This is what San Diego Unified's armored rescue vehicle might look like with paint and markings added. Courtesy of San Diego Unified Schoo District
A San Diego Unified school board trustee raised questions Thursday about the district’s latest acquisition — a mine-resistant armored truck — after learning about the government-donated vehicle on social media this week.
Scott Barnett said the military-grade truck has no place in a school district and should be leased out to other agencies to raise money to replace its aging campus police cars. Barnett also expressed concern that the Army truck was acquired without consulting the school board or the public.
“The symbol of having an armored vehicle in the district is not the message we want to send to schools,” he said. “But we have it now. Can we leverage that vehicle to fund something we really need — new patrol cars?”
The San Diego Unified School District applied for a grant to get the vehicle, called an MRAP, for free under the U.S. Department of Defense’s excess property initiative, known as the 1033 Program. The grants distribute surplus military equipment to local police forces at no cost.
Gun mounts and any “offensive equipment” have been removed from the truck, which will be painted white — possibly with an ambulance-style red cross — and will be clearly marked as a San Diego Unified School District rescue vehicle in red lettering, according to the district.
Unified spent nearly $5,000 transporting the vehicle to San Diego and it expects maintenance to cost $500 a year.
The federal 1033 program is what helped outfit police officers with military equipment in Ferguson, Mo., which has been on edge following the police killing of unarmed teenager Michael Brown on Aug. 9. The faceoff between militarized police and peaceful protesters stirred a nationwide debate about the use of such equipment.
Since then, the federal government has reconsidered its efforts to off-load military equipment to local agencies. San Diego Unified may have received the last MRAP under the 1033 Program.
Even so, Rueben Littlejohn, chief of San Diego Unified’s police force, believes the new rescue vehicle is an asset to the officers who work to keep California’s second-largest school district safe.
“It’s not the militarization of schools. The vehicle has been stripped of all offensive equipment and it’s been repurposed for humanitarian purposes,” he said.
In the event of a school shooting, wildfire, earthquake, tsunami or flood, district police could drive the MRAP to a classroom to evacuate up to 40 children, Littlejohn said.
“After Sandy Hook there was a lot of conversation about what folks should do.… What do you do for that kind of situation?” he said. “My team took that very seriously and came up with some creative solutions, this being one of them.”
The grant application for the truck was approved by Superintendent Cindy Marten and was not required to go before the school board, said spokeswoman Ursula Kroemer.
Marten said the district would review the terms of the grant but did not think Barnett's lease idea would fit with its intent.
What's more, she said the truck would be "completely and fully demilitarized" and would become a "safe haven on wheels" in the event of an emergency.
Page:1 2 ➡
