By Craig Timberg
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 5, 2004; Page A01

Mayor Anthony A. Williams will announce plans tonight to have D.C. police take over security at the city's public high schools, starting with an increased presence at the Southeast Washington school where a student was fatally shot Monday, administration officials said.

The proposal was still in skeletal form yesterday, with no concrete estimates on cost, deployment or the number of officers involved, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

But the changes would go far beyond what is found in other school systems in the Washington area, where metal detectors are rare and school officials -- not police -- oversee security. Police officers from local departments serve as school liaisons throughout the region but don't generally patrol hallways.

The Williams administration was scrambling yesterday to assemble a plan of action in response to the Ballou High School shootings -- which killed 17-year-old James Richardson and wounded a second student -- and to the community outrage that followed. At a six-hour public meeting Tuesday night, the mayor was pilloried as uncaring and ineffective.

Williams, who is scheduled to give his annual State of the District address tonight, said yesterday that the criticism from Ballou parents and students was the most intense and personal he has experienced in five years as mayor. He called it "tormenting" and "two or three notches" beyond what he experienced in an emotional confrontation at Union Temple Baptist Church in February 2001, when opponents attacked him for closing D.C. General Hospital.

His speech tonight, which he postponed so he could attend the Ballou meeting, comes after a bruising two-week period in which he has been accused of being insensitive in his dealings with the family of 14-year-old Jahkema Princess Hansen, who was murdered, being oblivious to dangerous lead in the city's water supply and being inept in controlling crime in city schools.

At the meeting at Ballou, the crowd booed when Williams was announced. But it went wild for former mayor Marion Barry, chanting his name and yelling, "We need you back, Marion."

"You've got to let people vent and express themselves and then try to address things in a positive, constructive way," Williams said yesterday. "I didn't spend a lot of time talking about how, you know, I actually am over here more than you think. . . . It wasn't time for that."

D.C. Council member Sandy Allen (D), whose Ward 8 includes Ballou, stayed for the entire meeting, as did Williams.

"People don't feel that they connect, that the mayor is in tune to their actual needs and desires," Allen said. "He comes across as distant."

Williams said he is developing a plan to address many of the concerns expressed at Ballou. He intends to seek federal homeland security money to better protect schools, and he hopes to use the city's burgeoning charter schools to provide vocational education options to students struggling in traditional high schools, he said.

The mayor also said that his efforts to toughen the city's juvenile justice system and take control of the school system would improve security. He favors making the superintendent a member of his cabinet and stripping the school board of most of its powers.

School board President Peggy Cooper Cafritz opposes the mayor's efforts to take control of the system but said she favors having the police provide security at most high schools and some middle schools as well. "They are experts," she said.

A move to involve the police department more heavily in school security is likely to find support on the D.C. Council, which would vote on any extra spending related to the plan, council members said.

"It's a great idea," said council member Kevin P. Chavous (D-Ward 7), who added that he has long advocated such a change and is proposing legislation to make it happen.

Ballou started the school year with a security staff of fewer than a dozen, but after recent fights and an incident in which students spread mercury in the school, the security force grew to 20, including D.C. police officers and a couple of armed guards, officials said.

Police deployment has long been a sensitive issue in Washington, with many residents complaining that the city's officers spend too much time protecting federal enclaves instead of neighborhoods.

Council member Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3), who as chairman of the judiciary committee oversees the police force, said she would seek assurances from police officials that they would adequately staff school security if given the task.

Patterson also expressed concern about the school system's use of a private company for security. "Some things are inherently government functions, and this may be one of them," she said.

D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey said yesterday that police could improve the security situation in schools if they received extra officers and money. He had no estimate for how many additional resources the schools would demand.

"It's what we do for a living," Ramsey said. "We are police officers. We have sworn powers. Dealing with young people is something that we are not unaccustomed to."

Ramsey said he would also consider adding surveillance cameras to photograph anyone coming into the school through side doors and that he would favor changing the doors to make them harder to access from outside. He said that he was not sure what role there would be for the private guards who now patrol the schools.

The State of the District address is scheduled for 7 tonight at the Lincoln Theatre, 1215 U St. NW.

Staff writers Petula Dvorak, David A. Fahrenthold and Clarence Williams contributed to this report.