School Neighbors Demand End to Rowdyism

Residents who live near Glendale High School are quick to acknowledge that they have to put up with more than their share of noise and mischief from a campus where 2,000 students come and go each day.

But this year, what was once a minor nuisance has turned into a daily battle with students, residents say. As one homeowner remarked, “We’re no longer going to pull the draperies and act like everything is OK.”

Residents contend that, before and after school and during lunch, students have been making their lives miserable by vandalizing homes and cars, taking drugs and drinking alcohol in open view, piling trash up in front yards, creating excessive noise and fighting in the streets.

To get their point across, about 70 residents have jointly hired an attorney and signed a petition demanding that the district act.

“You’ve got to expect a little bit of this kind of stuff when you live near a high school, but this year it’s gotten out of control,” said Pamela Grissom, who organized the petition drive. “It’s really getting scary around here. They just do whatever they want right in front of our homes. I’ve got a little baby and sometimes I’m afraid to leave the kid alone and walk to the laundry room.”

School officials, meanwhile, acknowledge the residents have a legitimate gripe but say they may be overreacting. Besides, officials said, they cannot control the entire problem because many of those who cause the trouble are not from Glendale High and some of the incidents take place when school is not in session.

Nevertheless, John Heine, the residents’ attorney, said that in the last year the atmosphere along Lukens Place, Barrington Way and other streets near the school has become “extremely confrontational” and that students have started retaliating when residents complain about their behavior.

Eggs and tomatoes have been thrown at houses and apartments, and the students go out of their way to provoke some of the residents, Heine said. One resident said that he got into a shoving match last week with one of the students who was “acting rowdy.”

“We’ve got to have a new set of ground rules because this is just a time bomb for everybody involved,” Heine said. “We’re not fishing for a lawsuit here, but the situation has to change.”

In the petition presented to the Board of Education last week, residents asked the district to appoint a school employee who would serve as a contact when problems occur. Resident Jeri Lundquist said that tenants and homeowners often “get the run-around” when they report incidents to school officials, who tell them to call the police. The police, she said, then tell residents to call the school.

The petition also requests that the officials modify the current Glendale High open-campus policy that allows students to leave school grounds during lunch with parent permission. About 1,000 students have such passes, officials said.

Heine said he will also contact city officials and ask them to put “no loitering” and anti-littering signs along the residential streets. If the problems do not stop, he said, he may file a lawsuit charging the district with negligent supervision of students.

District officials are taking the matter seriously.

Supt. Robert Sanchis personally walked the streets Friday to assess the situation and instructed administrators at Glendale High School to step up their patrol of the neighborhood and to discourage students from congregating in the residential area.

Previously, Glendale High officials would patrol the neighborhood “nearly all the time” during the lunch break, Sanchis said. But now they will walk the streets every day to try to keep students from disturbing residents.

Open Campus to Remain

He said, however, that changing to a closed-campus policy is not being considered, despite the petition.

“We will continue to monitor the situation, but at this point we feel that patrolling the area should keep things under control,” Sanchis said. “We don’t think that this situation is particularly unique to Glendale High. Whenever you have a high school that great numbers of students go to every day, there are going to be minor problems that residents are going to be concerned with.”

Glendale police Sgt. Bob McCloud said officers will continue to pay attention to the residents’ calls and answer complaints from callers who report a crime. Police occasionally arrest students in the area on such charges as carrying concealed weapons or drug possession. But police do not have the resources to regularly respond to such complaints as littering or loud noise, McCloud said.

No Specific Police Plans

He said the neighborhood is not a high-crime area and the department has no specific plans, such as appointing a task force or dramatically increasing police patrol of the area, to handle the residents’ complaints.

Glendale High Principal Sam Harvey acknowledged the problem residents are having and said the school’s lunchtime patrols will be “more conscientious.”

“We’re very concerned that our young people respect others, and we’re going to try to steer them clear of the neighborhood,” Harvey said. “But we feel a lot of the students who are causing the trouble are not Glendale High students and we don’t have much control over them.”

Assistant Principal Tom Vessella, who regularly patrols the area from noon to 1 p.m., said the area is not the “den of iniquity” that some of the residents said it has become.

“Do they make noise? Yes. Do they sometimes get a little rowdy and leave trash? Yes. Do they smoke cigarettes and pot? Yes,” Vessella said. “But we have about 2,000 students at this school and it’s hard to keep track of them all. This has always been an area of concern, and it’s a matter of finding out just how much of a nuisance it is.”

Residents Have Moved

Several residents, including postal carrier Darlene Pieratt, have moved away rather than put up with the trouble.

“We just couldn’t take it anymore,” said Pieratt, who still delivers the mail to the neighborhood but now lives several miles away. “We finally left after they tore the windshield wipers off my car.”

But Glendale High students said this week that residents are viewing the situation a little too gravely.

“I think it’s a bit overblown,” said 12th-grade student Brian O’Rourke. “You know, you see people getting high and hanging around their own cars, but they’re not hurting anyone.”

Senior Gary Churukian said that only a few students are causing the problems and that most students are not even aware of the situation.

“It’s mainly the rockers and the new-wavers,” Churukian said. “I don’t think many students even knew there was a problem until this petition got out.”

Charge of Exaggeration

Diane Blackman, a 10th-grader who frequently eats lunch at a small taco stand just up the street from the residential area, also said that residents are exaggerating.

“Some students smoke pot and drink around here, but what are we going to do, mug these people on our way back to school?” Blackman asked.

However, residents said school officials are not taking their concerns as seriously as they should.

Last fall, resident Dirk Van said, students retaliated for his persistent complaints to the district by pouring sugar in the gas tank of his car. He said he had to spend $1,300 to repair the engine. He also said that students have regularly sprayed graffiti on his garage door.

“They know I don’t like them,” said Van, who has lived on Barrington Way for five years. “They smoke pot on my front lawn and in the courtyard in the back of my home. It’s like a daily war for us. This neighborhood is really going downhill.”

Paraphernalia in Yard

David Rappaport, who lives across the street from the school, said he often finds empty liquor bottles, cocaine spoons, butts of marijuana cigarettes and other drug paraphernalia that have been thrown over his fence into the backyard.

“My small children play in that yard. What am I supposed to do?” asked Rappaport, who also said he suspects that students have burglarized his garage.

Resident Steve Jones said the lunchtime patrols by school administrators are useless because most of the rowdy behavior takes place before and after school when the district is not responsible for students. He said that police and the school district should form a team that would patrol when students are not in school.

Jones, who owns a landscaping business, said students “get loaded on everything” when they are not in school and have stolen some of his plants and ripped an advertising sign off the door of his truck.

“I know that times are changing, but what’s happening here is just ridiculous,” Jones said.