By David Lara, Founder Rossmoor Predator Management Team
For the past three weeks the Rossmoor Predator Management Team has campaigned to get pet owners to leash their dogs. The issue is, some pet owners have turned Rossmoor Park, Rush Park and school grounds into unofficial dog parks.
One only needs to visit the schools or parks in the early morning, late evening, or on a weekend, and numerous unleashed dogs harassing residents and leashed pets will be encountered. When told to leash their pet, many residents have replied “he’s friendly; I don’t have to leash him”. “Don’t tell me what to do. Go chase your coyotes.”
Rossmoor’s Parks are a minor issue compared to the dog parks operated by Los Alamitos Unified School District. For years, residents have felt comfortable in allowing their unleashed dogs to run freely, unleashed on school grounds, and to relinquish their excrement on school property.
Maintenance personnel as well as school teachers have complained that they have to clean up the playground in the morning prior to students playing on the grass. When teachers have aired their concerns, the school principal’s response is that it happens before or after school operating hours.
Residents have complained about unleashed and unruly dogs on school property but everyone neglects to address the problem. The Los Alamitos School District could request OC Animal Care to enforce the Leash Law as well as the ordinance to clean up after one’s dog.
RPMT has been told by anonymous sources that the school district does not want to upset dog owners for fear they will not support the next school bond issue. I believe that it is generous of the school district to allow sport teams to use their facilities after school hours but to endanger the health of residents and young children with unofficial dog parks is negligent supervision of school property.
One can only imagine an unleashed dog attacking a person on school property and the lawsuit that follows. The school district can of course plead ignorance of this long time practice of abuse of school property. Unfortunately, residents and children who are victims of unleashed dogs can only complain to deaf ears. With a new superintendent of Los Alamitos Unified School District will children and adults be protected?
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Editor’s note: Previous comments on this article were removed because they had degenerated into name calling.
As a teacher at Rossmoor
Elementary School I find it almost laughable that anyone would expect the school district to take on the additional responsibility of patrolling the playgrounds on the weekends. The responsibility of proper dog behavior is on the dog’s owner, not on the already-burdened school administration. I have taught at Rossmoor for over 25 years and only once has there been a “discovery” on my playground, and our custodian came immediately to clean it up.