Verdugo Views: Recalling Young’s time at Toll
School resource officer Rick Young was a welcome presence on Toll Middle School’s campus during the 1980s.
Young was on campus frequently in his position as a liaison between the Glendale Unified School District and the Glendale Police Department.
His assignment brought him into direct contact with students, including those who were involved with drugs and other crimes, he told me in an article I wrote for the Glendale News-Press June 27, 1989.
“The good part is I’m not there to punish them, but to try to change the direction they are headed in whatever way I can,” he said.
During his time on campus, Young also led a program to train volunteers for a Student Emergency Preparedness Team. Inspired by Eddie Harruff (a student who volunteered to help when the 5.9 Whittier Narrows earthquake hit on Oct. 1, 1987), assistant principal Sandra Banner asked for other volunteers to give up their snack breaks and after school time to participate in weekly meetings and learn emergency skills — such as first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation — from Young.
Some 40 students responded, attending two American Red Cross Metropolitan Survival Course sessions and learning advanced first-aid and CPR skills, Banner told the Daily News on Feb. 22, 1988.
I got to know Young well back in the ‘80s when I was active in Toll PTA. He was very supportive of our projects, always had a smile and a greeting for us and often attended school and PTA functions on his own time. He was the speaker at a PTA sponsored meeting on “What Glendale Teenagers are Facing Today” in 1984.
Recently, I caught up with Young through his sister, Liz Young Lewis. In a series of emails, he brought me up to date on his career since leaving Toll at the end of the 1989 school year, in accordance with police department policy limiting resource officers to a six-year stint.
Young returned to uniformed services and then went on to develop the Glendale gang investigation unit with Sgt. Don Meredith. In 1991, Young was promoted to sergeant, working in patrol and youth services. He was also assistant to the chief with public information officer duties.
After serving as public information officer for six years and as an internal affairs investigator for a year, he was promoted to lieutenant in 2001. He was the night shift watch commander until retiring from the police department in 2003.
After retiring, he and his wife, Debbie, moved up to Cedar Falls in the San Bernardino Mountains, where he managed Camp Cedar Falls for three years.
The family moved to Denver, Colo., in 2006 to help Debbie’s aging parents. There, he continued in law enforcement as a campus safety supervisor while obtaining a master’s degree in education from Regis University.
When he was offered a position at Union College in 2011, he and his family moved to Lincoln, Neb. He is now chair of the emergency management and exercise science division.
He is also director of the local International Rescue and Relief program, which includes a summer session in Colorado dedicated to survival and rescue training.
This summer, he gave a one-day presentation to a group of teachers and told them about the Student Emergency Preparedness program he assisted with at Toll in the ‘80s.
“I guess my years at Toll prepared me for my current career,” he said.
Readers Write:
Steve Preston emailed regarding the West Coast Civil War Conference, co-sponsored by the Pasadena and Orange County Civil War Roundtables and co-chaired by his wife, Janet Whaley.
“Janet is having a great time helping plan and organize what promises to be a wonderful event,” he wrote.
Hear 11 noted authors and historians speak about the American Civil War theme of “War and Remembrance” at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Costa Mesa Oct. 28-30.
For more information, call (626) 345-9796.
;;
Carol Reinhard emailed: “Thank you for writing such great articles on the history of Glendale. I grew up in this city and I remember so many of the events, and people you write about.”
Reinhard recalled saving newspapers for a war drive. Youngsters neatly bundled the papers, tied them with twine and brought them to the Alex Theatre for a special day with kids’ movies and cartoons.
“Our ticket was to bring a certain amount of our newspapers. You can imagine there were so many stacks of papers,” she wrote.
“Each child was given a raffle ticket to hopefully win a bicycle. My mother drove in front of the Alex to pick us up. She was so amazed to see all the kids around my brother and his new bike,” she added.
“I also remember there was no bubble gum, I think because of sugar rationing. Thanks again for all the great memories.”
--
KATHERINE YAMADA can be reached at katherineyamada@gmail.com or by mail at Verdugo Views, c/o News-Press, 202 W. First St., Los Angeles, CA 90012. Please include your name, address and phone number.
