School will get security equipment

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District announced plans Thursday to

install security cameras on the playground at Mariners Elementary

School, angering some parents who argued that a fence was the only

adequate security measure for the campus.

At a meeting in the school’s auditorium, Newport-Mesa facilities

director Tim Marsh explained that the district had decided on cameras

rather than a fence because cameras pose fewer problems. When parents

began campaigning for a fence in the spring, some local athletic

groups objected to splitting the fields, and some teachers and

students at the school argued that a solid barrier was unnecessary.

The meeting Thursday, attended by about 30 parents and other

community members, was often volatile. Parents debated the

effectiveness of cameras and accused administrators of downplaying an

incident in April 2001, in which a man was arrested after entering a

girls’ bathroom on the playground. Some said cameras were not

sufficient to prevent future trespasses.

“It’s totally inadequate,” said parent Linda Duffy after the

meeting. “It will only catch people after the fact.”

The camera system, which Marsh said the district was still

finalizing, will likely be working by the start of January. In

addition to the cameras, the proposal calls for an invisible beam to

extend across the playground, which blends into city-owned Mariners

Park. If a person walks across the beam, an alarm will sound in the

front office, and staffers will investigate.

Marsh said that the alarm system will shut down after school

hours, but the cameras will run 24 hours a day. He said the cameras

will cost about as much as a fence, but that the district had opted

for the former because they were more efficient.

“The decision at the district level is that cameras meet the need,

and a fence causes additional problems,” Marsh said.

As examples, Marsh cited the concerns of athletic groups and said

that some neighbors of the school had protested having to look at a

barricade every day.

An additional issue of contention during the evening was the April

2001 incident, in which 34-year-old Anthony James Scarpinato was

arrested after cornering a 6-year-old girl in a bathroom. Scarpinato

later pleaded guilty to false imprisonment and annoying or molesting

a child. At the meeting, parents distributed photocopies of

Scarpinato’s court records, and some accused principal Pam Coughlin

of trying to minimize the story.

“The principal has gone on record saying it was a 10-second ordeal and nothing happened,” said grandparent Jill Lindsay, who stood

outside handing out copies before the meeting.

Other parents brought the same allegation of downplaying the

incident against Coughlin during the meeting. Sgt. Bill Hartford of

the Newport Beach Police Department, however, said the principal’s

description was accurate and that the girl only faced Scarpinato for

a few seconds before an adult intervened. In the police report, the

girl said the intruder had only managed to put his hand over her

mouth.

In Oct. 2004, police were called again to Mariners when a

6-year-old girl reported that a teenage boy had attempted to beckon

her to him. No arrest was ever made in the case, which Hartford said

may not have been a crime to begin with. The youth, he surmised,

could have been motioning to an adult or another child.

Coughlin said that Mariners had already expanded security in a

number of ways for the new school year. Playground supervisors now

wear orange vests so that children can easily identify them, and all

of them carry cellphones or walkie-talkies. Coughlin and Hartford

both said they approved of the camera proposal.

The Thursday meeting continued a debate that has simmered in the

Mariners community for months. Last spring, a group of parents formed

the Mariners Fence Action Committee to persuade the district to set

up a barrier around the school. In June, the district held a meeting

at the school auditorium for parents to voice concerns.

The playground, which adjoins Mariners Park, has no fence and

blends into the city-owned property. As a result, the school’s

playground monitors keep the children close to the school to ensure

that they remain within bounds.

After the parents began campaigning, Marsh drafted a plan for a

fence to be erected around the blacktop at Mariners. Officials from

the American Youth Soccer Organization and the Newport Harbor

Baseball Assn. approved the plan because it would not interfere with

their playing fields in the park.

However, many committee members argued that the fence should sit

on the school’s official boundary line in the middle of the grass.

Setting the fence there would force a rearrangement of the sports

fields and possibly eliminate one of the baseball diamonds.

Still others denied the need for a fence at all, including

teachers who had worked at Mariners for years and said a new boundary

would have little impact.

Gary Jabara, a political liaison for the American Youth Soccer

Organization, voiced a similar opinion Thursday. He noted that his

children attend Newport Elementary, which also has no fence, and that

adult supervision was the most effective way of avoiding trouble.

“There’s not a fence in the world, if someone has malicious

intent, that will keep these people out,” he said.