LAUSD GROWTH SWAMPING COPS.Byline: Jennifer Radcliffe Staff Writer Faced with rising crime and a tight budget, the Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. Police Department resorted to soliciting donations at high school football games to raise money. But the collections weren't anywhere near enough, so the school cops are asking the LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) board for $5 million extra to hire 50 new police officers. School police expect the proposal to be approved over the next month, but they say it is just the first of several cash infusions needed to help the department keep up with the expanding school district. ``We've gotten to a point where we basically can't function anymore,'' said Kevan Otto, president of the Los Angeles School The Los Angeles School of Urbanism is an academic movement emerged during the mid-1980s, loosely based at the University of Southern California and UCLA, that poses a challenge to the dominant Chicago School of Urbanism. Police Association. School board members acknowledged police are being spread thin across the 740,000-student district but insist children are not in danger. ``We're talking about making schools safer,'' said board member Julie Korenstein. Crime in the district has risen steadily over the past several years. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the latest statistics available, the number of assaults with a deadly weapon deadly weapon n. any weapon which can kill. This includes not only weapons which are intended to do harm like a gun or knife, but also blunt instruments like clubs, baseball bats, monkey wrenches, an automobile or any object which actually causes death. grew to 335 in 2001-02 from 273 in 1997-98. Battery incidents grew to 977 in 2000-01 from 734 in 1997-98. And despite the district's $536 million budget deficit, Korenstein said safety was a district priority. The board will look for additional funding next week at a series of meetings called to shave shave (shav) 1. to cut at or parallel to the surface of the skin. 2. to remove the beard or other body hair by such a process. 3. to cut thin slices from or to cut into thin slices. $536 million from the budget - a process that's expected to result in thousands of layoffs. LA school police have seen call loads more than double in five years - from 26,743 calls in 1998 to 58,639 in 2003 - but the police force has only increased by 21 officers to 311 officers in that span. Ideally, the department would have about 600 officers, school police Chief Alan Kerstein said Tuesday. ``The school district has just outgrown the police department,'' he said. Because of the funding shortages, some schools' police and security officers have been reassigned to campuses considered more dangerous - a move that has angered some parents. ``We're very concerned for the safety of our students,'' said Cathy Turkell, a parent at the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies The Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies is a university preparatory secondary school located in Los Angeles, California, United States. LACES, which serves grades 6 through 12, is a part of the Los Angeles Unified School District. on West 18th Street in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. . ``Our students are constantly threatened by gang members outside of the campus.'' Jennifer Radcliffe, (818) 713-3722 jennifer.radcliffe(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): box Box: CAMPUS CRIME SOURCE: Los Angeles School District Police Department Daily News |
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