Venice High is reinforcing an existing rule about students not being allowed to bring their skateboards to class.
Students are supposed to keep their skateboards in their locker or at the dean’s office during school hours. That prevents students from skating around campus during the day.

Assistant Principal Rene Maza said that this rule about skateboards always existed, but the problem was that the teachers weren’t enforcing it.

“The whole purpose to make students put them away was because they don’t need it during school hours,” said Mr. Maza. “We understand that they need it for transportation, but there’s no need to carry them around and when they do carry it around, it leads to the temptation to use it and can also sometimes lead to theft.”

He mentioned that teachers noticed that after the reinforcement of the rule, fewer kids are walking around with skateboards and riding them. He added that skateboarders seem to be confusing the enforcing of the rule or even having a rule as being anti-skateboarding.

“The skateboarders need to know that we are not against skateboarding; we understand that it’s transportation and that it’s fun, but we are more concerned with students’ safety.” said Mr. Maza.
The school is planning to set up skateboard racks and the students can buy the locks and keep their skateboards there.
Many teachers are supporting the current enforcement of the rule.

“When Mr. Maza told us to pay attention to this issue, I announced it in all my classes and since then no one had brought skateboards to class,” said English teacher Jennifer Lisowski. “I like this rule because for me it’s one less thing to trip over.”

Music teacher Wendy Sarnoff had a strong opinion regarding this rule. She said that school is a place where you receive education and that skateboards don’t belong here. She also said that skateboarders have destroyed more than one extremely expensive instrument borrowed from UCLA and hurt other students as they carelessly ride around campus.
“I skateboard but I don’t find or see the need to skateboard on campus,” said Ms. Sarnoff. “If you hit someone while skateboarding, it’s considered a physical assault.

She said that if students get injured, the school gets blamed and it might lead to a lawsuit, which requires a lot of money that should be spent on education. She emphasized that the rule is very clear and shouldn’t be hard to follow.
Students have different opinions regarding this issue.

“Students should be able to follow such a simple rule of not bring skateboards to class,” said senior Nora Benavente, who doesn’t ride a skateboard. “School faculty is not saying that it’s illegal to possess a skateboard; it’s simply for safety purposes.”

“The no-skateboard in class rule seems pretty ridiculous to me on the whole,” said senior Victor Villafana, who is a skateboarder. “Personally I think that we should keep them in our locker but we shouldn’t be punished for carrying it. Yes, the rule is for safety but most who do skate know how to handle themselves. I usually put it in my locker and whenever I am late to school, I don’t use my locker.”