A Blue Ribbon Panel on School Safety is proposing dozens of actions to enhance school safety in and around Los Angeles schools in the wake of school shootings here and around the country.

Among the recommendations outlined in the draft report released this week is that the Los Angeles Unified School District establish the high-level position of school safety director to oversee the district’s safety initiatives.

While various LAUSD departments including the Los Angeles School Police and community partners work individually to ensure school safety, they often “operate in silos” and thus miss opportunities to develop common strategies and lack an integrated approach to start and evaluate them, the panel found.

“The district needs a single, accountable leader to oversee, coordinate and effectively integrate its many important school safety efforts,” the draft report stated.

The Blue Ribbon Panel on School Safety was established by Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer in partnership with LAUSD in the wake of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida that left 17 people dead on Valentine’s Day.

The panel is also proposing the district require all schools to have a single entry point for every campus, a check-in procedure for visitors at a single point of entry, and install interior locks in all district classrooms.

The preliminary Blue Ribbon Panel report is available online for public comment until noon Thursday at www.lacityattorney.org/blueribbon.

The panel is also recommending in the draft report that the district increase the number of psychiatric social workers assigned to schools, reinstate peer counseling programs, and collaborate with others to publicize adults’ duties under the law to safety store their firearms.

One of the most controversial recommendations is that LAUSD should suspend its random handheld metal detector search policy while the district undertakes a comprehensive, large-scale audit of the policy.

This was recommended “given the intense debate over this issue and lack of comprehensive evidence of this policy’s effectiveness,” the report stated.

The audit would assess, in part:

the policy’s effectiveness in recovering weapons compared to other methods of recovering weapons

the policy’s deterrent effect as measured through anonymous surveys

the true randomness of the policy as it is implemented

and the policy’s effect on student trust

LAUSD Board Vice President Nick Melvoin said he wrote the “Safe Schools” resolution – which called in part on the District to form a collaborative task force to review and strengthen best practices – to bring district officials, the city and communities together. The goal, he said in a statement, was to come up with and put in place solutions “for the serious safety concerns our kids face – especially in an era of attempts to decrease gun control at the federal level.”

“In the state of California, which ranks near the bottom nationally in public school funding, this collaboration must extend to Sacramento,” Melvoin added. “The state needs to start investing in our schools so we can invest in our students’ safety, by hiring more counselors, increasing mental health resources, and making any necessary security upgrades.”

Los Angeles School Police Chief Steven Zipperman said in a written statement the panel’s recommendations will “help guide the district” as it refines its policies and develops new strategies to protect its schools from violence.

“The District has been making continuous improvement, including the creation of Mental Health Evaluation Teams at each Local District to provide immediate support to students in crisis,” Zipperman said, adding the district remains committed to working with stakeholders, city prosecutors and other community partners.

Los Angeles schools have not been immune to violence and security threats in recent months. In February, two students were shot and injured at Salvador Castro Middle School in the Westlake District after a girl brought a gun to campus and it inadvertently went off in her backpack.

In April, an 8-year-old boy brought a secured gun to a charter school site in Pacoima and threatened “to blast (a) student if the student snitched on him,” according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office.

Feuer is slated to issue the panel’s final report on Monday.