Oakland analysis: Skittishly anti-police HS perpetuates preventable tragedies
School–police cooperation prevents local mass shootings. Contrastingly, anti-police rhetoric impacts far more than budgetary concerns, truly endangering children’s safety — as evidenced by the recent Oakland high school shooting. Rudsdale High School’s practices of handling emergencies independently, waiting to notify police of evidence, and dictating students do not cooperate with police created a “perfect storm” for students to be further victimized, suggests Dan Noyes in ABC7.
Another disturbing headline about the shooting in Oakland comes from the ABC7 I-Team, law enforcement sources tell us school officials have sent text messages to shooting victims, instructing them not to cooperate with police.
We're hearing it's a pattern, and some parents at the school are worried that a lack of action by school officials after previous incidents may have led to this escalation in violence.
"If you remember, the school district used to have their own police, then OPD was serving some of the schools with campuses, they actually threw him out because they didn't want uniformed police officers on their campuses, these things happen because we allow them to happen," said [former Oakland City Council President] De La Fuente.
The I-Team's law enforcement sources tell us this is part of a disturbing pattern by officials at that school - a lack of cooperation with police, especially after one troubling incident just weeks ago.
"A kid was stabbed. He was bleeding. He was pistol-whipped. A gun was discovered at school. And yet the school district did nothing about it," said BayTech parent Mario Juarez.
Police confirmed in August, a student was stabbed and pistol-whipped at the school. And my police sources tell me that Rudsdale obstructed the investigation:
School officials recovered the gun used in the attack.
Kept it from police for hours, until finally turning it over in a zip lock bag.
Sources also say the school would not let police perform follow-up interviews with students.
School officials said, "They had it under control."
This article originally appeared in ABC7. Read the whole thing here.
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