The Long Beach City Council unanimously voted on Tuesday, June 21 to consider the feasibility of creating a Safe Passage Plan to increase the safety of students traveling to and from school.
“Safe passages for students like me are critical,” said Shemaiah Sims, a seventh grader at Stanford Middle School. “[…] My community is pretty safe. But not all students in Long Beach are that lucky. My hope is that the city manager will find solutions in the coming weeks for all kids to be more safe.”
Safe passages refers to monitoring students’ routes to school and back home to prevent issues such as harrassment, crime and bullying.
A March 2019 study by the University of Illinois found that violent crime dropped by 14% on streets in Chicago where they posted adult civilians to watch over students as part of their Safe Passage Program.
Funds for a safe passage program for Jordan High School are being provided by the Recovery Act, according to Kelly Colopy, director of Health and Human Services.
Long Beach was recently awarded a $3.9 million California Violence Prevention and Intervention grant which will be used in 13 different communities, allowing the Safe Passage program to extend to Lindbergh Middle School and other schools in North and Central Long Beach.
The Long Beach Police Department previously ran Operation Safe Passage, during which two patrol cars were assigned to five highschools in Long Beach before and after the school day. The local nonprofit Centro CHA also launched a Safe Passages program in 2016 to serve schools in West Long Beach.
“Our hope is a Safe Passage Plan will focus on soliciting public participation to deter criminal activity and ensure that all children are able to walk to and from school safely,” said Carlos Valdez of the Coolidge Triangle Neighborhood Association.
Throughout discussion of the item, council members and public commenters brought up a May 12 incident during which a student walking home from Jordan High School was attacked by an adult man.
“I’m so sorry about this incident that happened to this young lady,” Councilmember Mary Zendejas said. “It was just heartbreaking. […] We are able to come together as a community and try to prevent further things from happening like this.”
While there have previously been programs to help students get to and from school safely, such as the “mom’s brigade” at Edison Middle School, there is no city-wide program.
“I certainly encourage community organizations to be involved and engaged,” said Councilmember Al Austin, who authored the item. “And that doesn’t necessarily mean that everybody’s gonna get paid.”
The city manager will look at the feasibility of creating a Safe Passage Plan in collaboration with the Long Beach Police Department, Long Beach Unified School District and relevant City departments and local organizations. The city manager will report his findings to the city council within 60 days.
“It does take a village,” Austin said. “It’s going to take us all and everybody, every adult, should take on the responsibility to defend and protect our children.”