By the Daily Press staff
The Santa Monica-Malibu School District plans to hire security guards for its elementary school students in as soon as two weeks.
Concerned parents testified before the school board earlier this month that they have grave security concerns at the elementary schools where they send their children. They asked that security measures taken at the middle and high schools be implemented at the elementary school level too.
Superintendent John Deasy last week agreed.
“We proposed a plan to the school board, which was basically an interim plan for the remainder of the year, to use personnel to monitor the doors and check I- Ds,” said Deasy, adding that once the plan is passed at the meeting in two weeks, hiring can begin.
Though the proposed plan would only authorize new security guards for this year, school officials said they would try to find a permanent funding source in next year’s budget.
“There are a lot of budget proposals for next year, and we have a lot of issues to finance,” said Deasy. “But you should expect to see a proposal dealing with this in a more permanent way next year.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 8, 2002. Read the original PDF.