SAFETY LATCHES FOR CLASSROOM GRILLES URGED; PANEL BACKS `LIFE INSURANCE'.Byline: Sherry sherry [from Jérez], naturally dry fortified wine, pale amber to brown in tint. The term sherry originally referred to wines made from grapes grown in the region of Jérez de la Frontera, Andalusia, Spain; today it may refer to any of the Joe Crosby Daily News Staff Writer A 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. board panel has recommended equipping e·quip tr.v. e·quipped, e·quip·ping, e·quips 1. a. To supply with necessities such as tools or provisions. b. classroom window security grilles with safety latches and requiring two doors for all new portable classrooms. Wednesday's vote by the 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. Unified School District's safety committee follows the disclosure in the Daily News last week that the grilles were being bolted outside windows despite concerns from principals, teachers and students that the screens could turn classrooms into deathtraps in the event of a fire. ``We bought theft insurance. Now we've bought a small addition to that - life insurance,'' said board member Valerie Fields, who chairs the School Safety and Campus Environment Committee. The committee will present its recommendations Monday to the Board of Education, which must approve any change in district policy. ``I feel we have to err on the side of safety,'' said board President Julie Korenstein, who issued a moratorium A suspension of activity or an authorized period of delay or waiting. A moratorium is sometimes agreed upon by the interested parties, or it may be authorized or imposed by operation of law. last week on the installation of the grilles. ``We have to be prepared, whether it's for a 7.0 (earthquake), 7.5 or possibly an 8.0.'' Under the committee's proposal, one window in each classroom would have an interior safety latch. Portable classrooms with one door and one window would be the first to receive the newly designed screens. Modifications would be made to existing grilles as soon as officials from the district and the Los Angeles city Fire Department can design an escape lever lever, simple machine consisting of a bar supported at some stationary point along its length and used to overcome resistance at a second point by application of force at a third point. The stationary point of a lever is known as its fulcrum. . The committee recommended that the district continue mounting the fixed grilles outside classroom windows, leaving one window free for the new, releasable screens. ``We're on the right track,'' said United Teachers Los Angeles Vice President Bev Cook, who oversees safety issues for the 33,000-member union. ``This has been a concern of teachers for a long time,'' Cook said. ``It's really good that we're going to be working together to solve a problem that we're all concerned about.'' Sheldon Fried, a health education teacher at Chatsworth High School, where the wire-mesh screens were removed last week from eight portable classrooms, said he is satisfied with the recommendations. ``There's been a meeting of the minds,'' Fried said. ``I'm pleased with the committee's action. I just hope the reaction will be just as quick.'' So far, the metal screens have been bolted to the outside of windows at 64 schools in a $14 million effort - paid for with Proposition BB money - that will eventually encompass 750 campuses. The goal is to deter theft and vandalism The intentional and malicious destruction of or damage to the property of another. The intentional destruction of property is popularly referred to as vandalism. It includes behavior such as breaking windows, slashing tires, spray painting a wall with graffiti, and , even though such losses in the district were down by nearly half last year. In most cases, the screens were being attached - without safety latches - to exterior window frames. District officials initially considered but abandoned the idea of inside release latches because of fear of tampering tampering The adulteration of a thing. See Drug tampering. . Beth Louargand, general manager of the district's facilities services division, said it will cost the district about $50 to $60 more to add safety latches. It now costs about $180 to install each security grille grille, in architecture, a system of bars, usually of decorative metalwork, forming an openwork barrier or enclosure. In its usual materials of wrought iron or bronze, it has been favored for decorative treatment in all periods. . As an extra precaution, the committee also recommended that the district order portable classrooms with two doors whenever possible. While many elementary schools elementary school: see school. have new portables with two doors, those ordered for middle and high schools do not, Louargand said. She said it will not cost more to order portable classrooms with two doors. During the three-hour meeting, the committee heard testimony from building and safety experts from the Division of the State Architect and the L.A. city Fire Department. Under the state fire code, classrooms that have security grilles over every window without fire sprinklers and only one door need an interior safety latch on the window farthest from the door. Even though they are required for residential bedrooms and for larger buildings, safety latches are not legally necessary on window grilles in classrooms with fewer than 50 students. Lynn Roberts Lynn Roberts is APD/MD and afternoon drive host of Saga Communications' KAFE-FM in Bellingham WA. , director of maintenance and facilities for the district, brought a model of a security grille equipped with two interior safety latches. But Fried and others in the audience said they prefer a hinged screen that can swing away from the classroom window. |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion