SCHOOL COPS CHEAT? HANDBOOK USE NEGATES PROMOTION EXAM.

Byline: Sherry Joe Crosby Daily News Staff Writer

Los Angeles school officials threw out the results of a school police sergeant's exam amid cheating allegations, officials said Tuesday.

The promotion exam was taken by 58 officers, but some of them used a handbook supplied by a sergeant that contained questions from past and current exams, officials said.

Union officials claim the handbook amounted to cheating by the officers who used it, but LAUSD Police Chief Wesley Mitchell exonerated the sergeant accused of distributing the study guides to select applicants. To be on the safe side, he said he threw out the results.

``There is no evidence of any cheating,'' Mitchell said. ``There was no legal breach, no technical breach and no moral breach of the exam itself.''

The spokesman for Superintendent Ruben Zacarias, Brad Sales, said all officers taking such exams should be given access to all study materials - including those given by a sergeant to his subordinates.

``I'm sure (Mitchell) would want to see a level playing field for all people applying for the exam,'' Sales said. ``Civil service tests are set up to make sure it's fair to everyone.''

The president of the school police union called the departmental investigation a whitewash and said he will push for an independent investigation by the district's Personnel Commission or the District Attorney's Office.

He said the handbook aided an elite group of officers to give them an advantage in seeking promotion.

``The process failed us terribly,'' said Pablo Quezada, president of the Los Angeles Unified School District Police Officers Association. ``There was not a true investigation . . . It's a whitewash in my opinion.''

Personnel Director Jon Campbell said he probably will have an independent attorney conduct an investigation on behalf of the three-member Personnel Commission.

``If the union is not going to be satisfied with the chief's report . . . we have to do whatever we can to make sure employees feel it's thoroughly reviewed and be satisfied it's being done in a fair manner,'' Campbell said.

Board member David Tokofsky supported calls for an independent investigation and reiterated his desire for an inspector general with wide-ranging powers who could authorize such actions.

``The complaint could have gone straight to the inspector general to investigate,'' Tokofsky said. ``I continue to hope that public pressure and the superintendent will encourage board members to be supportive of the inspector general.''

The sergeant's examination, which is offered every two to 2-1/2 years or on an as-needed basis, provides a pool of qualified applicants for promotion.

Quezada said that initially five or six officers taking the test Oct. 17 received copies of the study handbooks, and they passed it along to as many as 10 others.

Mitchell said none of the questions or answers in the study handbook matched verbatim those on the actual test. He said the sergeant created the questions using information from commercially available study guides and other reference materials and passed the homemade handbooks on to subordinates taking the promotion exam.

``There were three to four different study sheets with groups of questions on them that he had developed over the years,'' Mitchell said. ``Nothing to suggest that he had access to any official material.''

Although the Police Department exonerated the sergeant of wrongdoing, officials tossed out the test results to be on the safe side. Officers who took the test will have to take a new test early next year, Campbell said.

``It was a precautionary measure on the part of the district,'' Mitchell said. ``We erred on the side of caution.''

Still, Quezada said it's unfair for some officers to receive study guides from their superiors while others do not.

``That's against policy. It's against common sense. It's against the policy of having a fair test,'' said Quezada.

``It's just wrong any way you look at it. It's been a club, and it's been a closed club.''

Mitchell said all officers taking promotion exams are provided with a list of recommended reading materials, and individual supervisors can work with subordinates and give them extra help as long as it doesn't include confidential information that would give candidates an unfair advantage.

``There is no `old boys network,' '' Mitchell said.

Mitchell said it's unreasonable to expect the sergeant to provide all officers with unique study materials.

``It is true that not every officer had access to what was given to his subordinates. It's just not possible,'' Mitchell said. ``Not everybody gets everything. You use the resources available to you.''

Joe Ivankay, a five-year police officer who first alerted officials to the homemade study guides, said the officers who used them were given an unfair advantage on the test.

``My main problem is the unfair possibility of certain people getting it,'' said Ivankay who works as a campus police officer at Mount Vernon Middle School in Los Angeles. ``They could be promoted because they know the right people or they know the right answers. It's just a shame.''