A team of first responders from the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Los Angeles Police Deparment are in Newtown, CT, trying to learn from the tragedy, LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy said Monday.
Speaking at a press conference at LAPD headquarters, Deasy said the school district's police officers will incorporate what they learn from the visit in a review of the district's current security procedures.
Deasy said the school district's fiscal crisis has not impacted school security, noting that funding for maintaining campus safety had, in fact, been "augmented."
Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck said he wants to ensure that all LAUSD elementary and middle schools—at least 600 of them—get a daily visit from an LAPD officer starting Jan. 7, when classes resume after the winter break.
Calling it a "significant, significant task," Beck confirmed Monday that he would also open the expanded patrols to charter and private schools.
LAUSD's police force will be part of the initiative. The school district's officers already provide security at high schools.
Beck and Deasy said they doubted a random police presence could stop a mass killing like the one Friday in Connecticut, but that the reassurance such a presence could provide was key.
Los Angeles Schools Police Department Chief Steven Zipperman also spoke at the press conference, noting that it is "important that we take a look at an incident of this magnitude" and learn from it. (See more from Zipperman in the video clip attached above.)
"Our whole purpose in going there...," Zipperman said, "[is] to get additional information as to what occurred—some of the response efforts, recovery efforts, and anything we can learn … to help try and improve what we do."
The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department has also committed to providing an increased presence at schools within its jurisdiction.
“All our stations are going to be more visible in and around schools in our area,” sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore told the Los Angeles Times. “We are going to be talking with school administrators and we are going to discuss school response and law enforcement response to such events.”
