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LAUSD school board must do more to protect kids like Khimberly Zavaleta

The horrific death of 12-year-old Khimberly Zavaleta at the hands of bullies at Reseda High School is a shocking reminder that our children may not be safe at LAUSD schools.

Video evidence appears to show the moment that a bully struck Khimberly in the head with a metal water bottle as students walked across the campus.

A voice behind the camera is heard shouting encouragement: “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

Khimberly’s mother told reporters that the girl had been defending her older sister when she was attacked.

No adults or school police officers are visible in the video.

The family plans to sue. And they should. 

Because LAUSD has reduced security at its schools — thanks, in part, to pressure from radical “defund the police” activists.

In 2020, at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, the activists demanded that the school board eliminate the Los Angeles School Police Department. 

The activists claimed, incredibly, that students felt less safe at school with uniformed police officers around. 

They were supported by United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing LAUSD teachers, which placed far-left ideology above the safety of their own members, as well as the district’s children.

Board members Monica Garcia and Nick Melvoin sided with the activists, and backed a motion to defund the school police by 90%.

The Harvard-educated Melvoin said he was acting to stop “systemic racism.”

Eventually, the board voted 4-3 to cut $25 million from the school police force. That ultimately meant cutting 133 positions, about a third of the total.

The board decided to cut its police department despite the results of its own poll, showing that a majority of parents, students, and staff actually supported the police.

The result: Kids like Khimberly have no one to stand up for them and to protect them from bullies.

Of course, part of the problem is the glorification of violence on social media. 

Whoever was filming the fight — likely another student — was clearly enjoying the spectacle, perhaps hoping the video would go viral online.

That encouragement of violence — even among children — has become part of our popular culture. Schools are not immune.

But parents have a right to expect that schools will protect their children while they are on campus.

On Thursday, Americans were reminded of how important it is to have trained personnel on campus to defend schools.

A crazed attacker rammed his car into a synagogue in suburban Detroit, and attacked a preschool there.

Armed security officers onsite were able to stop the attack, and police arrived soon afterwards. No children, teachers, or staff were hurt.

Public schools don’t have the luxury of private security guards, or even trained volunteers.

That is why the LA School Police Department remains so necessary in a dangerous age.

Cutting funding to the department was a terrible mistake. 

The safety of our children should always come first.

It is the school board’s duty to make sure that what happened to Khimberly never happens to another child at an LAUSD school again.

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