STAMPING OUT VIOLENCE; SYMBOLIC PROTEST TAKES AIM AT ROUGH TOYS.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Daily News Staff Writer

About $1,000 worth of toys and video games were flattened Friday in a symbolic statement to curb violence among children.

Toy guns and computer and video games were crushed by the force of a 5-ton cement roller in an enclosed garage at the city of Santa Clarita's Field Services Yard.

The destruction culminated a monthlong city effort urging parents to sit with their kids and take a long, hard look at their toys and the fallout of playing games that simulate death.

``Hopefully, people who didn't know about this will consider looking around their kid's room now,'' said Kevin Tonoian, a management analyst for the city.

Sheriff's Capt. Don Rodriguez said officials don't necessarily believe that taking a toy pistol away from a child will decrease a trend of campus violence. What it will do is open communication between parents and their children, he said.

``The purpose behind it was to foster communication between kids and parents so parents would watch what their kids are doing on the Internet or what they're watching on TV,'' Rodriguez said. ``If this got 100 parents to sit down and talk about what their kids are playing with, it was a major success.''

The campaign, by the city and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, was sparked by the April 20 Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colo., that left 15 dead, including the two heavily armed teen-age gunmen.

Participants who turned in their toys and games to City Hall or the Santa Clarita Valley sheriff's station were awarded with tickets for free admission to Magic Mountain, Hurricane Harbor and the Mountasia Family Fun Center, or with free coupons for Santa Clarita Lanes or Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream shops.

Crushed into small jagged pieces of yellow, orange, black and camouflage-green plastic were Nerf guns, squirt guns, toy pistols, rifles and space guns. What used to be a Robotic Extender Arm still bore the label of its original owner, a kid named Curtis.

Video games with such titles as Primal Rage and Heavy Barrel were reduced to rubble in a deafening crunch of plastic and metal.

And when it was over, Rodriguez, in full uniform, grabbed a shovel and helped clean up the debris.

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PHOTO (1--2--Color) Above, a steamroller crushes a pile of toy guns and violent video games Friday in Valencia. At left, city worker Rick Slife maneuvers the 5-ton rollers over the toys. The event was part of protest to draw attention to violence among kids.

Shaun Dyer/Special to the Daily News