Coachella Valley Unified board delays action on Coachella Valley High security

The Coachella Valley Unified Board of Trustees postponed decisions about new security measures at Coachella Valley High School, where there have been a string of lockdowns and weapons brought to campus this year.

The board had been scheduled to vote Thursday night on whether to install security scanners at the school's entrance and permanent fencing around the campus. Security scanners (tech-backed metal detectors that use data analysis software for threat identification) would have cost between $300,000 to $450,000 to install. Fencing would have cost around $135,000.

Instead, trustees voted 6-0 to remove those topics and several other presentations and action items from their agenda, with Trustee Valerie Garcia abstaining. The board is scheduled to meet again on April 20.

Some board members acknowledged that they have already made up their minds about how they would vote on certain security actions that some parents and students have asked for, whether installing metal detectors or posting law enforcement officers at schools (the latter of which was not on Thursday's agenda).

While Garcia suggested Thursday's items should return to the agenda soon, other board members said additional, deeper conversations about security are needed.

"I think we do need a more comprehensive, more intentful (sic) approach rather than being reactionary to the situation and what we're facing," said Board Chair Adonis Galarza.

Trustee Joey Acuña said he would have voted against installing metal detectors at CVHS, and Trustee Jesus Gonzalez said he didn't think it would be a cost-effective measure.

Gonzalez added that he does not believe anyone on the board takes security at CVHS lightly and that no one is trying to "stalemate creating a safer environment."

Then, he said he believes "the newspaper" seems to "create a frenzy" out of small, negative "things that happen." (He did not specify if he meant The Desert Sun.)

In recent months, students, parents, staff — even board members and administrators — have expressed concern about security at Coachella Valley High.

Since January, there have been several lockdowns at the school as a result of students bringing weapons to campus, including a loaded gun that parents were not told about until days later. In late February, hundreds of students walked off the campus and marched to the district office about three miles away in Thermal to protest what they say is inadequate school security and communications during emergencies.

Additional security concerns at CVUSD schools this school year include:

• A series of trespassing incidents last May at Peter Pendleton Elementary in Coachella (where the school later installed an 8-foot-tall, wrought-iron perimeter fence).

• Mass evacuations of more than 3,700 students and staff in November at three Thermal schools following reports of a suspicious device in a backpack and a student with a gun. For hours that day, neither the school district nor Riverside County Sheriff's Department provided information to the public about why the evacuations were happening or where students were being taken.

• A trespasser with a knife at Palm View Elementary in Coachella that put the school on a brief lockdown on Feb. 1. The district did not provide a timeline of events until approximately three hours after the incident.

• A student with an unloaded gun at Toro Canyon Middle in Thermal on Feb. 8. The district did not confirm the incident to media outlets until the following day.

While the board weighs long-term security options, administrators have focused first on Coachella Valley High, where they have installed temporary fencing, hired additional campus security assistants, instituted mandatory backpack checks and increased the use of random canine sweeps for drugs and weapons.

Students, parents and staff have concerns about safety at Desert Mirage High School, too, where there also have been lockdowns and walkouts.

At the last board meeting, Superintendent Luis Valentino acknowledged the district's multi-pronged approach to cultivating physical security and social and emotional security needs a sort of reboot.

He said the district evaluates safety outcomes in five categories:

• Optimized learning environment

• Improved mental health and well-being

• Reduced risk of violence

• Enhanced community trust

• Increased attendance and retention

Finding a slate of policy options that balances all those goals can be a challenge, and the board suggested Thursday that they need more time — perhaps a study session — to create an overarching strategy before voting on individual actions like fencing or security scanners.

Finding consensus could be difficult. For instance, Trustee Trinidad Arredondo supports having law enforcement officers at secondary schools, but Acuña does not.

For his part, Valentino laid out a plan last week to revamp the district's social and emotional security initiatives through the end of next school year, including investments in training teachers and administrators on restorative justice, a program intended to improve student accountability through a holistic set of social services rather than through suspensions and traditional discipline.

"That's the whole point of restorative justice and restorative practices — not to be punitive," Acuña said. "So again, I'm going to continue down that path, respectfully disagreeing with my other board members who think we should bring police back. I do not support that. I do not agree with that. And I'm not gonna change my mind on that."

Acuña added that in spite of recent protests at board meetings, he believes a majority of community members he represents would oppose metal detectors and law enforcement officers.

"A handful of people coming in and yelling and disrupting and doing that stuff is not gonna move me," he said. "They're not gonna scare me. They're not gonna intimidate me... I don't care about the optics. I care about policy, and how we're helping our kids.

Arredondo has previously stated that he believes law enforcement officers can play a role in restorative justice practices.

More: How a rural California district became a hotspot in the nationwide debate about school policing

More: Amid pressure for safer schools, CVUSD leaders weigh their options

How would the security scanners work?

While Acuña said he is unaware of any schools in the Coachella Valley that use metal detectors, the technology has been adopted elsewhere in Riverside County.

"I think it's something that I would not want my name associated with, that we would be the only one in the in the valley to do this," he said.

The Evolv detectors — the tech-backed detectors under consideration at CVHS — have been used at middle and high schools in Hemet Unified since December. Lyle Radford, that district's head of security, said the Evolv system operates faster than and is less invasive than traditional metal detectors.

"While creating a more secure space for students, we still want to safeguard social and emotional health," Radford said in a video promoting his district's use of the technology. "These scanners provide a smooth experience that is nowhere near as invasive as the process with metal detectors."

Last week, Valentino showed the CVUSD board a video of how the scanners work at Hemet Unified.

Balancing speed with security is a paramount concern at CVHS, where backpack checks have strained staff resources, caused long lines to enter campuses and led to students arriving tardy to their classes.

Valentino said it was not a sustainable measure.

Has the security situation 'calmed down' as Acuña suggests?

The last reported lockdown at Coachella Valley High was on March 21.

On Thursday, Acuña commented: "It seems everything's calmed down now. The kids aren't afraid to go to school today. Apparently, maybe they got a head start on their spring break." (Spring break begins Saturday.)

Thursday's board meeting was noticeably calmer than several preceding gatherings where dozens of teachers had been protesting for a new collective bargaining agreement and some Coachella Valley High students had been pleading for the board to improve security at their school, saying they feel unsafe there.

Earlier this week, the district and the teachers' union tentatively agreed to a 9% raise plus a one-time $2,500 payment for educators — alleviating a lot of the tension built up at previous board meetings and leading to smaller crowds at the district office Thursday.

Still, several school support staff employees showed up to ask the board for better wages. Their union's contract remains under negotiation.

Acuña said he even felt "a little lonely" without the large crowd in the boardroom, adding, "I guess all is well with the world now."

About a month ago, Acuña, along with Galarza and Gonzalez, pulled a group of students who had protested out of three class periods at school for a "discussion," during which the trustees allegedly told the students they should be mad at their teachers for taking a "work to rule" action during which some educators stopped doing any work outside of their contractual obligations while they bargained better pay. Multiple students and educators alleged that Gonzalez cursed at the students during their conversation.

Jonathan Horwitz covers education for The Desert Sun. Reach him at jonathan.horwitz@desertsun.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: CVUSD Board delays action on Coachella Valley High security