LAUSD Candidate Raquel Villalta on Student Safety

“We need clear and consistent disciplinary policies at all schools.”

– BD3 candidate Raquel Villalta

Raquel Villalta is one of four candidates who will appear on the March ballot opposing Scott Schmerelson. Janie Dam is also running a write-in campaign to unseat the incumbent. Villalta’s website can be found at raquelvillalta.com.

In a past iteration of the ongoing Candidate Forum series, Villalta has answered questions about PROP-39 co-locations. For the December edition of the series, the questions focus on student safety issues. For background information about the questions, please see the introductory article: LAUSD Candidate Forum: Student Safety.

The following are Villalta’s responses, published as provided with only minor formatting changes:

• In non-emergency situations, should uniformed police officers be operating on LAUSD campuses? YES

• The Superintendent has commented “that unacceptable and preventable frequency of vehicular incidents are impacting the health, well-being and safety of our children.” Is the District doing enough to prevent these incidents? NO COMMITMENT

Do all schools have crossing guards?

• Last year an LAUSD student overdosed on fentanyl that was provided to her by a student at a co-located charter school. Do multiple schools that do not share a common leadership structure increase the possibility that hazards will not be fully mitigated? NO

I trust that all leadership is being trained properly to handle these situations and keep our students safe. Our schools need more security personnel. We need to foster collaboration with local law enforcement. And most importantly, we need consequences for students who violate any safety rules. We need clear and consistent disciplinary policies at all schools.

• While charter schools are required by policy to notify parents when the district issues a Notice of Violation, families at Granada Hills Charter High School were not specifically told that construction projects had endangered “the health and safety of students, staff, and other individuals.” Should the refusal of a charter school to keep parents informed of these types of hazards result in the revocation of the charter? YES

Parents must be informed!

• After a 2008 NBC 4 report exposed the existence of lead In LAUSD Facilities, the District instituted a "stop-gap measure" requiring schools to run “every fountain ‘a minimum of 30 seconds’ before school each day.’” Fifteen years later, the district still warns users of these fixtures to "flush cold water for 30 Seconds prior to use.” As a Board Member would you prioritize removing old fixtures containing lead from all school facilities? YES

Students need safe drinking water. We can either provide access to clean water by improving our fixtures and/or provide water dispensers, and hydration stations throughout the school.

Carl Petersen is a parent advocate for public education, particularly for students with special education needs, who serves as the Education Chair for the Northridge East Neighborhood Council. As a Green Party candidate in LAUSD’s District 2 School Board race, he was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action. Dr. Diane Ravitch has called him “a valiant fighter for public schools in Los Angeles.” For links to his blogs, please visit www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own.