Unruly Students at Safeway Focus of School Board Meeting

The District, local police and Safeway are talking

About a half hour of Wednesday’s school board meeting (WSCUHSD) was devoted to Analy students congregating at Safeway. “We've had some issues there from scuffles, to shoplifting, to just disrespectful behavior,” said Superintendent Chris Meredith who addressed the issue at the board meeting and invited the City of Sebastopol Chief of Police Ron Nelson and Captain Jim Hickey to speak at the meeting.

Meredith said that he had talked to the store manager at Safeway and was directed to talk to the District Manager who is an Analy grad. “The Safeway district manager did tell me that they've implemented some measures to mitigate some of the problems,” said Meredith. Safeway is less concerned about loss prevention, he said; they want to make sure students are protected. “Most notable, they know when our students gravitate towards Safeway,” he said. “They're now roping off the liquor section when kids are present.”

“I recognize the problem,” said Police Chief Ron Nelson who pointed out that he and Captain Hickey had been at Safeway earlier in the day. He said that he was trying to get clarification on Safeway policies. “As a general rule, whenever we've responded. whether it's been adults or youth with shoplifting issues, they haven't pressed forward with prosecution,” he said. “So that puts us in a tough position. Do we enforce the law when we don't have somebody who's willing to be a victim and take the case to court?”

“That being said, there are steps that can be taken,” said Chief Nelson. He talked about establishing relationships with the students, as they’ve done by being present on campus during the opening day of school. He said that they would continue to collaborate with the school district and Safeway.

Captain Jim Hickey said that he, the police chief and two officers were at Safeway today. “I heard from probably 15 adults who asked ‘what are you doing here? We know why you're here. Oh good, glad you're here. You gotta fix this problem.’ Our response to that was, no, we're here to say hello. We're here to build a relationship with the students,” he said. “We didn't come to write tickets today.”

Captain Hickey emphasized that the police were a resource to the community and to students. “Now, does that mean we're not going to arrest people? Nope, if we got to arrest you, we got to arrest you. But the reality is, what can we do up until that point?How can we help mitigate the things that are going on?”

Chief Nelson turned his attention to parents. “There has to be some parental responsibility and more awareness of the problem. I'm not sure that the parents are aware that some of their own children are engaging in these types of behaviors.” Nelson mentioned that his department has instituted some restorative justice processes “not just for juveniles, but also adults.”

Board President Julie Aiello asked if the school could “participate more in identifying the kids and notifying parents of what's going on at Safeway and who is stealing?” Meredith said that the administration has some limitations on what it can do. He said that he could not send administrators off campus to monitor the students because they wouldn’t be covered by the school’s insurance. “It’s not a school-sponsored activity and it’s not a school ground, per se.” He had to look out for the safety of employees and the district’s liability.

Aiello asked Meredith to clarify why it’s difficult to keep students on campus at lunchtime. “They’re supposed to be on campus,” she added. Meredith said that students leaving campus is hard to supervise. “This is a beautiful, wide open campus, sitting on countryside and residential (property), close to businesses. If they want to find a way to leave campus, they usually find that way. “We've tried to manage it as best we can and our administration, our campus supervisors and our other staff work really hard to do what they can,” he said.

Jeanne Fernandes said that she agreed with Chief Nelson. “It’s a parent problem and many parents either don’t know or want to know that their little Johnny is being naughty and stealing from Safeway.” She said the District could do a better job of communicating with parents that there is a problem. She asked that the District use its newsletter and other ways to communicate with parents. “We need parents help and they have as much responsibility as anyone else,” she added.

Analy student representative Karis Morasch asked if the majority of incidents were happening during the school day or after school was over? Police Chief Nelson responded that the the problem is after school in the afternoon hours. “90 percent of it is after school,” he said.

This year’s student representatives to the Board are Analy’s Karis Morasch, who returns for a second year, and Laguna’s Pheonyx Jaco Pope.

“I want everybody to know that this problem is not specific to Analy High or Sebastopol,” said Nelson. “I worked at Santa Rosa PD for 22 years and one of my areas of responsibility as a lieutenant was the Junior College Corridor which includes Santa Rosa High. It was a constant source of complaints with McDonald's and the small community market in that area. So it's not specific to here. It's when kids are bored, sometimes they find ways to entertain themselves and not necessarily in the best ways. That's where some of that education and teaching them responsibility and integrity comes in.” He asked why do we think kids are doing this?

Aiello said that as a teacher in Sebastopol for 34 years, she “has high expectations for the kids. I expect them to be able to go to Safeway and not steal.” She said she didn’t like shopping there and seeing it happen. “We have great kids overall, but this is getting out of control.”

She also expressed the concern that others from outside Sebastopol were coming to Safeway. She wondered if they were coming to sell drugs. “Do you find that to be true?” she asked the two policemen.

Captain Hickey responded with a story of what happened that day at Safeway. “We were sitting there as a kid with a skateboard, either a senior in another school or older, he came walking by.

-Hey, how you doing? I said.

-Fine.

-Okay, what are you doing here? Going to school?

-No, I'm waiting for Analy to get out.

-Outstanding, I said.

-Well, what's outstanding about it?

-I go, I get to meet you and tell all your friends that I'm going to be here every day when school gets out to meet all your buddies. So what do you think?

-Well, I - I don't want to meet you.

-Outstanding. Then tell all your buddies they don't want to meet me either.”

The first and really only public comment was from Jenny Sortino who described herself as someone who had worked in the community for 35 years and as a teacher for 20 years (retired from Park Side). She asked how many officers are on duty during that afternoon period. Captain Hickey replied that there are only two officers on duty. “Due to budget, we have one sergeant and one officer, in addition to myself and the Chief,” he said. “You only have two officers on duty?” Jenny asked incredulously.

“Today we were at Safeway,” explained Captain Hickey, “and we had (a call about) somebody that had threatened to harm themselves, and all three of us had to leave.”

Jenny stayed at the podium. “I've taught every age from two-and-a-half-year olds through eighth grade. I taught middle school when I was in menopause, and it was crazy,” she said.

She recounted a recent incident at Safeway. “I was trying to get in to Safeway, into the front door, and there were a bunch of kids. I'm just kind of trying to weave myself in, and a kid stepped in front of me as I was weaving in. Of course he didn't know I was there, he stepped really hard on my foot, which was bare. I was wearing sandals. He had a big boot on, and I said to him: ‘oh, I'm sorry,’ because I felt I got in his way, and he said, well, something like, ‘what are you sorry about?’ I said, ‘well, you know, blah, blah, blah, and I said, do you have something to say? Like, are you sorry?’ And he says, ‘I got nothing to say to you, I did nothing wrong.’” Jenny paused and said: “It’s the attitude.”

Finally, she added: “I don't know how much parents can help in this situation, but I believe the police officers can. I believe the Safeway people can, and I believe the district can, and I'm just thrilled that you're talking about this.”

We will follow up on this issue to see if any of the changes discussed are implemented and demonstrate impact.