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By Nanette Asimov
San Francisco Chronicle
VALLEJO, Calif. — The Police Department in bankrupt Vallejo will pull its officers off public school campuses - where more than 1,600 middle and high school students were suspended or expelled for violence, weapons or drugs last year - and quit providing security at school sporting events, dances and graduations, angry school officials said Tuesday.
Police told school officials by e-mail Tuesday that they will end the campus program on Dec. 19 after 15 years, and move the six school officers onto the street instead of filling police vacancies with new hires.
But school officials said they will fight the removal of the campus officers, for which the district pays the city about half a million dollars a year.
“Our schools cannot get along without police services,” said Jason Hodge, spokesman for the Vallejo City Unified School District of 17,000 students. “It would be devastating to the safety and security of the kids if they pulled out.”
Six school officers are stationed at the city’s five high schools but are responsible for safety at all 25 campuses.
They have plenty to keep them busy, Hodge said. Two weeks ago, police had to lock down Cooper Elementary School after some apparent car thieves ran onto campus and hid in the school bathrooms, Hodge said.
And four people were shot last month across the street from where students were attending an after-school program at Dan Mini Elementary School, he said.
Public records show that 1,659 middle and high school students were suspended or expelled for violence, weapons or drug possession last year.
In Vallejo high schools, where the police are based, 730 students got in trouble for those reasons, including 71 students with weapons. The problem was worse at the district’s four middle schools, which have no police. There, 929 students were caught - including 34 students with weapons, records show.
Sgt. Sid DeJesus, who heads the Youth Services Unit for the Vallejo Police Department, told school principals via e-mail Tuesday morning that his division will be dismantled later this month.
“As a result of this action, Vallejo P.D. Youth Services unit will no longer staff athletic events, graduation services, or conduct in-service training as we have done in the past,” DeJesus wrote.
But only minutes after the principals got the e-mail from DeJesus, Hodge responded with an e-mail of his own - copied to Mayor Osby Davis and the City Council - saying that the district “simply will not accept the total elimination of police services on our campuses without more thoughtful discussion and a more formal decision from the entire City Leadership.”
Hodge said Vallejo schools chief Mary Bull and other school officials will meet with Police Chief Robert Nichelini on Monday to ask him to reinstate the campus police, which already had been reduced by three officers since last year.
Copyright 2008 San Francisco Chronicle