives, more than a year and a half ago.

The project follows a 30 percent jump in campus property crimes in 1999-2000, the first year in almost a decade the figure has increased.

Before the locks were replaced, keys given out could open any padlock at a school within the same maintenance region. Keys also could be copied by any locksmith.

``It had been in place so long and so many keys had been lost, duplicated, traded or sold that virtually no school could profess to be a closed campus,'' said district police Chief Wesley Mitchell. ``You could guarantee there were 10, 20 or 30 keys in the neighborhood.''

District officials could not estimate how much the project cost.

Under a new system coinciding with the lock change, elementary schools were given 10 keys, middle schools received 15 and high schools got 20 in the initial pressing, although principals can request as many copies as they need. Most of the new keys open the padlocks only at one school, and they cannot be copied, except by the manufacturer, Master Lock.

Principals can give keys to teachers or anyone else they feel needs to have one for after-hours access.

``What we're trying to do is re-key for the security of the school and make sure the on-site administrator - the principal - was in charge of the keys that were given out so they could control access to their own site,'' said Lynn Roberts, the district's director of maintenance and operations.

Some teachers, however, are upset because they said they have been denied the new keys, so they cannot get into their classrooms on weekends or holidays.

Colleen Schwab, the teachers union representative at Parkman Middle School in Woodland Hills, said teachers wanted to prepare over Labor Day weekend for the first day of school, but the principal refused them new keys.

``Obviously we want a secure campus, but we also feel we are professionals here,'' Schwab said. ``I've been told in the past they want us to work during normal business hours. That's ridiculous. We are professionals. You have to put in more time to get your job done.''

Jack Moscowitz, the school's interim principal, said while teachers will not be denied keys when they need them, the school will keep a tighter rein on them. Lack of access on Labor Day weekend, he said, was the result of miscommunication.

``If a teacher needs to come in on a weekend and needs a gate key, I'll loan them mine or one of the others,'' he said. ``Or if we have one available, that's not a problem. I think there was a little confusion during the discussion as to what our thinking was.''

CAPTION(S):

chart

Chart: RISING CRIME ON CAMPUS

This summer, the Los Angeles Unified School District changed the locks at every school to improve campus safety. Here's a look at crimes on campus in the past decade.

SOURCE: LAUSD 

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