After Texas shooting, grandpa offers security fence to a California school. Officials say no

Florida resident Medford Bragg was stunned the first time he drove past his grandson’s school in the Central Coast beach community of Morro Bay.

There was no fence around Del Mar Elementary, making it easy for anyone to walk onto campus.

A mass school shooting had just occurred in Uvalde, Texas, and Bragg was convinced the lack of a fence at Del Mar Elementary — together with what he perceived as other security lapses — put his grandson in danger.

Bragg, who describes himself as “just an outsider grandfather,” shared his concerns with the mayor of Morro Bay, the school principal and the school district.

He even reached out to Lowe’s and Home Depot to ask for donations of materials for a 6-foot fence. He figured he could put together a group of volunteers to provide the labor.

“My son-in-law is a contractor. He knows how to do it. I know how to do it. You’re not building an airplane or designing an atomic bomb,” he told The Tribune.

But that’s not the way things are done, at least not here in California.

Bragg’s DIY-style fencing project is in direct conflict with rules and regulations that require careful planning and permitting of all construction at California schools.

“We can’t just put up a fence. Everything, even a temporary fence, must be carefully considered,” said Eric Prater, superintendent of the San Luis Coastal Unified School District.

‘Anyone and anything can enter our campus’

Bragg, a 79-year-old former airline pilot, isn’t alone in worrying about school safety in the San Luis Coastal district, which includes San Luis Obispo, Avila Beach, Edna Valley, Los Osos and Morro Bay.

Families at Pacheco Elementary School in San Luis Obispo have similar concerns about their campus. Following the Uvalde shooting, several wrote to the district, stressing the urgent need to install a perimeter fence around the school.

“For those that are not aware, our campus is open on all sides,” one parent wrote. “Anyone and anything can enter our campus at any time.”

Prater agrees fences are important.

“If you do it correctly, what they effectively do is create a boundary where kids belong and where adult citizens should not go,” he said. “It acknowledges that this is a place you should not cross into unless you have a really good reason.

The district has already installed perimeter fences at some schools. Pacheco and Del Mar, however, are wide open — so much so that the district is looking into installing some temporary barriers.

The ultimate goal, though, is a full security upgrade at every campus in the district.

That includes not only fencing, but also interlocking doors that keep out intruders, additional security cameras and other safety measures such as smoothing out rutted playing fields that pose a trip hazard.

The upgrade will be hugely expensive.

San Luis Coastal Assistant Superintendent Ryan Pinkerton estimates it will cost around $200,000 just for perimeter fencing for an elementary school and more for a middle school.

The district hopes to finance the work with new tax revenue; it’s placing a $349 million school modernization bond measure on the November ballot. If it passes, it will also cover the replacement of portable buildings, addition of new classrooms, technology and energy efficiency upgrades and other improvements.

Bragg says it shouldn’t take a bond measure to build a fence.

“We get a little architect to come in and get the drawings of how we’re going to do it, and we go from there,” he said. “That’s not a bond. That’s called ‘free.’ I can get it put up.”

‘A super well-intentioned guy’

Bragg — the quintessential squeaky wheel — suspects district officials would just as soon wash their hands of him.

“I am an outsider and the people in charge of the school would like for Medford Bragg to go away,” he wrote.

Prater, though, diplomatically described Bragg as “a super well-intentioned guy.”

“I do appreciate anyone who cares enough to say ‘Hey, I want to make our campuses safer,’ ” he said.

While their methods differ, the two men are on the same page when it comes to wanting to make schools as safe as possible for children in an America where gun violence is a full-blown epidemic.

For Prater, who is responsible for 7,500 students, that means asking voters to approve a massive bond to upgrade security at every school — or finding another way to fund the work in the event the measure fails.

For Bragg, it means rolling up his sleeves and building a fence around the school his grandson attends.

“He’s a very good kid,” he said, “and I don’t want to visit his grave.”

Stephanie Finucane

Opinion Contributor,

The Tribune

805-781-7933

Opinion Editor Stephanie Finucane is a native of San Luis Obispo County and a graduate of Cal Poly. Before joining The Tribune, she worked at the Santa Barbara News-Press and the Santa Maria Times.