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Program Seeks to Keep Youths Out of Gangs

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Times Staff Writer

Maclay Junior High School in Pacoima and several area grade schools are participating in a $2.5-million program to keep high-risk children from joining gangs.

The San Fernando Valley’s participation in the countywide program was announced Wednesday by Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, Los Angeles school board President Roberta Weintraub and county probation officials.

Earlier this month, county probation officers began counseling Valley youngsters ages 10 to 15 who have shown the first signs of flirting with gang life. Children who are truant, wear gang colors or hang out with gang members are candidates for the program.

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Averting Membership

“The key is putting the break on gang membership,” Antonovich said. “Once they go into the gangs, after a couple of years they are lost.”

Weintraub said she is delighted with the attempt to break the cycle of gang membership.

“I’m very much in favor of probation officers coming on campus and working with children,” said Weintraub, who represents the East Valley on the board. “Someone who is listening and talking to the students should be effective.”

The gang-prevention effort is actually an old idea that was scrapped by the county eight years ago after Proposition 13 cut its budget. The results were apparent immediately, said Barry J. Nidorf, the county’s chief probation officer.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that in 1981 gangs exploded and the age of participants dropped,” Nidorf said.

Since 1981, probation officers have been forced to wait until a youngster gets in trouble before they can intercede.

By summer, when the program is fully staffed, 32 probation officers will be working in targeted schools in the Valley, as well as the San Gabriel Valley, Long Beach, East Los Angeles and the Firestone area. The program was begun last year in the county’s other four supervisorial districts.

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Unidentified Schools

The Valley grade schools involved feed into Maclay, but neither county nor school officials could name them Wednesday.

Antonovich said he would like to see the program spread eventually to all public schools in the Valley.

Probation officers will check to see that their charges go to school, are involved in after-school activities and do not violate curfew.

Keeping children in school is important because experience has shown that students who maintain “A” or “B” averages or have other interests often do not join gangs, said Richard N. Shumsky, president of the Deputy Probation Officers Union. Conversely, dropouts are easy gang targets, he said.

“You don’t have to read well. You don’t have to write well. You can put on colors and be accepted,” Shumsky said.

Probation officers will need some savvy to keep students off the streets. One Valley participant, for instance, was given a beat-up saxophone from his grandmother, but could not afford lessons. A probation officer is trying to find free lessons for him.

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“If he learns the sax, he still might be a gang-banger, but if you give them a chance, a high number will not go into gangs,” Shumsky said.

Los Angeles Police Detective Cliff Ruff, who is in charge of the city’s gang task force in the Valley, said he welcomes additional help in curbing new gang membership. He said it is critical that the program get parents involved to stop potential gang members, whom he calls “wannabes,” from joining.

“I think that the key to the intervention lies in the parent,” Ruff said. “The parent really controls where the child will be, who he is hanging around with.”

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