LAKE BALBOA - Gang-related shootings near Birmingham High School have left parents on edge, police scrambling and administrators frustrated as the new school year begins.
The wave of violence continued unabated this week when a 23-year-old man was shot outside a Jack in the Box across from campus as students chatted or waited for the bus - just 40 minutes after the afternoon bell rang and less than a week after classes began.
The shooting marked the sixth gang-related attack since July in the neighborhoods around Birmingham, a storied high school that boasts such alumni as Michael Milken, Michael Ovitz, Sally Field and the late journalist Daniel Pearl.
The Los Angeles Police Department responded to the violence by beefing up patrols in the area, and citing nearly 50 students for ditching class.
"It's scary," Principal Marsha Coates said. "We are living in the Valley surrounded by gangs. My concern is always student safety."
Coates sends out notices to all freshman parents, warning them not to let their children hang out after school at the Jack in the Box - a known gang hangout - and directing students to supervised locations. But there is only so much she can do.
"I wish the mayor would get out here and clean up the streets so we can teach our children," she said. "It is really frustrating. I want them to learn, our gangbangers to learn, so they have a route out of this."
School administrators say there are several gangs and only a handful of security officers to patrol the sprawling, 73-acre campus - the largest high school site west of the Mississippi River and a former military hospital - where random metal-detector checks are part of everyday security.
"What do I do about it?" Coates asked. "If your child is a gangbanger, they are still entitled to a free and appropriate education."
Three years ago, after rising racial tensions between Latinos and Armenians, the school revived a peer-intervention program and began another in which students worked out disputes before they escalated into violence.
"Those two groups are why we haven't had major eruptions in Birmingham," said Charles Miller, head of security and discipline at the school. "It's definitely a concern when the neighborhood is erupting in violence. We try and teach the students how to deal with these problems."
But the measures are small comfort to many parents.
"What I'm most concerned about is coming to pick her up one day and find that something (tragic) went on," said Javier Covarrubiasas he picked up his daughter Tuesday afternoon.
Lakes Miranda, a 17-year-old senior, said she heard the shots ring out Monday as she was crossing the street to catch the bus.
"I just don't think there's anything they can do about it," she said of school officials.
Police say part of the reason for tensions around the school is gang members who cross into each others' territory when they arrive at the school - or recruit from it. But Miranda said she hasn't heard of serious problems, a sentiment echoed by other students.
On Monday, as police searched for witnesses, many of the students they suspect saw the shooting were nowhere to be found, likely scared of retaliation from the shooters.
The reaction is a testament to just how entrenched the fear of gangs is at schools like Birmingham, which more than 3,000 students from Encino, Van Nuys, Northridge and Lake Balboa attend.
High school seniors Michael Gomez and Kenny Rodriguez, both 17, say violence is a hard reality on the streets outside campus - but rarely makes it past the school gates.
"Everybody's chill," Rodriguez said, but added that there are a few consistent troublemakers.
"You got to watch your back," Gomez said. "... We leave straight home (after school). It's not safe."
The summertime wave of shootings between July and Monday involved at least three gangs - Mara Salvatrucha, the Pacoima Criminals and Logan Street, police said.
Though the motivations for all the shootings are unclear, police say many, like a near-homicide July 17 just blocks from campus, stem from old beefs.
On that day, an MS gang member had just picked up a student when someone in the car spotted a rival gang member, police said. Summer school had just let out and the rivals both had guns and scores to settle.
Police believe the two had gotten into a fight the day before at Birmingham. Ten gunshots later, a 20-year-old man had been shot in the head. He remains hospitalized.
School officials decided not to put out notices or hold any kind of assembly Tuesday regarding the shooting the day before. Coates said she made the decision because until this point, there was no indication that students were involved.
But investigators say there is too little information to know who did it. The Jack in the Box has long been a dangerous place, the site of several shootings since 2002 and a "a melting pot for gangs," said LAPD Detective Marc Martinez.
"The school can hoot and holler all they want that they don't have a gang problem, but they are there," he said. "(Gang members) know how to hide it better when they are on school grounds, but they are there."
Parent Charisse Ridgle, who had enrolled her freshman daughter, Tanesha, at Birmingham High after she heard about violence around Monroe High School in North Hills, was shocked by Birmingham's problems.
"Wow, I'm trying to be a good parent here," said Ridgle, who picks up and drops off her daughter from school daily. "That's scary. ... It is very frustrating to hear that."
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