Long Beach : Girl Tells of Escape From Assailant at Wilson High

Wilson High School student Carrie Trepp told the Long Beach school board Monday night how a man dragged her into a school bathroom, pressed a knife against her face and threatened to slash her.

The 14-year-old managed to get away, surviving the Oct. 25 incident with only several cuts on her face. But “since then, I’ve had constant nightmares, and I live in fear,” Trepp said.

A group of angry and worried parents Monday night pleaded with the board to do more to improve security in the schools.

“We feel we are on an inevitable collision course with disaster,” Jacqueline Trepp, Carrie’s mother, told the board.

The parents urged district officials to move ahead with board member Jerry Shultz’s proposal to create a campus police department, a plan that most board members and top Long Beach Unified School District administrators oppose. A task force is reviewing the proposal and is expected to return with a report by January.

Deputy Police Chief David Dusenbury also told the board that Chief Lawrence Binkley would prefer that the district maintain its staff of security guards and not convert their positions to police officers.

“Our department wants to remain the primary police department for the schools,” Dusenbury said. In response to complaints that police are often slow to respond to calls from the schools, Dusenbury said: “We regret that in some cases we have not been as responsive as you would have liked or we would like. We’re working on that problem.”