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Westinghouse Tragedy Spotlights O'Connor's Safety Plan

POSTED: 4:22 pm EST February 21, 2006
UPDATED: 5:25 pm EST February 21, 2006

Tuesday morning's tragedy appears to be providing some momentum for Mayor Bob O'Connor's Safety Zone Partnership plan that he announced last week. O'Connor wants a comprehensive plan for creating 1,000-foot safety Zones around all city schools.

"We're asking our police officers to spend more time higher visibility before and after school. All schools. We want to make sure this doesn't happen," said O'Connor.

O'Connor's plan doesn't stop where other plans have in the past. He has the school superintendent on board.

"The mayor spoke about a 1,000- foot radius that we're going to work aggressively on. We're going to be dealing with abandoned cars and abandoned lots and houses. It's a creation of an atmosphere of safety," said School Superintendent Mark Roosevelt.

And O'Connor illustrated that part of his plan today when he noticed something across the street from Westinghouse High School.

It was an abandoned motor home that apparently is a place where drug users hang out.

"That's something we've got to clean up," said O'Connor.

Cleaning up abandoned lots and vehicles will likely get support from every corner of the community. But some of the mayor's ideas will likely be controversial with parents and educators.

"I'm going to throw out suggestions like do we need dogs in our schools to check for drugs and guns," said O'Connor.

Just a few hours after this Tuesday's shooting at Westinghouse High, city council members were already lining up in support of the mayor's Safety Zone Partnership plan.

"The area around the school should be a safe area, the area where children walk in the morning should be a safe area. I know that the Mayor has talked about implementing some new ideas, in particular, using motorcycle cops and I think it's an idea that needs to be implemented," said city councilman Bill Peduto.

O'Connor also told Team 4 that he believes city schools are safe inside the buildings. But Team 4 has some numbers on guns in schools that could tell a different story.

Watch Channel 4 Action News at 6 for more details.

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