SD Unified to return armored vehicle

The San Diego Unified School District has decided to return a military-grade armored vehicle donated by the Department of Defense that was intended to be used by city schools police for emergencies such as campus shootings.

Superintendent Cindy Marten announced the decision in a statement Thursday night.

“Some members of our community are not comfortable with the district having this vehicle,” Marten said. “If any part of our community is not comfortable with it, we cannot be comfortable with it.”

The decision to return the vehicle, valued at more than $700,000, was praised by school board trustee Scott Barnett, who last week announced his opposition to the idea.

Barnett said Thursday night that Marten made “the right decision for the children and our district.”

“I’m glad we will not have a military armored vehicle as part of our fleet,” he said.

The Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle was obtained through a federal grant. The grant application was approved by Marten and was not required to go before trustees. The district did not have to pay for the vehicle, but spent nearly $5,000 transporting it to San Diego.

Rueben Littlejohn, chief of the district’s School Police Department, said earlier that he thought the vehicle, known as an MRAP, would be an asset to the district in an emergency. But he noted in the district’s statement that public feelings about the perceived militarization of law enforcement have changed following events in Ferguson, Mo., last month. The federal government’s surplus program was used to help outfit law enforcement with military equipment following the fatal shooting by a police officer of unarmed teenager Michael Brown.

“Public sentiment regarding the use of excess military equipment by law enforcement agencies since the civil unrest in Ferguson, Mo., has pointed to the need to be more sensitive to perception,” Littlejohn said. “The value that this defensive tool would bring cannot exceed the value of retaining the public’s trust, confidence and perceptions of how we will protect our students.”

Marten said the issue of student and school safety should be addressed collectively with input from “students, staff, parents, community members, law enforcement and others.”

She said the process to return the vehicle, which was expected to be operational in October, is under way.