Over a week after a parent jumped the chain-link fence surrounding Fresno High School’s campus, staff say they are demanding the district finally install the replacement fence they’ve been seeking for years.

School safety personnel were able to intercept the parent before he went any farther on the morning of May 30, the district confirmed, and no one was injured. But teachers at the high school are saying the incident never should’ve happened in the first place.

“The fact that he was able to jump the fence so easily,” Fresno High teacher and parent Jose Sandoval said in an interview with The Bee’s Education Lab, “is what has us all on edge.”

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Staff are renewing their calls for the district to replace the existing, roughly six-foot-tall fence with one that’s harder to scale. The demands have taken the form of a staff Change.org petition, which garnered almost 250 signatures as of Thursday morning.

“Our current fence,” the petition reads, “does not prevent potentially dangerous people from climbing into our campus.”

“I could be in my class teaching,” said Fresno High teacher Peter Beck, “and suddenly, there’s somebody coming down the hall, looking for somebody.”

District spokesperson AJ Kato said Fresno High’s fence is “being looked at, but an evaluation is still in process.” She said the fence is the same height “as the majority of fences in the district.”

Fresno High-area board member Andy Levine told the Ed Lab in a text message Tuesday that he’s shared the staff’s requests for fence improvements with FUSD’s facilities team.

Last week’s fence-jumping incident is just one of a slew of safety concerns that have put Fresno Unified’s oldest high school at the center of the district’s debate over classroom safety.

The fence-jumping incident

According to Kato, the child of the parent who jumped the fence had been “acting out.”

“Several adults tried to calm him, but he refused and eventually left,” Kato said. “His family was called, and a man, who identified as his stepfather, jumped a fence onto the property, where he was immediately stopped by Principal Linda Laettner along with the SRO (Student Resource Officer).”

In response, the campus police officer then visited the home of the student and his stepfather to warn the latter about “entering campus without proper authorization.”

The officer also kept watch along the fence for the rest of the afternoon and the following morning, Kato said.

The parent’s motivations for jumping the fence are unclear. Kato said the man “claimed he was there to see his stepson.”

In an email to the Ed Lab, Fresno Police Department spokesperson Lt. Bill Dooley said the parent and child had gotten into an argument earlier in the day, and that the father was chasing after his son when he jumped the fence.

No crime was committed, Dooley added.

What changes are Fresno High teachers requesting?

The staff petition asks for a new fence for Fresno High that’s “climb-resistant.”

Sandoval said the fence as it currently stands is easy not just for “angry parents” to scale but for students, too.

In fact, Beck said he witnessed two students jump the fence in an approximately three-minute span during a phone interview with the Ed Lab Wednesday afternoon.

“I’m looking at a student right now that just jumped over the back gate,” he said, “to get back into school. And he got over in probably seven seconds.”

While a replacement fence is needed, Sandoval said he also hopes district leaders conduct individual assessments of the state of security on Fresno High and other campuses.

“This one-size-fits-all approach” has “clearly failed,” he said.

For Beck, who’s been with the district for 25 years, the issue isn’t just about a fence. It’s also about the way Fresno Unified approaches safety conversations in general.

“It just always seems to be that safety is not a priority,” he said, “until something happens. This district is more reactive than proactive at times, and to me, that doesn’t sit well.”

In a similar incident last May at Pyle Elementary, a parent was able to breach campus during the school day. In that instance, the parent made it all the way to a third-grade classroom, where they proceeded to threaten a teacher in front of a room full of students.

The Fresno Teachers Association called for a full investigation into the incident. Over 30 teachers at Pyle later penned a letter to the district, saying they failed to improve safety protocols in the aftermath, while the district defended its decision not to order a lockdown that day.

Other safety concerns have plagued Fresno High in particular this past school year.

Teachers and students spoke out at a Jan. 25 board meeting in the wake of a violent week that included a stabbing just off campus and an on-campus brawl that resulted in three student arrests.

Two months later, students and staff again went before the school board in March to voice their fears after an explosion of a model rocket engine in an infamous stairwell on campus injured a teacher.

The Education Lab is a local journalism initiative that highlights education issues critical to the advancement of the San Joaquin Valley. It is funded by donors. Learn about The Bee’s Education Lab at its website.