State Legislators and California high school students met Thursday at the State Capitol building to discuss public school safety measures.

The meeting, sponsored by LegiSchool, a civic education program of the Center for California Studies at Sacramento State, featured a legislative panel that consisted of State Senators Bill Morrow (R-Oceanside) and Jack Scott (D-Burbank).

Morrow and Burbank took questions from the high school panel in attendance, and from students in the 100 classrooms statewide who viewed the meeting on television.

“We want to create a spirit of community in the local school,” Scott said, who suggested that expanding after-school programs in public schools, including an expansion in tutoring, athletic and club programs, could help divert campuses from school violence.

The State Legislature has recently provided $100 million to California public schools for campus safety, Scott said.

“Money does not solve anything, but starving a school does not solve anything, either,” Scott said.

The local schools will decide where to use that money most effectively in their security.Reduction of class sizes could aid in campus safety by giving teachers more time to get to know students on an individual basis and could make it easier to see signs of potential violence, according to Murrow.

The panel also fielded questions on whether or not the measures being taken by schools to prevent violence, which include fences, cameras and metal detectors being posted on some campuses, are too drastic.

“I think it has to be based upon the perceived danger,” Scott said.

Many of the decisions should be made at the local level according to Morrow, who said that measures should be taken with the support of the community.

LegiSchool is an educational collaboration between the Center for California Studies and the State Legislature, that is designed to stimulate interest in the political process by inviting students to participate in discussing the issues affecting them. The program involves the students through the use of Town Hall meetings in which the students interact with government officials, and a video curriculum library which provides students with taped footage of the legislative process.

“By meeting with members of the legislation they feel that their voices are being heard,” said Kolleen Ostgaard, the LegiSchool project coordinator.

The program focuses primarily on issues that directly affect students in order to generate a further interest, Ostgaard said.

Directed by Dr. Ken Futernick, an associate professor of education and chair of the Department of Teacher Education at Sac State, LegiSchool estimates that it services over 12,000 California high school students each year.

The program is currently planning a student run press conference on March 22, which will address the necessity of the “exit” exam, a writing test that will be required of students for high school graduation beginning in the 2003/04 school year. On May 3, there will be another meeting to discuss religion in public schools.

More information is available through the LegiSchool Web site at www.csus.edu/calst/legischool.htm.