The discovery of three guns in or around San Leandro High in less than seven days dominated local news last week and moved school safety to the forefront of public concern.
Monday night at 7:00 pm, school district and police officials will hold a citizen forum at San Leandro High's Arts Education Center to talk about how to respond.
The trio of gun incidents began a week ago Friday with the discovery of a and some marijuana. The student was taken to Juvenile Hall.
Then, after school let out Monday, police were called to the 7-11 Store at the intersection of 136th and East 14th Street in response to reports that a student was being threatened with a gun.
A former San Leandro High School was subsequently arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon in that second case.
The third gun incident occurred before school Thursday morning when security officials approached four students who were were allegedly smoking pot at a bus stop across the street from the high school.
At least one student fled, dropping a backpack in which officials found a loaded firearm. That student was taken to Juvenile Hall.
In light of the three incidents, city, school and police officials and talked about how to change the culture of the school so students do not think they can simply walk onto campus with weapons.
They discussed a variety of tactics to create this culture change, including the use of metal detectors, drug-sniffing dogs, a tougher truancy ordinance, more counseling and parent outreach and having students show ID cards upon entering the high school.
In another act of disrespect involving the schools, a occurred last weekend at Garfield Elementary School in the Marina District. School officials notified parents during the week and cleaned up the vandalism before the school's homecoming Thursday.
In other news, Patch looked ahead at a September 28th conference titled that aims to raise San Leandro's profile as a location for high tech industry.
occurred six hours apart in the Broadmoor District Tuesday, but only one caused a fire. No one was hurt. Police are trying to find a motive and suspects.
San Leandro's Police Department expanded citizen outreach on at least two fronts last week, holding the first in a series of events. Police also unveiled a that allows citizens to get some information about police calls through an Internet lookup system that is updated hourly. The system puts San Leandro at the forefront of using technology to let citizens monitor police activity.
Finally the San Lorenzo and San Leandro Schoool Districts held a with the San Leandro City Council in a symbolic gesture of cooperation.
