Last week, the San Fernando Valley Sun/El Sol reported on the "Day of Action" rally held at Cleveland High School in Reseda. The rally, and similar rallies held at other LAUSD campuses including Manuel Arts and Westchester High Schools, was in conjunction with the release of the report, "Police in LAUSD Schools: The Need for Accountability and Alternatives."

The concerns raised at the rally and report were that school police currently assigned to Cleveland practice racial profiling and discourage students from coming to school by regularly issuing truancy tickets to students who may be only a few minutes late and trying to get to campus.

Students were also concerned about the school policy of shutting the door on students who were on campus but late to class. They were sent to the cafeteria where they received a pink slip. Students who were off campus and late ran the risk of receiving a $250 ticket, being handcuffed and brought to the campus in a police car where they were turned over, while still in handcuffs, to school administrators.

Cleveland High School Principal Herman Clay is in his first year at Cleveland high school. But he was principal at Van Nuys High School for six years before coming to Cleveland. Clay doesn't dismiss the points raised in the article, but he does think they are overstated.

"I believe some of the claims, some of the tenor of the article is somewhat exaggerated. But I think it's understandable that if you are placed in the position where you are either cited or handcuffed, you're going to feel that you've been treated unfairly," said Clay.

On the issue of truancy tickets, Clay says that the policy is not to issue tickets if the students are on campus but late to class. Off campus, it's an issue for the LAPD.

"What I'm saying is that the issuing of truancy tickets is usually something done by city police. It is enforcing L.A. City ordinances. There is a city ordinance that invokes this and this is why they end up going to court. School police have not issued truancy tickets, per our policy, I believe for the last three or four years," Clay said. He added that he believes only one or two tickets a week are given out to Cleveland students.

According to Manuel Criollo, an organizer with the Strategy Center, the number of truancy tickets issued in the last five years tells a different story.

"LASPD has refused to give where they give specific tickets, so we can't give the exact number given to Cleveland but LASPD alone, between 2004 and 2009 gave out close to 13,000 tickets," said Criollo. "LASPD has refused to give a break down by year. That's just one bulk number they've given us. LAPD from 2004 to 2009, gave out close to 34,000 tickets. That's 47,000 tickets in five years."

So while the number of truancy tickets given to Cleveland students remains in dispute, no one is disputing the fact that ticketed students are returned to Cleveland High School in handcuffs. Clay confirmed this but again pointed to LAPD.

"When the city police take a young person into custody, they return them to campus in handcuffs and they release them to us in school. That's a city policy because the individual is in custody. You'd get a better explanation from the city police as to why that's their practice or policy," said Clay.

But when asked directly by the San Fernando Valley Sun/El Sol how he personally felt about having handcuffed students delivered to his school by the police, Clay's only response was, "That's their (the City of Los Angeles') policy not a district policy."

Clay says he's not sure that methods like ticketing are effective ways of getting students to school.

"I think it's always better to use positive means to get young people to school. Obviously, attendance is something everyone in the community has to be concerned with, because when young people are in school, hopefully they're doing some positive things," he said. "When they are not, they sometimes get into mischief and some negative things."

In the two years prior to this year, Criollo said, Cleveland didn't rely on the police as much.

"The school had much better programs where instead of LAPD or LASPD picking up young people if they were hanging around the campus, I know an administrator would grab a truck, pick them up and take them to school," said Criollo.

Cleveland had very good programs in terms of what they had until this year when they cut it.They had important programs, mental health programs, that other schools didn't have. Because of where it's located, it has much more resources than most."

Now Cleveland students complain about the Police presence on campus. One student, Eric Fuentes Casas, a senior, said that "Right now, there are many more police officers than school counselors."

"That was somewhat misleading," Clay responded, "because actually, on this campus we have seven academic counselors, two school psychologist, and two school police officers."

Racial profiling is an issue cited by both students and Strategy Center organizer Criollo as a problem at Cleveland with police coming down hard on students of color while turning a blind eye to the activities of the mostly white Magnet students.

"From my point of view, I don't see that as the case," Clay said but he pointed out some other problem areas. "We have issues with vandalism( and) we have some issues with substance abuse."

One policy which Clay wholeheartedly defends is the locking out of students who are late to class and funneling them to the cafeteria where they are issued pink slips. He doesn't view this as a dire consequence. He feels that it is a necessary process that works.

"One of the things we're trying to do is teach punctuality, because punctuality is one of the attributes employers look for, and we want young people to be punctual. School begins every day at three minutes before eight, 7:57 am. What we do is ring a warning bell seven minutes before and for the last minute we're giving students warning so it helps them, if they are on campus, to get inside. I think punctuality is a very positive trait for people," said Clay.

Over all, Clay said, the police play an important role in campus life. "Their function is they do participate in law enforcement. They assist in situations where laws or ordinances are broken. In any community where they have over four thousand people there are going to be infractions. They also help us secure the campus from outside interruptions or disruptions."

The San Fernando Valley Sun/El Sol attempted to contact Los Angeles School Police Chief Michael Bowman and LAUSD Board member Tamar Galatzan for this story. At press time, Chief Bowman had not returned the phone call and Board member Galatzan was unavailable. Their comments should appear in next week's edition.