Last week was a harrowing one for the Los Angeles Unified School District. In a single day, two LAUSD students were stabbed outside a high school, there were multiple fentanyl overdoses at a middle school, and a child was hospitalized after being hit by a car near a K-5 campus.
These were part of a coterie of tragedies that have affected the district this school year, including the fatal stabbing of a teenage honors student, a fatal overdose at Bernstein High, and the death of a parent who was hit by a car near an elementary school in Hancock Park.
All of these events have contributed to a growing sense of crisis. And it’s not just parents who are feeling it. LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass spoke by phone last Tuesday about rising safety concerns.
“The two pledged to work together to confront what feels to many parents like a school-safety crisis,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
They will focus their efforts on traffic safety as well as drug use and violence prevention.
“The mayor and I agree that these are the three main causes — right now in our school system, in our community — that are putting young lives at risk,” Carvalho said.
Bass announced that she and Carvalho would be convening stakeholders and community members to gather input on safety efforts at LAUSD schools.