Paparazzi 'buffer zone' around preschools is considered

They show up with lunch sacks and stuffed bears, an occasional doll. On Wednesday morning, most simply walked up the sidewalk with their parents in tow to the green, wrought-iron gate.

One arrived in a shiny, black Audi SUV whose driver popped out to open the huge door for his charge. After a moment, a pair of tiny feet clad in hot-pink Crocs sandals dangled out, and another youngster headed into the First Presbyterian Nursery School in Santa Monica.

They are preschoolers. They are not celebrities, and for the most part neither are their parents. But that hasn’t kept them from becoming accidental players in the Hollywood tug-of-war between paparazzi and real celebrities, a handful of whom take their children to the school.

According to school parents, when actress Jennifer Garner and her husband, actor Ben Affleck, are in town and toting 3-year-old Violet to the school, paparazzi swoop down like crows, swarming the small sidewalk, the alley and wall alongside the school yard for a glimpse of the family. Garner — both when she was recently pregnant and then with her new baby, Seraphina — was a favorite target, according to bystanders.

"There was one day when one of the little kids in the youngest room there — one of the paparazzi guys almost trampled him," said Rachel Ronn, the parent of a 4-year-old. " If I hadn’t screamed, ‘Hey, there’s a kid there!’ he might have been run over."

Parents contend that the presence of aggressive, loud celebrity photographers is robbing children of a peaceful walk into school and their parents of parking spaces and a sense of security.

"It’s incredibly invasive," said Marshall Coben, a Malibu businessman who was dropping off his 5-year-old son. "It’s like walking a gauntlet."

Coben recalled an incident a couple of months ago when a few dozen photographers stood near the entrance squabbling among themselves. "I asked them to please be quiet," he said. When a photographer made a "rude gesture" to him, Coben grabbed his own camera and took a photo of the man. "He ran up to me with his camera and put it in my face and hit me with it," Coben said, adding that he filed a police report.

"I understand they have to make a living," Ronn said, "and I understand this is what the public wants — to see these pictures — but I think there should be certain parameters when it comes to kids."

So does Santa Monica City Councilman Richard Bloom, who contends that preschoolers are just a little too vulnerable to be collateral damage in the world of paparazzi.

After visiting the school about six weeks ago and seeing how chaotic the situation was firsthand, Bloom plans to ask the council staff to recommend a proposal to curb the frenzy.

"In my view, the best solution would be to create a buffer zone around nursery schools, certainly,"  Bloom said.

—Carla Hall in Santa Monica

Comments

[Typical]

Typical. Government always finds the time and resources to mobilize to assist a celebrity and the wealthy.

If celebs are gonna have kids, have some good sense and decency and move out of the lion's den - L.A. You know full well what you'll be subjecting your kids to, not just at school.

Garner and Affleck have the money and flexibility to live anywhere, and many more thoughtful celebs have packed up and done just that after having children, instead of draining government resources to service your needs and stop making everyone else's lives miserable..

[Alan]

"I understand this is what the public wants ..." says one parent ... That, perhaps, is the biggest problem ... Maybe it's time "the public" re-examines what's really important these days ... hopefully what's important is NOT a celebrity couple taking their kid to pre-school ...

[Anon]

My son goes to this school and he taught me a game that he plays: he has me hold my hands up to my face like a camera and then he cries "paparazzi!" and runs and I'm supposed to chase him.