O.C. Schools Feeling Under the Gun : Violence: Students are taking weapons to campus out of fear or to gain respect. The frightening trend is growing.

By JODI WILGOREN

Nov. 7, 1993 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Back in ninth grade, Sam took his .357-caliber magnum to school every day. A rival gang in his neighborhood “used to carry stuff that wasn’t loaded,” explained the 16-year-old Fountain Valley resident. “So we used to carry stuff that was loaded.”

Christopher, also 16, remembers bringing shotgun shells for show-and-tell in second grade. Later, he carried knives to school because he “never had a gun small enough to fit in a backpack.”

Jesse, a sixth-grader from Santa Ana, brought a gun to school only once, but that was enough. He was caught and expelled.

Educators and child psychologists studying the spiraling problem of school violence say some students carry weapons for self-protection, others for self-promotion. They blame movies and television for blinding youngsters to the consequences of violence, and believe the ready availability of guns and knives just makes matters worse. But no clear consensus on a cause has emerged.

Everyone agrees, however, that the frightening trend is growing. In a national survey sponsored by the Chicago-based Joyce Foundation this summer, 22% of schoolchildren interviewed said they had taken a weapon to school at least once.

In Orange County, three junior high school students were expelled last week in connection with a 13-year-old’s alleged plot to take a Huntington Beach classroom hostage using a machete, knife and two guns he had stored in his backpack. The 13-year-old faces a preliminary hearing in Juvenile Court Nov. 17, but prosecutors have refused to disclose the specific charges.

On Thursday, a Westminster teen was arrested with a knife and loaded gun on a Huntington Beach high school campus.

And an Irvine high school junior was arrested earlier this month when he accidentally shot the floor of a classroom with his father’s semiautomatic Beretta.

In a recent conversation with 13 students who have been expelled from Orange County schools--all of whom spoke on the condition that only their first names would be used--the explanations for carrying weapons to school were varied. Some said they pack guns out of fear, others despite their fear.

“It’s for safety,” Alex said.

“It’s like insurance,” offered Tommy.

And then there’s Jesse, who pried a dresser drawer open with a fork and stuffed the .38-caliber handgun he found there into his pocket to show his buddy Faustino--who had lugged a gleaming foot-long knife to school that day.

Why did Jesse do it?

“To show it to my friends,” said the shy, brown-haired boy. “So they could see it.”

At Yale High School in Santa Ana, one of the county-run court schools that educate those who are expelled, the veterans chuckled as Jesse told his story. These are tough kids; to them, Jesse is a confused youngster who suffered from nothing more than bad luck. He exposed the gun accidentally to a teacher as he tried to pull money from his pocket.

Seated around the table in the conference room were four girls and nine boys. The oldest was 17, the youngest 13.

They landed at Yale because they refused to go to class, rode around in stolen cars, violated their probation or were busted for assault and battery. Ironically, Jesse and Faustino were the only ones in the group sent there because of weapons possession, though most of the others said they have also carried weapons to school.

Where do they get them?

According to Christopher, you just have to know the right people. “Usually someone will sell you one that’s already been burned,” said Freddie, 13, explaining that “burned” means a weapon has already been used in a shooting and is sought by police.

“If you know someone who’s 21,” said Fernando, a boy eight years shy of the legal age, “they’ll buy them for you.”

Yale Principal Janet Addo, who sat in on the interviews, said students are carrying weapons to school “more and more, younger and younger.”

Hearing the kids tell their stories, Addo and another Yale teacher said they believed them. They were not surprised at the students’ extensive experience with weapons, nor at their frank discussion of the crimes.

Some of the students come from families where violence is used to solve disputes. Others grow up in gang-filled neighborhoods where guns mean power. Others are just impressed by what they see on television, Addo said.

“It’s more commonplace to them,” she said. “It’s just something you do.”

Addo keeps a hand-held metal detector in her office, ready to use it if she suspects students are trying to bring weapons onto her campus.

“There’s a line that’s drawn. When you step over it, you’re gone,” Addo said, defining the strict discipline at Yale. “They know that this is their last chance.”

So far this fall, 50 students have been caught with weapons in Orange County public schools. Last year, 406 Orange County students were expelled for weapons possession (though some had their punishments suspended).

School “seems like it’s a peaceful place,” said Sam, whose skinhead haircut and tattooed arms are reminders of his gang affiliation. “But if you go there, it’s not.”

Orange County educators insist that their schools are safe, and say the expulsions simply indicate their dedication to keeping campuses free of violence.

Most local school districts have adopted a “zero-tolerance” policy on weapons possession. Last month, Gov. Pete Wilson signed a new law requiring administrators to expel any student caught with a weapon on campus.

John Peshkoff, director of the county’s Juvenile Court schools unit, is worried that campus weapons violations are increasing faster than he can find space in the alternative education programs for those students who are expelled. As recent incidents show, no neighborhood is immune.

“I can’t think of an area in the county that is free from this kind of a problem,” Peshkoff said. “Once they started shooting in Mission Viejo and Huntington Beach and Dana Point, you know you have a problem.”

Nicole, a bookish-looking 15-year-old who grew up in Huntington Beach, wasn’t in a gang. But she hung with a gang, and was always nervous. So she carried a switchblade. And a fast-opening butterfly knife. In school, out of school. Always.

“I didn’t want to be caught in the middle with nothing,” she said. “Most of the people had guns, others had knives. . . . I didn’t want to get hurt.”

Peshkoff, the Juvenile Court schools official, believes that most youngsters such as Nicole don’t intend to use the weapons they carry. “They just have them to make themselves feel better,” he said. “They’re really afraid of the weapons.”

In the Joyce Foundation survey, 39% of the schoolchildren interviewed said that someone they know personally has “either been killed or injured from gunfire,” while 9% said they had fired a gun at someone.

Of the 13 Yale students, 10 said they had fired a gun. Four said they have shot at people. The same four said they have been shot at.

Asked whether they are afraid of guns, the students solemnly shook their heads.

“I live in Santa Ana. It’s real bad,” said Freddie, telling of how he has twice been mugged at gunpoint. “Every day you hear gunshots. You’ve got to go sometime.”

“I’d rather be shot at than have my best friend or my girlfriend or my brother shot,” agreed Christopher.

But Alex, a 15-year-old who lives in Santa Ana, says youngsters are afraid--not of carrying guns, but of getting caught without one.

“People are just scared, that’s why they own them. They think people want to get them,” Alex said. “They want all the trouble to stay away from them. If people know they have a gun, they stay away.”

“They want to earn respect,” Freddie called out. “Be cool.”

Francisco P. Briseno, presiding judge of the juvenile division of Orange County Superior Court, is trying to crack down on the increasing number of cases in which students are caught with weapons on campus by imposing a 180-day sentence--regardless of what kind of weapon is involved or whether it is used.

Like Freddie, Briseno believes image plays a large role in the problem.

“They’re trying to impress their contemporaries. The attitude of their friends or their peers or their contemporaries is major,” Briseno said. “Kids have always done something to show bravado or to impress their friends. One of the areas that we see right now is weapons.”

Educational and psychological experts say the role of the media cannot be exaggerated when examining why children carry weapons. “What Arnold Schwarzenegger does in his movies, unfortunately, influences kids’ attitudes,” said Greg Cops, principal of Woodbridge High, the Irvine school where the student was caught with the Beretta. “Guns in TV shows is a regular thing. On the weekends, we read about violence in the cities.

“These kids have had a steady diet of these things all their lives.”

Ruben Ingram, superintendent of the Fountain Valley elementary school district, remembers watching Westerns as a child. He also remembers playing cowboy. With “Demolition Man” on the big screen and violent shows on the tube today, Ingram said, campus violence is inevitable.

“I know it sounds simple, but that’s what we did. We went to the movies and we came home and played the parts,” Ingram said. “That’s what they’re doing. They’re coming home and playing the parts.

“They don’t think these things up on their own,” he continued. “When you go back to my era, why didn’t we do these things? I don’t think we ever thought of them. We didn’t have anybody portraying them.”

But the youngsters at Yale say the movies have nothing to do with it.

“When you see it on TV, the kids don’t have the guns, the cops have the guns,” Nicole pointed out. “When you see it on the streets, the kids have the guns, shooting at the cops.”

As the conversation continues, they toss the names--and nicknames--of guns back and forth like ice cream flavors. They laughed at Nicole for carrying a .22-caliber gun because it’s such a small weapon. They nodded with approval at Rudy, a Santa Ana 16-year-old who packed a .380.

“My parents had guns,” Nicole said, and others nodded. “My parents went hunting. My dad used to collect guns. You grow up around them. We shot cans in the back yard.”

Added Christopher: “The house I live in, we’ve pretty much got an arsenal,” he said, beginning to tick off the names and locations of the weapons his guardian keeps. “In second grade, it was just a big thing. If your dad had a gun, you bring in the pellets.”

In searching for solutions, educators have considered metal detectors and campus police officers. The Los Angeles Unified School District employs both. An armed police officer is stationed at each high school campus in Santa Ana.

But most experts believe that only early education programs that teach alternatives to violence will serve as the long-term solution.

The Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, a nonprofit group based in Washington, has created a curriculum called Straight Talk About Risks that is being piloted in half a dozen school districts nationwide, including Los Angeles’.

In Illinois, psychologists are conducting an experiment in two inner-city schools to determine whether counseling with children who come from dysfunctional families will help keep them from turning to violence.

“We just see a lot of students who are not connected to positive things,” said Nina Winn, director of the Orange County’s safe schools program.

“We know that we have a lot of parents who are pressured by economic problems. We have a lot of parents who are working and a lot of kids who are just not supervised,” she said. “We all know what the answers are: Kids need alternatives. Kids need positive activities to be involved in.”

Wielding Weapons

Reporting weapons incidents is up to individual school districts, and each may handle them differently. Number of students caught with weapons on campus--including guns, knives, explosives and toy or replica weapons--by district, last year and this year as of Oct. 31:

Fall School 1993 1992-93 Fall District enrollment school year 1993 ELEMENTARY DISTRICTS Anaheim City (k-6) 16,210 1 0 Buena Park (k-8) 4,611 2 1 Centralia (k-6) 4,425 9 0 Cypress (k-6) 4,232 0 0 Fountain Valley (k-8) 5,900 1 2 Fullerton (k-8) 11,023 1 1 Huntington Beach (k-8) 5,599 0 0 La Habra (k-8) 4,954 0 0 Magnolia (k-6) 5,148 0 0 Ocean View (k-8) 8,737 2 3 Savanna (k-6) 2,100 0 0 Westminster (k-8) 8,615 17 0 HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICTS Anaheim Union 24,770 67 2 Fullerton Union 11,914 10 1 Huntington Beach Union 13,235 15 2 UNIFIED DISTRICTS Brea-Olinda 5,291 5 0 Capistrano 29,250 14 7 Garden Grove 42,216 10 0 Irvine 21,411 13 2 Laguna Beach 2,350 0 0 Los Alamitos 7,212 0 0 Newport-Mesa 17,447 26 3 Orange 25,850 107 10 Placentia-Yorba Linda 22,004 11 3 Saddleback Valley 26,990 16 1 Santa Ana 48,493 70 11 Tustin 11,809 9 0 TOTAL 391,796 406 49

Source: Individual districts

Researched by WILLSON CUMMER and JODI WILGOREN / For The Times