SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Letter Campaign Takes Aim at Guns

Local educators are calling upon the television and motion picture industry to help put out the message that “weapons and violence are not the answer to surviving in a civilized nation.”

Capistrano Unified School District trustees voted unanimously Monday to begin a letter-writing campaign to presidents and programming directors of major networks and motion picture studios requesting their “active support in helping to reverse the trend of violence” in the nation, especially on school campuses.

District educators say they experienced a “startling reminder” about the proliferation of weapons on school campuses earlier this month when a 13-year-old Niguel Hills Middle School student came to school with a loaded handgun.

The boy told sheriff’s deputies that he was carrying the .22-caliber weapon on the Laguna Niguel campus to protect himself from a classmate who had threatened him about two weeks earlier. The student, who was immediately suspended, is facing expulsion from school, officials said.

In a report Monday to the trustees, Supt. James A. Fleming said the incident “is just the most recent in a serious nationwide trend of students bringing weapons to school campuses.” Fleming noted that the entertainment industry “enjoys tremendous power and influence in our society, (and) it must also accept its responsibility in contributing positively to the safety and welfare of our children and youth.” He called upon industry leaders to “curb the amount of violence and use of weapons in programming marketed and available to children.”

The trustees voted in response to Fleming’s appeal.

So far this school year, three students have been expelled for carrying weapons onto high school or middle school campuses in the district.

During the meeting, trustees reaffirmed their support of a “zero tolerance” policy for weapons and drugs, which requires the immediate suspension and a recommendation of expulsion for student violators.

The district also wants to set up a hot line for students to anonymously report other students carrying weapons on campus, Fleming said.