CVUSD parents, students express safety fears after guns, knife found at several schools

Parents, staff and students of Coachella Valley Unified School District schools are concerned about school safety following several instances of trespassing and students bringing firearms to campuses in recent months. The incidents have prompted a renewed call from some parents and staff members for better communications and a return of law enforcement officers to campuses.

Several Coachella Valley High School students told the school board Thursday night they feel unsafe at school, and multiple parents said the district has repeatedly failed to keep them informed during emergencies, including when weapons were found on campus. Dozens of school employees protested in front of the board, as well, calling for improved security measures and better pay.

Since a mass shooting in May at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, stirred concerns across the country about school security, CVUSD has faced an array of local threats, including the following of which The Desert Sun is aware:

• 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 student with a loaded handgun at Coachella Valley High School on Jan. 20. The district did not tell parents there was a weapon, later identified as a loaded gun, found at the school for six days.

• 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 School in Thermal on Feb. 8. The district did not confirm the incident to media outlets until the following day.

Safety threats, communication failures

“Students don’t feel safe anymore due to the incident with a student caught on campus with a loaded gun,” one Coachella Valley High School senior told the board. (The Desert Sun is unable to report the student's name because the district did not respond to a request to provide a list of people who delivered public comments.)

“We feel emotionally drained. We feel tired. We feel unsafe at school,” she said.

Her board address came in the wake of several recent threats to students and staff on CVUSD campuses that community members say the district should have handled better.

During the school day on Jan. 20, Coachella Valley High staff found a loaded gun in a student’s backpack.

The school “immediately contacted” the sheriff’s department, according to district spokesperson Lissette Santiago.

Yet, initial communications to parents did not specify that a weapon was discovered. Rather, the school communicated that an “object” had been found.

“How is there going to be a child on campus with a loaded gun, but our school does not send out any emails nor phone calls to inform parents, students and staff?” a Coachella Valley High senior asked the board Thursday night.

“How is there going to be a big issue like this but our school doesn’t get put on lockdown? How are you, as a school, not informing us until a whole week later? How are we, as students, as a school, as a community, supposed to feel safe when we have no safety precautions whatsoever?”

Six days later, Superintendent Luis Valentino issued a letter to families apologizing for the lack of clarity.

“I want to acknowledge that the information was not fully transparent and created some anxiety,” he wrote. “I apologize for that. I pledge to keep you informed and updated on any situation that may affect the safety of our students and staff. Please be assured that the safety of our students and staff remains our top priority, and we will continue to work to create and maintain a safe school environment for students and staff.”

The incident at Coachella Valley High came on the heels of a November scare after reports of a suspicious device in a backpack and a student with a gun at Toro Canyon Middle School in Thermal. The device turned out to be a toy, but a real handgun was found and two students were detained.

More than 3,700 students and staff from Toro Canyon and the adjacent Las Palmitas Elementary and Desert Mirage High were evacuated to other schools.

But for hours that day, neither the school district nor sheriff's department provided information to the public about why the evacuations were happening. Three parents told The Desert Sun they had not been contacted by the schools about the incident, but found out about the evacuations through word of mouth.

That evening, Riverside Sheriff Chad Bianco and CVUSD leaders held a joint press conference. The following day, both departments gave more information about the chain of events, revealing for the first time that administrators didn't call police for over an hour after being told there could be a gun on campus.

Conchita Pozar, a Toro Canyon parent, says communications and safety are not improving.

“I’m very afraid to send my daughter to school,” she told The Desert Sun in Spanish.

On Wednesday, another student brought a gun to Toro Canyon Middle School.

“At around 2 p.m., during an inspection of the student’s belongings, we found an unloaded gun inside a backpack,” Toro Canyon leadership wrote in a message to parents.

According to Pozar, she received the message around 5 p.m.

Santiago did not verify with The Desert Sun whether there had been a gun on the campus until Thursday, and did not send The Desert Sun a copy of the message to parents until Thursday afternoon despite an urgent request Wednesday night.

“The situation is worsening, and we are not seeing the district take responsibility during critical situations like what is happening,” Pozar added.

On the day of the November evacuations, she said she learned her daughter’s school had been evacuated through word of mouth from her neighbors in North Shore. Her daughter, a seventh grader, does not have a cell phone. Pozar was unable to reach her for some time while she said she received no official communications from the school about where or why her daughter was being evacuated.

“I did not know where my daughter was,” she said. “I couldn’t communicate with her. I didn’t know if she was OK or not.”

There have also been several trespassing incidents in the past year at elementary schools, including one recently in Coachella that caused Palm View Elementary to go under a brief lockdown.

The Desert Sun has been unable to arrange interviews with Santiago or Valentino about crisis communications despite multiple requests since Jan. 31.

Santiago first asked for a list of questions, but when given a list of topics, she never responded.

Valentino, through Santiago, did not respond to a request to interview at his “earliest availability.”

At Thursday’s board meeting, Valentino said regarding communications: "We certainly have to do a much better job."

Renewed calls for law enforcement at schools

Dozens of staff and some parents cheered Thursday for calls to bring sheriff's deputies back to CVUSD secondary schools. Other community members, including some parents, commended the board’s decision not to have law enforcement, also known as school resource officers, stationed at middle and high schools.

The district removed school resource officers from campuses in 2018 in favor of a restorative justice model. 

The restorative justice model is intended to spur healthy dialogue among school staff, students and their families about communicating and identifying behavioral issues rather than disciplining students in a heavy-handed fashion.

“Are you all waiting for something bad to happen before doing anything?” asked Billy Franco, a spokesperson for the classified staff union. “At what price are you willing to pay before bringing back school resource officers?”

Franco said the restorative justice model is not working, even though student suspensions and expulsions have fallen since its implementation began.

“The statistics are misleading,” Franco alleged. “They may show that we have less suspensions and expulsions, but that is because you are offering a relaxed 'talking to' for these offenses.”

Pozar, who addressed the board Thursday, asked for another security measure: metal detectors at school entrances.

How to handle school safety has frequently been a theme in district politics. Nearly a year ago, the board created a new committee to improve school climate after multiple CVUSD teachers spoke anonymously to a local TV station about safety concerns at their schools.

The topic came up again at a forum before November elections.

Trustee Joey Acuña, a veteran board member who comfortably won reelection, asked community members for patience as the district continues implementing the restorative justice program.

"I am not supportive of returning the (SRO) to our schools," he said Thursday. "I made it very clear. So anyone who knows me knows that's pretty much where my position is. They've known this for a long time."

"Militarizing our schools, making them into prisons, is not what I have in mind," he added. "We need to hold our students accountable. Restorative justice practices does some of that. But we do have to hold our kids accountable."

Prior to 2018, the district also had a controversial relationship with the Riverside County Probation Department that some said pushed youths into the criminal justice system unnecessarily.

Acuña acknowledged teachers' fears, and said that recent events have caused "good reason to be scared." He also called on parents to check their students' backpacks before sending them to school.

Trustee Trinidad Arredondo, however, wants to return law enforcement to schools.

"I'd like to see SROs (school resource officers) back on our campus at the high schools and middle schools," he said.

He asked Valentino to "look into what it would cost to put an SRO on campus."

"We've had some instances in the last few weeks that scare me and scare our staff, and we really need to address it," he said.

Whether school resource officers actually improve school safety is a matter of ongoing research. Nonprofits, including the National Educational Association and American Civil Liberties Union, cite data to support that policing in schools can lead to more adverse outcomes for students of color.

Teachers, staff protest pay

Dozens of school employees protested in front of the board, as well, calling for better pay in addition to improved security measures.

Teachers and school staff filled the boardroom, a hallway and overflow rooms at the district’s office in Thermal, leading to a 30-minute delay of Thursday’s board meeting.

Earlier this year, the board approved a significant raise for many school district management positions, but not the superintendent and assistant superintendents. Raises for administrators from the assistant principal to director level averaged around 10%.

“We did a reclassification of our positions to bring them comparable to like positions in neighboring districts,” CVUSD spokesperson Lissette Santiago told The Desert Sun. “We did not give all of management a raise.”

Meanwhile, teachers and classified staff have not received a cost of living adjustment this school year as their unions continue to negotiate new contracts with the district.

They say they are not paid comparable wages to their counterparts in neighboring districts.

Classified staff — school support personnel — are asking for a 10% cost of living adjustment. The teachers union has not publicly disclosed its proposed salary schedule. Lisa Presley, a teacher at Sea View Elementary, suggested to the board Thursday that teachers are seeking somewhere between a 10% and 13% pay raise.

“My rent went up $150 per month in October — that’s high,” Presley said, adding that her energy and gasoline costs have risen, too. “Yeah, it’s a choice for me to move schools, but I’m telling you, Sea View is my heart.”

New CVUSD teachers are paid less than their counterparts in nearby Palm Springs and Desert Sands Unified school districts, according to teacher recruitment materials published by each district this month. Salaries for new teachers in CVUSD begin around $56,000. That’s about $3,000 less than at Desert Sands Unified and $7,000 less than at Palm Springs Unified.

PSUSD is also advertising signing bonuses ranging from $2,500 to $12,000 to teachers and some other new hires including nurses and speech language pathologists.

“When we're not paying at a rate that entices excellent teachers to leave where they are, why would they come?” Coachella Valley High School science teacher Kevin Sleeper asked the board.

CVUSD currently has 32 teaching vacancies, according to Santiago.

A dozen or more classified employees told the board they need a cost of living adjustment to afford to live in the area, pay rent and take care of children.

Pay for classified staff ranges from minimum wage to over $50 per hour, depending on position and experience, according to a salary schedule on the district’s website.

“It has become very difficult for ... classified staff to afford necessities,” said one staffer, Gustavo Leon. “If the district can afford to give management a major raise, then they can afford to pay classified what we are asking for.”

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 parents, students express safety fears after guns, knife found