Update: Today’s two Berkeley High School gun incidents

March 22, 2011 2:57 pm by Tracey Taylor

BHS Principal Pasquale Scuderi held a press conference outside the portable building where a gun was fired on campus. Photos: Tracey Taylor

Berkeley High School Principal Pasquale Scuderi held a press conference at 1:40 p.m. today about the two incidents of guns being found on the Berkeley High campus today. In the first case the gun was fired through the wall of a portable building housing men’s bathrooms; in the other a student was found to have a gun in his backpack.

Scuderi said it had been an unsettling day on campus. “Having a gun on campus is a very serious matter,” he said. He confirmed three BHS students had been arrested and that, following school procedure, they would all automatically be given a one-year expulsion.

Bullet hole with police tape on wall of men's bathrooms at BHS

At the time of the press conference, Scuderi had not sent out an email to parents notifying them of the incidents. He informed students and staff with an intercom message before lunch.

Scuderi said having two concurrent firearm incidents as well as a power outage at the school had complicated matters. Power was restored on the campus at about midday, according to BUSD spokesperson Mark Coplan. At 2:29 p.m. Scuderi emailed the BHS community. He wrote: “I realize that there are tremendous concerns about this morning’s incidents at BHS involving another firearm. I am in the process of crafting a detailed note to you all and will have it out by 3:00 p.m.”

Coplan confirmed that the tip about a second gun being concealed on campus emerged during the investigation of the two students who were arrested in connection with the first incident. The second gun was unloaded, he said.

Scuderi said he would be holding a series of meetings with students to talk about the severity of the situation when students carry guns. “We will have small teams of staff go into every history classroom and talk to students in an intimate setting — not a school assembly — about what it means to have weapons,” he said.

He said the school would also be implementing an anonymous telephone hot-line, the system for which, coincidentally, had arrived in his office this morning. He added that he would also organize a forum for parents to address the issues surrounding these incidents.

Update, 3:55 p.m.: Principal Scuderi sent out an email to BHS parents and community at 3:40 p.m. in which he detailed the incidents of today. He writes: “Obviously today marks a most concerning trend with weapons being brought on to our campus. Our concern is heightened by the fact that this time a weapon was discharged. In response to this incident BHS will increase safety staff and supervision until spring break as we review this situation, and all related situations, in order to craft a comprehensive intervention for this most unsettling series of incidents.” Read the full email.

Related:
Gun shot fired at Berkeley High School, no injuries
A second gun found on Berkeley High campus in a day

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  • Steezy Sammy

    My fellow Concerned Berkeley parents/ students,

    I call for reason.

    I am an AC senior who has attended BHS for the last 4 years, and am proud to say that I go there (yes, even now). I read earlier that someone posted “sending your kid to a Berkeley public school might be child abuse.” and “I fear for my child’s safety every time they attend BHS.” If that may be the case then take your children out of the Berkeley Unified School District system and enroll them in a private school and pray for financial aid because you and I both know that 30 K a year for high school get steep when thinking about college afterwards. Hopefully we can all agree that having the option to have your chid receive a free quality public education (one that get thousands of students into college every year) is one of if not the most important asset Berkeley has.

    Now with California’s looming debt and the 2011-2012 budget severely cut in an attempt to reverse California’s deficit spending, we all know that public education isn’t going to receive anywhere near the amount of money that is should. That being said we shouldn’t throw what little money we have at metal detectors and security checkpoints. The money would be better spent hiring more teachers to reduce the average class size (roughly 30, bet it wasn’t that much when all you parents were in High School) or buying more desks for kids to sit in, in a class I proctor around three or four students always have to sit on the ground because of a lack of desks.

    Furthermore, in my personal experience as a peer health educator, I find the most effective way to deliver children a message is through their peers. You parents know what I’m talking about, would your kid rather get condoms and talk about the birds and the bees with you or a trained peer educator? Therefore I think that violence prevention programs or small and private sessions with a faculty and a student volunteer would be the most realistic and effective way to deal with this issue, without compromising the effectiveness and applicability of our education

    Finally Shout out to Mr. Scuderi, I fully trust you to deal with this situation, and I think you are doing a very good job, and you looked sharp today at the press conference.

  • ThatOneGuy

    Geez, listen to all of this! I feel like people keep saying that this stuff “never happens” when, just years back the library burned down. Think how much farther we’ve come back then. My older brothers are past BHS students and i am a current senior. Upon asking them, they can tell me that it was definitely much worse back when they were going to Berkeley high. One of my brothers instantly said that there was a gun threat AND a bomb threat when he was going to BHS. Its not Scuderi’s fault, he just got dumped the problems when he became principal. “Most schools in the US, I would bet, do not have guns on campus” Has anyone heard about the recent thing in albany? Where some kid ran away from home and took a gun with him, so the city decided to put almost every school in the area in lockdown for 2 hours even though they had no idea where this kid was. Was this the right course of action?

    Don’t condemn us to a life where one mistake can end your entire schooling career, but instead help us with a second chance and try to save us. People who bring a gun to school are the ones who need the help the most, not the majority who go through school without problems. Worry more about helping these kids, who are clearly in trouble, than trying to protect your precious school and individual students. We don’t need to put more money in protecting a school, but in helping the children who need it. It doesn’t actually HELP to catch “bad kids”, it just puts them down more. We need to stop the problem at its source, and things you worried parents are saying would only exacerbate the situation.

    I can’t write as well as bhsstudent, but i agree with what they are saying completely. To be honest, if they put in metal detectors and searched my back pack, it would really feel like the ghetto then. And they already try to restrict the entrances on which we come in. It doesn’t stop us, its just annoying having to wait for someone to open the door. Plus the fences are easy to hop. Im just saying.

  • Abigail S.

    Berkeleyside, I hope Shorty’s last comments towards BHS Student qualify as inappropriate under your policy and can be removed in the future (though I can only imagine the size of the job of moderating these comment threads).

    Students, thank you for your critical perspective on this thread. You raise excellent points. I also really appreciate all of what Bruce Love articulates. That doesn’t mean I don’t share the terror of having guns on campus and want something done about it. I live close to BHS, my kid goes to the elementary school across the street, and will attend BHS. 4 incidents in three months – that’s absolutely alarming. These events are very serious, though I agree, it’s surely a chronic issue. It’s obvious BUSD, and all of us, need to be doing more.

    In terms of solutions, there are many voices we’re NOT hearing from on Berkeleyside: 103,000 Berkeley citizens to be (almost) exact, all of whom “own” BHS, including quite a few who would agree with many student sentiments (as I heard tonight talking to parents after a meeting). In addition to various professionals, I consider the students to be among the experts I want to hear from, especially in terms of how various strategies would impact their daily life. Just as I would want to have a say on changes to my work environment.

    One problem perceive is that we’ve got adults insisting on a zero tolerance policy on guns at BHS when we adults fail miserably at policing ourselves (except in federal buildings and penitentiaries). When do adults ever agree on gun control policies in our society, despite rampant violence? From the student perspective, I would imagine the finger pointing at BHS seems somewhat hypocritical.

    From the parent perspective, the worst thing we could *ever* imagine is a child or children dying from needless gun violence. At schools that have experienced such tragedies, no one ever thought it could happen there, but now Berkeley has gotten not one, two, or three wake-up calls, but four. BHS is an environment people feel like they actually have a chance at completely controlling.

    Unfortunately, besides metal detectors sinking student morale while making adults (who don’t have to go through them day in day out) feel much better, BUSD is facing $1 million to $3.6 million more in cuts in the next year. At least one of those reasons seems like a deal breaker to me. I think the classroom discussions, student hotline, and parent forum BHS is initiating are all the right things to do. I’ll be very interested to hear what else the district suggests in terms of prevention and increased security moving forward, and what practical suggestions parents/community members have.

  • Abigail S.

    Ah, and here you go, hot off the press ….

    Responses to Weapons Found on the Berkeley High School Campus

    The safety of our students, teachers and staff is our paramount
    concern. Berkeley High School, in cooperation with school district
    administration, is presenting the following steps to respond to the recent
    incidents of weapons on campus. The items below are preliminary responses
    that are being implemented in the next several days with completion before
    Spring Break, which begins on Saturday, April 2, 2011. Berkeley High
    School and the District have scheduled several meetings to talk about
    safety with students, staff, and parents within the next 10 days. As a
    result of these meetings, other measures to ensure safety will be
    recommended to the School Board.

    • A special School Board meeting has been called for Wednesday,
    March 30 at 7:30pm to discuss these and other interventions to
    ensure student safety.
    Berkeley High School Principal Pasquale Scuderi will hold a school-wide
    faculty meeting this week to discuss recent events, talk to staff
    about this plan and their roles, and review school safety
    procedures.
    Administrators at Berkeley High School will go into each history classroom
    this week and next to explain rules and consequences of weapons
    on campus, explain the dangers of weapons, and explain how
    students can confidentially report information about weapons on
    campus.
    Focus groups with students will be held prior to Spring Break to discuss
    why students are bringing guns and weapons onto campus. The focus
    groups will be led by Berkeley High School staff with the purpose
    to give students the opportunity to express their concerns in a
    confidential setting.
    An anonymous tip telephone hotline to report weapons on campus —
    1-866-SPEAK UP — has been created and will be publicized to
    students and parents; a text message option will soon be added.
    Increased campus supervision at Berkeley High School has been added
    effective immediately. Two additional Safety Officers will work
    at Berkeley High School until Spring Break and may continue after
    Spring Break if warranted. Safety Officers will provide hourly
    patrols of bathrooms and out-of-the-way areas on campus.
    Administrative support will be added to Berkeley High School on a
    temporary basis for the remainder of the school year specifically
    to implement these proactive steps to reduce weapons on campus.
    The Berkeley Police Department will meet with Berkeley High School and
    District staff to assist with student education regarding safety
    and consequences, and assist with parent information regarding
    safety issues, and review the role of the Police Department’s
    School Resource Officer on campus.
    Berkeley High School and District staff have scheduled a parent forum to
    be held on Monday, March 28 from 6:30-8:00pm in the Berkeley High
    Little Theater to address concerns and discuss steps being taken
    to prevent further incidents of guns on campus.
    Note that the California Education Code governs student discipline; any
    student found with a firearm faces mandatory expulsion from school.

    We know that the safety of our students and campuses is of concern to the
    entire community, and we welcome all suggestions for improving school
    safety.

    William Huyett
    Superintendent

  • lifelongberkeleyan

    As I said earlier, I hope Berkeleyside reports how many, if any, of the students involved in these incidents were out of district transfers or had known violent priors.

    If there is a tragedy caused by a fraudulently registered student or one with a serous criminal history whom the administration turned a blind eye to, Berkeley will become a different place.

  • shorty

    @Abigail: Life at your elementary school across the street from BHS is quite different than that at BHS or any of the 3 middle schools. THe beat changes. Hate to say it, but it’s a reality. Rampant theft and drug use at the middle schools is a problem. BHS is a great cross-section of our society at large, economically, racially, and academically. It’s the ‘real world’. So, in the ‘real world’ we do have people packing heat. Despite that, it is still a ‘school’. And the district has a duty to provide a safe environment for the students attending all schools.
    This discussion would sound quite different, no doubt, if someone had been injured. It is just a matter of time before someone is killed at BHS. Then what?
    There is a well-known gang operating at BHS. The police and administration should start there.
    Maybe some of these kids are out of district transfers, but the district has ‘allowed’ this.
    I heard a rumor that one of the students involved in a prior possession had an arrest warrant in Contra Costa County.
    Perhaps the visits to the classrooms by BHS administrators planning to talk to students will make a difference to the kids who are bringing weapons to ‘protect’ themselves. Yep, that is a reality. THese aren’t kids with priors, or who come from out of district.
    I am a BHS parent and expect a safe environment for all students. I would never have condoned metal detectors or anything of the sort in the past. But FOUR incidents in several months shouts ‘epidemic’, and an accident waiting to happen.

  • shorty

    And to ‘bhsstudent’….my sincere apologies if I came off as a smart a** and dismissive. I truly do appreciate the perspective of someone your age, and as a student of BHS. After all, it is your world. So I am older and jaded. I do, however, maintain that the school has a responsibility and duty to protect all.

  • Abigail S.

    @Shorty – I’m more than fully aware of the differences between an elementary school and BHS. My point is that my elementary aged child at recess is within firing range of someone at BHS with a gun.

  • BHS Alumni

    @shorty – I agree that you are way out of line questioning bhsstudent’s identity then saying something like, “go do your homework.”

    Bhssstudent is engaging ina conversation about their environment. It seems like you are merely trolling the blogosphere for fear and not truly involved in the Berkeley community.

  • laura menard

    Dear Supt Bill,

    your statement

    “Focus groups with students will be held prior to Spring Break to discuss
    why students are bringing guns and weapons onto campus”

    should read

    Focus groups with students will be held prior to Spring Break to discuss
    why “SOME” students are bringing guns and weapons onto campus

  • Kelly Cash

    Thank you Mr. Scuderi for doing a great job of dealing with these challenges.

    A Berkeley High School parent

  • Mike Farrell

    Perhaps bhsstudent, is correct; all the suggestions made by the adults made in this thread are missing the point. Since bhsstudent seems to be aware of the regular presence of guns at BHS, I’d like to ask him
    “What do YOU do about it?”

  • Mike Farrell

    BTW, Principal Scuderi, what administrative protocol was in place when this incident occurred?
    Would you please describe it?

  • BerkeleyHigh1999

    @Mike Farrell

    I think the point is that there is so much rage in the blogosphere and demands for action. But what action has the adult community posting here taken in a positive way in the past years? It seems as a student it is insulting for parental figures to be making all kinds of assumptions and hopping on the fear bandwagon from behind a computer.

    …Since bhsstudent seems to be aware of the regular presence of guns at BHS, I’d like to ask him
    “What do YOU do about it?”

    He/She GOES to the school every weekday and attempts to get a public education while maintaining a positive attitude. That is the job of the Berkeley student.

    If you think asking rhetorical questions to the principal will make any progress, I disagree:
    “BTW, Principal Scuderi, what administrative protocol was in place when this incident occurred?
    Would you please describe it?”

    The responsibility for school security falls on the adult tax paying and voting community and their elected officials.

    BHSstudent appears to be making the best comments here and is a student which means something is working at BHS.

  • Sharkey

    “The responsibility for school security falls on the adult tax paying and voting community…”

    WTF are you talking about?
    I’m pretty sure that if I tried to come onto campus and enforce school security I’d be kicked off campus and possibly even arrested.

    The responsibility for school security falls on the school’s administrators.

  • Kylie Grove-Peattie

    I’m a senior at Berkeley High School and I just want to reiterate what bhsstudent, steezy sammy and Jane Tierney commented. I believe that parents and the administration should take advantage of the feedback their students are giving. We know what goes on in our school better than anyone else. The actions of these individuals directly affect us.
    If I didn’t have a father on the Safety Committee at Berkeley High I don’t think I would’ve been informed of the other incident with a gun (where a student was found to have a gun in his backpack). It was a considerate and an intelligent decision for Mr. Scuderi to keep his students and faculty informed in this most recent case where a firearm was discharged. I value the series of intercom messages Principle Scuderi used to inform us. Communication among students, faculty, and the administration is germane to the issues of violence at this school. I personally appreciate that Mr.Scuderi will “be holding a series of meetings with students to talk about the severity of the situation when students carry guns.”
    In addition to the points and suggestions made by ‘steezy sammy’ I believe that the administration should be informing the student body of the number of cameras installed on campus. The security cameras cover approximately 95% of the school and I believe emphasizing this fact would decrease the number of crimes committed.
    Although I’ve had my issues with BUSD [...] I’m extremely happy that I go to Berkeley High and I commend Principal Scuderi for communicating with the students.

  • BerkeleyHigh1999

    @Sharkey

    I am talking about how elected officials such as the school board are elected by adults, not the students.

    So @mike Farrell asking the student what they are doing about the guns on campus is a little ridiculous.

    Seems like a lot of the parents here are being combative with the opinion of the students who are the ones who are acutally on campus everyday.

  • laura menard

    Kylie,

    says “We know what goes on in our school better than anyone else.”

    I am not going to debate you on this point here, but I can assure you this is not an accurate statement despite the popular adherence to this belief. I might consider a meeting over tea to properly inform you of what you could not understand unless you were engaged in this matters over time and within the context of multi -agency responsibility.

    I am the primary person responsible for reinstating the safety committee back in 2001, and am fulling aware of the status and capacity of its current function and dsyfunction. I am also responsible for developing the strategy to ensure BHS comply with incident reporting and more. This article was the result of just one of my initiatives. I also was the person who kept the pressure on to install the cameras during Frank Lynch time as principal.

    http://www.bhs.berkeleypta.org/news/090415-BHS-promise-report-school-crimes.htm

    I do not agree with much of your assessment despite the earnest intent.

    Are you aware of the robbery under a surveillance camera by three BHS students, one who had a outstanding bench warrant from another jurisdiction. Did you know that BHS and BUSD refused to provide information to the parents of the victim? Did you know they misinterpreted FERPA to justify protecting the identity of the offenders?

    Enough deferring to students who for all practical matters should be attending class and therefore fail to witness the majority of transgressions, have institution knowledge or work on this issues in the community context . Unless you have been engaged in school safety compliance issues for years it would be impossible to understand where BHS is and isn’t regarding implementing reforms. For instance, did you know that back in 2003 we put together the hot line and an incident reporting process which was then dismantled by former principal Jim Slemp.

    I could write a book about these issues, as plenty of cops, teachers, and community members have pressured me to do.

  • BHS Mom

    My question is whether there are actually more guns on campus now, or just now they’re being caught? I know that Principal Scuderi has the trust of the students. It’s possible that things are safer now than before, since now the students have told him about the firearms. We may not have more guns, just more knowledge. I think his approach of working with the students is absolutely right.

    I would hate to see metal detectors, as it seems like a death spiral. Even though I had a kid in the portables at the time of this incident, I want to be sure we don’t jump to conclusions.

  • Mike Farrell

    @BerkeleyHigh1999
    So the answer is “Keep your head down, don’t snitch?”
    Hey I don’t go to Berkeley High, so it’s not MY problem.

    BTW vis a vis bhsstudent’s statistics if one BHS student is killed by a gun on campus, it’s only 0.0003% of the student body. No big deal.

    And asking the Principal what protocols are in place at BHS is hardly “rhetorical.” If the administration and school board don’t pay attention to what members of the community, including you, bhsstudent and the other students posting here are saying, they are not doing their job.

  • laura menard

    BHS has been using metal detectors at the prom and formal dances for years.

  • Sharkey

    BHS Mom says: “My question is whether there are actually more guns on campus now, or just now they’re being caught?”

    Good point. For all we know, Principal Scuderi is doing an excellent job and handguns that might gone unnoticed in the past are now being quickly found thanks to things he’s done.

    Metal detectors are definitely a bad idea, but maybe BUSD needs to do a better job of identifying “problem” students and separating them from the main student body.

  • shorty

    @bhsalumni: ‘…trolling the blogshpere for *fear*’?! Me thinks not. If you think this is about sitting back and having some academic debate about the gun problem at BHS then I am afraid! We have a problem here at BHS that needs to action. And I am more than ‘truly involved in the BHS community’….
    @BHS Mom: the ‘death spiral’ is on a doorstep. It’s not about metal detectors. It will be when luck has run out and the next incident involves someone getting injured or killed.
    And yes, Scuderi is doing a great job keeping the community informed.

  • laura menard

    Do you folks get it, as I posted last year during the Slemp mess, this change in notifying the community of incidents that rise to a police referral level is the result of 2-3 formal complaints up through local channels and then to the county and CDE by a few committed parent advocates demanding the district be accountable. Scuderi was a VP and then a district official during this time. It took us a few years of fighting for this one concession to improving transparency and school safety. The district did not wake up one day and bother to care,
    we had to struggle long and hard.

  • laura menard

    Kylie and other BHS students,

    Consider this incident and what it says about the social norms of BHS culture.

    Hundreds of teens knew or heard rumors about which of their fellow students was responsible for this murder. They chose to remain silent for over three years attending class and graduated with the suspect in this horrific murder. Horrific because if the teens attending this party had just dialed 9-1-1 Juan Carlos Ramos probably would be alive today. BHS teens failed in two substantial ways during this crisis, as they also did
    during the 2008 Galvin St lick party when BHS teens preferred to blame a fellow student as the snitch and sided with the thugs who robbed them. Those same thugs robbed people, sold drugs and guns near Longfellow school and hung out regularly on the Milvia side of BHS during school hours undeterred by safety staff or administrators. BHS administrators refused to obtain restraining orders which is the tool that allow police officers to remove these offenders from the school perimeter.

    here is a news brief about the murder of Juan

    Arrest Made In 2006 Homicide At House Party

    Berkeley, California (Wednesday, February 25, 2009) – A little over three years from the crime, City of Berkeley Police Department (BPD) Homicide detectives have secured an arrest and charges for the suspect responsible for the 2006 murder of Juan Carlos Ramos of El Cerrito. On February 24, 2009, Justin Michael Johnson, 19, was charged with one count of PC 187 (a) – Murder and three counts of PC 245 (a)(1) – Assault with a Deadly Weapon. Johnson was arrested in the state of South Carolina and is awaiting extradition to Alameda County.

    On Friday, February 10, 2006 around 11:30 p.m., Ramos who was 18 years old at the time was stabbed at a house party at a private home on the 700 block of Contra Costa Avenue in North Berkeley. Three other partygoers were also stabbed, but all survived their wounds. Until recently, the case remained open and no substantive leads or new witnesses had emerged that could secure an arrest in the case. The crime haunted the Ramos family and had frustrated detectives.

    Soon after the 2006 death, BPD detectives interviewed dozens of students from Berkeley, Albany and El Cerrito High Schools in attempts to gather information for the investigation. Detectives were alerted to MySpace chatter soon after the crime that encouraged partygoers not to talk to police regarding the case. In the weeks following the crime, BPD personnel continued to encourage witnesses and their parents to come forward.

    Recently, detectives began reaching out again to witnesses and requested to re-interview them. Although the witnesses were still resistant, detectives were able to gain enough cooperation, which led to Johnson being named as the suspect.

    Press Contact: Mary Kusmiss, Public Information Officer, (510) 981-5780

    Folks pull your heads up out of the sand and have some courage……..

  • Anon

    I’d like to know how/whether the recent gun incidents relate to other criminal activity in Berkeley, like the recent armed robberies around North Berkeley Bart and gang activity in South Berkeley/North Oakland. It strikes me that there could be an opportunity to address multiple problems with guns and violence in Berkeley with a coordinated approach. Some of the comments from BHS students make it sound like the problem individuals are well known. If so, it would seem that BUSD and BPD should be cooperating to gather information as part of the post-incident outreach.

    A few months ago, I heard a story on NPR about how the US Military is using social network analysis to identify networks of people responsible for planting roadside bombs. The story is linked here: http://www.npr.org/2010/12/03/131755378/u-s-connects-the-dots-to-catch-roadside-bombers

    Its a fascinating concept (to me, anyway). Its perfectly intuitive, and would seem to have direct application to reducing gang violence and criminal activity.

  • upset

    @ Sharkey -I ABSOLUTELY AGREE WITH YOU! And I would be willing to contribute my hard earned wages for metal detectors…ANYONE ELSE IN WITH ME??? So, there, BHS Administration/Mr. Supt, here I am taking responsibility…when can I write the check???

    sharkeys comment:“The responsibility for school security falls on the adult tax paying and voting community…”
    WTF are you talking about?
    I’m pretty sure that if I tried to come onto campus and enforce school security I’d be kicked off campus and possibly even arrested.
    The responsibility for school security falls on the school’s administrators.

    I ABSOLUTELY AGREE WITH YOU! And I would be willing to contribute my hard earned wages for metal detectors…ANYONE ELSE IN WITH ME??? So, there, BHS Administration,
    here I am taking responsibility…when can I write the check???

  • Sharkey

    I agree.

    I’m not a fan of new parcel taxes, but I’d vote for a sensible one that aimed at improving security at Berkeley schools.

  • Voxhumana

    If only it were that simple. Unfortunately, the money designated for certain projects is often diverted to balance some other deficit. Remember the animal shelter bond? Do we have a new animal shelter? Nope. Then there’s the issue of security staff. If everyone is correct, it may be impossible to achieve the kind of security people expect, regardless of the money spent due to the number of factors involved: students, staff, outsiders, security staff, etc.

  • BHS2011

    “BTW vis a vis bhsstudent’s statistics if one BHS student is killed by a gun on campus, it’s only 0.0003% of the student body. No big deal.”

    Luckily, at Berkeley High School we have been taught to both recognize and discard the usage of the straw man fallacy.

  • Alina

    I just want to give a shout out to the BHS students who are taking the time to express their opinions on this! Thank you for being engaged, smart, and good spellers :) Please do not feel discouraged by dismissive comments. Unfortunately public discourse is not always civil. Moderate voices are often drowned out by the shouting, hyperbole, and arrogance of the ‘experts’. Many times I have an opinion but choose not to express it because I am put off by the vitriol in public discourse. And that’s too bad… we should be more engaged. So please keep at it :) We want to hear from you.

  • Anon

    I’m a Junior at Berkeley High and I think that metal detectors are just a waste of money and will only hurt the Berkeley High environment. Today Ms.Fry ( The IB Vice Principal) came into our history class to talk to us about the incident and it’s sort of funny that out of all the people i’ve talked to about the incident only 1 was actually scared… I understand your concern as parents fearing for your childs safety but not even Ms.Fry said that she believed that metal detectors aren’t going to help very much. In fact she said that some studies even show that metal detectors increase the # of guns on a schools campus because kids bring them on just to “fight the system.” and “prove that they can” The fact is that we live in an urban environment with 2 neighboring cities with high crime rates. Kids come in from these cities and maybe they need a gun to feel safe walking home afterschool which is a shame. We shouldn’t focus on putting money into metal detectors we should be trying to fix the problems in the other cities to create a safer environment for all these kids not just the ones at Berkeley High… This isn’t a school problem its a big problem for Alameda County…

  • Richard

    As a psychologist who has worked with teens for many years I have seen a handful of campus related shootings and/or stabbings take place. While some of these have clearly been premeditated, most have not. Instead, these tragic events take place because an adolescent has the means (a weapoon) to act out more aggressively than he/she might otherwise if a weapon was not on his/her person. Ie, a fist fight is clearly much less dangerous than a confrontation that leads to the use of a weapon. It is not a matter of either using metal detectors or not. But more a case of comprehensive, ongoing interventions aimed at better conflict resolution between teens and better communication between students and staff/parents. EVERYONE must get much more invested in preventing violence ALL THE TIME. Teens are NOT safe when guns, or other weapons, are on campus. Those who say they feel safe are simply fooling themselves. It is all too easy to simply be at the wrong place at the wrong time…..

  • laura menard

    Alina,

    do you feel the same about neuroscience “experts” and the research on adolescent brain development and judgment? Are you a parent?

    I will never forget a meeting with school board members, principal, VP, and some community members, when I stated that I felt the school system panders too much to protesting youth who are not sufficiently informed or mature enough to be in charge. Two of the VPs broke out clapping. One of them had suffered a broken arm when an a non-student came on campus seeking a student they intended to beat.

    Look, this crisis requires a crisis level response, when there is a fire we do send in building code inspectors. BHS is at a crossroads, they either take corrective actions and implement effective violence suppression measures or they continue to as them have for years MANAGING the community perspectives about school safety.

    The facts speak loudly. And at this point in time, any administrator (referring to student comments earlier) who cannot acknowledge the mistakes BHS has made which has brought us to this crisis does not earn my trust.

  • Lllewitter95

    As a student as BHS, I would like to point out that it may be a positive sign that kids are being reported to have guns. I know that certain kids have brought guns to school in the past and have not been found out, so to me, the fact that the school is more aware of the issue is a good sign. It also indicates that students are speaking up because they trust the administration and Mr. Scuderi to take care of the issue.

    Speaking for myself, I have always felt safe at school and the recent gun incidents, quite frankly, have not changed that. I do not feel that it is “child abuse” for my parents to save $25,000 a year and put me in public school.

  • adam

    There are people commenting on this who are so out of touch with reality it’s incredible. I, a BHS senior, have had a first hand look at the recent incidents, and as a senior I know how different responses might affect the BHS community. Let me say first off that I feel completely safe on campus, and the incidents recently haven’t changed that. The staff will handle these incidents and your paranoid, panicked parental advice should not affect how they deal with the problem. Secondly, part of what makes Berkeley high a unique and especially great place to learn is the fact that we have an open campus. Being able to, for instance, skip ceramics to study for an AP history test at the Berkeley Public Library has actually helped me tremendously in my 4 years at BHS. Take this away, you’re taking away what BHS is all about – freedom and individuality, and the combination of the two. On a simply logistical level, it takes the Oakland Int’l airport 20 minutes to scan 3000 people with 20 metal detectors and 100 staff manning the metal detectors. There are 3600 kids at BHS. We need to get to class on time. Enough said.

    Let the staff handle this problem, leave your weird over-privelaged semantics out of it, and get on with your life. Maybe your kid will actually learn something from this experience.

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