Lawndale Newsletter Creates Stir With School Item

Some parents, students and administrators from the Centinela Valley Union High School District have attacked a Lawndale neighborhood-watch newsletter, saying the city-financed publication was used to promote a candidate for the upcoming school board election.

The Burin Avenue Neighborhood Watch Newsletter, which was printed at City Hall by the city’s neighborhood watch coordinator, was “immoral, unethical and reprehensible,” said Leuzinger High School Principal Sonja Davis.

She, along with others, criticized the newsletter during last month’s school board meeting, saying it represented a misuse of city funds.

‘Appalled’ by Politics

Virginia Rhodes, whose two sons graduated from Leuzinger, told the board: “I am appalled that politics have become part of the city of Lawndale’s Neighborhood Watch Program.”

The criticisms refer to an item in the September newsletter that said: “Many members of the Lawndale Neighborhood Watch have expressed concern about gang activity on the campus of Leuzinger High School. Some members have also expressed their feelings that the present board does not admit the problem and has not taken steps to deal with gang activity at Leuzinger.

“There will be an election for school board members on Nov. 7. Pam Sturgeon is a candidate for the board. Her telephone number is . . . and she would like to talk to anyone who has questions or concerns.”

An estimated 150 copies of the newsletter were printed, and about 80 have been distributed throughout the Burin Avenue area in downtown Lawndale, according to members of the neighborhood group.

Nancy McKee, the city’s neighborhood watch coordinator, said, “I don’t see what the big deal is.”

The newsletter was written by Jane Cushman, the Burin Avenue watch captain, and was not reviewed before publication, McKee said. “I don’t feel I was hired to be a censor for my block captains,” she said.

After discussing the matter with the assistant city manager, McKee said, she has advised all watch captains that newsletters funded by the city cannot promote candidates running for public office. “I’ll be looking at (the newsletters) from now on,” she said.

In an interview this week, Cushman defended the newsletter, saying that it was impartial and did not promote Sturgeon’s candidacy. “I am not aware that a law was violated,” she said.

Cushman, who has written the monthly publication for more than a year, said the newsletter was only a report of what other watch captains told her during a neighborhood watch meeting.

She called the controversy “a tempest in a teapot.”

Sturgeon, who chairs the city Planning Commission and is president of the Lawndale Chamber of Commerce, said she knew before its publication that the newsletter would mention her candidacy but did not realize that it was funded by the city.

Incumbent Not Mentioned

She acknowledged that the newsletter should have mentioned the names of the other candidates but added: “I have no problems with it.”

The letter does not mention Ann Birdsall, the incumbent whose District 1 seat Sturgeon is seeking. There are no other candidates for the District 1 seat.

Referring to the comments in the newsletter, Birdsall said: “I try to stay out of politics as much as possible . . . (but) I don’t like it, and I’m very upset.”

She said city funds should not have been used to pay for a newsletter that mentioned only one candidate. In addition, Birdsall said gang problems at Leuzinger were exaggerated in the newsletter. “I’m very angry that Leuzinger has been slandered again,” she said.

Nancy Marthens a Lawndale resident and community activist, has asked the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office to investigate.

Herbert Lapin, the district attorney’s acting head of special investigations, said he was notified about the newsletter last week. Lapin said his office will review the allegations and will decide within two weeks whether to order a full investigation.

Lawndale City Atty. David Aleshire said the newsletter may represent a violation of Proposition 73, a campaign reform initiative passed by voters in November, 1988. The law prohibits the use of public funds to pay for newsletters or mass mailings for candidates running for elected offices.

The penalties for violating Proposition 73 include a fine of up to $2,000, levied by the state Fair Political Practices Commission.

“Clearly, if (a newsletter) is put out at city expense it cannot be an election vehicle for a school board election or city election,” Aleshire said.

He said that he read the newsletter and it “did not make me happy,” but that he does not intend to pursue the matter unless the City Council requests an investigation.

Cast in Bad Light

Some people are troubled by the newsletter because, they said, it painted the school in a bad light.

Mike O’Hara a deputy with the Lennox Sheriff’s Department gang detail, said there are very few gang problems at Leuzinger because of vigilant school security officers and routine patrols by sheriff’s deputies.

“We rarely get major incidents” such as shootings or robberies at Leuzinger, he said.

O’Hara said the school may be relatively free of gang problems because gangs consider the campus neutral territory.

Cushman said she wrote the newsletter without personal knowledge of a gang problems at the school but was simply reporting what she had been told by other watch captains.

“If someone wants to say there is no gang activity at Leuzinger, then I will print that,” she said.

Under Control

Davis said there are gang members who attend Leuzinger but insists that administrators have been able to keep violence off the campus.

“We are very careful to secure the campus to keep outsiders outside. . . . We have not had a knifing. We have not had any shootings on the campus,” she said.

Jan Johnson, a 14-year-old sophomore at Leuzinger, said students and administrators there have long been fighting the image that Leuzinger is plagued by gangs.

“I’m upset because I have been fighting this battle too,” she said.

Johnson, who spoke during the school board meeting, said in an interview: “As far as I can see, there is no gang-related activity.”