No Blame Laid in School Incident

While your Nov. 9 article “Homeowner Meeting That Ended in Brawl Broke School Rules” was thorough and accurate, I write to clarify a point regarding the appropriateness of security at the meeting held under the Civic Center Act at Lanai Avenue Elementary School in August, 1989.

The Los Angeles Unified School District’s position with respect to security at such meetings is that, whenever there is a concern about a meeting, adequate security must be provided by the permittee, at its expense.

As your article indicates, I did conclude that the provision of security was legitimate. However, I did not conclude, nor should my comments be read to imply, that I was singling out one group or another as having caused any violence or disruption at the meeting. There are conflicting versions of “who did what to whom” at the meeting. My inquiry was primarily concerned with the use of tickets for crowd control or regulation. As your article states, I concluded that the use of tickets in any way was improper, although I did not find a sufficient basis to conclude that the violation of district policy was intentional.

RICHARD K. MASON

Los Angeles

Mason is special counsel to the Los Angeles Unified School District .