[img]1663|left|Chief Pedersen||no_popup[/img]No upset that the Culver City Democratic Club and the teacher-oriented School Board last night aggressively endorsed sharply tightening gun control rules, and they spoke out sternly against arming anyone on campuses, probably including security guards.
The surprise – if it could be so labeled – was that Culver City Police Chief Don Pedersen vigorously joined the chorus.
All five members of the panel – four School Board members and the chief – appeared to agree that Newtown could not happen here for a complex of reasons:
- The School District’s updated, strainingly snug, children-first safety policies.
- The geographic intimacy of the community.
- An already uniformed cop presence on campuses.
- A Police Dept. response time of 2 minutes, contrasted with the much larger gap that plagued Newtown.
Mr. Pedersen, emphasizing that he was addressing the Democratic Club crowd in the Rotunda Room at the Vets Auditorium more as a parent than a law enforcement officer, declared without equivocation, “There is no legitimate reason for anyone to posses an assault weapon.
“Banning assault weapons should be a legislative priority.
“We need to start with this dialogue. Banning will not be easy. This dialogue will take time.
“As a police chief and a father of two, I believe that certain weapons should be banned.”
Both Mr. Pedersen and his fellow panelists – President Kathy Paspalis, Patricia Siever, Nancy Goldberg, Laura Chardiet – agreed that the relationship between the law and schools’ officials in Culver City borders on ideal. The Board members seemed to believe this was persuasive reason that Newtown could not be xeroxed here.
“We have had a police presence on campus every day since the Newtown incident,” Mr. Pedersen said. “But I want to point out that we also did before the incident. This is not new.”
As soon as the massacre was reported, the chief said, “we reached out (to the School District).”
Ms. Paspalis acknowledged that “some security folks may need additional training,” but the training did not appear to include firearms.
Prof. Siever was representing majority opinion when she said: “Some people are talking about arming guards or teachers. That is not an environment we want at our schools. Our district has one of the best safety policies it could have.”
Old Faces Return
By acclaim, President Bill Wynn and other Democratic Club officers were returned to office for another year.
Familiar Faces, Too
Herb and Diane Rosenberg, two of the club’s most venerable veterans, celebrated their 47th wedding anniversary last night – Jan. 10, 1966 – in the same chairs, at the same table
by the entryway they have occupied for almost 47 years. Across the room, City Councilman Jim Clarke kidded Mr. Rosenberg about, um, underspending, by taking his wife to yet another club meeting instead of to a sophisticatred eatery.
