A member of the school district’s governing body wants the district’s security team to have more training to equip them with contemporary emergency situations but says she has run into obstacles in pursuit of this goal.
Culver City Unified School Board President Katherine Paspalis told the News days after the Newtown, Conn. massacre that Culver City’s school district has similar lockdown procedures in place as does Sandy Hook Elementary School, where gunman Adam Lanza killed 20 children in 20 children and eight adults on Dec. 14.
While she believes the district’s security unit is well trained, Paspalis said she would like them to have additional training and certification but has been thwarted in that effort by one of the district’s unions.
“I think our protocols and procedures are fine and I think our officers are well trained, but I would like to see them get some additional training,” the board president said. “I would like to see our security officers get training for things that we’re facing in the 21 century, but the Associated of Classified Employees union has opposed that.”
President of the Associated of Classified Employees Debbie Hamme denied Paspalis’ assertions and questioned her knowledge of the security staff’s level of training.
“I am unclear as to whether Ms. Paspalis knows or understands the difference between the training the guards currently possess and the training and certification that is being proposed, but she should know that before making blanket statements,” Hamme responded.
“The security supervisor has been pressing for more training of the district security guards for a couple of years now, but has not made it clear to us how the district will benefit from it,” she continued. “If having additional training would make our campuses safer, that would be one thing. But I don’t believe that is the case.”
Culver City Unified School District Superintendent , who was hired this summer, said he had not heard about any resistance from the union on security officer training.
Hamme said all of the current security personnel have received the appropriate training and hold the proper certification for their positions in the district.
“The additional training and certification that is being proposed is only necessary in those school districts that have declared their security departments to be actual ‘campus police’ departments,” the union leader explained. “Our union has been told numerous times that the district administration, as well as the school board, does not wish to take our security department in that direction.
“So basically the question is whether we are unnecessarily over training our security guards considering what their jobs require them to do. Would this training allow them to be armed? Make legal arrests?” Hamme asked. “What is it that they would be trained to do, that they cannot do now?”
Paspalis said she does not want to reconfigure the security officers into a police department but is only requesting that they have additional training that could be valuable in case of an emergency like what occurred in Newtown.
“I’m talking about basic school security skills,” said Paspalis, who is from Stamford, Conn, not far from where the killings took place. “I would hope in the wake of the Newtown tragedy that any resistance would disappear.”
The discussion over providing more training for the district’s onsite officers comes days after a group of Utah teachers signed up to take firearms training. One poll showed 64 % support for having armed teachers in classrooms.
“Schools are some of the safest places in the world, but I think teachers understand that something has changed — the sanctity of schools has changed,” Clark Aposhian, one of Utah’s leading gun instructors, said recently. “Mass shootings may still be rare, but that doesn’t help you when the monster comes in.”
Hamme said in the wake of the Newton mass killings, one solution might be to add more security instead of depicting her union as obstructionist.
“I understand that in view of the recent tragedy in Sandy Hook we want to be able to assure our community that our schools are safe,” she said. “If we have discretionary funding available, my suggestion to the board would be that they hire more guards and maintain a visible presence at each elementary school, as opposed to paying for additional training for the guards we currently employ.
“Perhaps Ms. Paspalis might want to contact me directly about this issue at some point in the future.”
National Rifle Association President Wayne LaPierre has called for armed security guards in every school in the United States.
Kenneth Trump, the president of National School Safety and Security Services, is opposed to giving guns to teachers and school staff, which gun advocates have called for in the wake of Newtown.
“The vast majority of teachers want to be armed with textbooks and computers, not guns,” Trump said.
Classes resume for Culver City schools on Monday, Jan. 7.
