LA HABRA : Troubled Students Have Special Classes

Ten La Habra students in grades three through eight are attending special classes through an experimental program to help troubled young people stay in school.

The La Habra City School District started the program in September for students whose behavioral problems were so severe that changing classes, and sometimes even changing school districts, did not help.

“These kids aren’t different from other kids except that they’ve made some bad choices,” said Barry Beckman, teacher of the district’s “Opportunity Classes.”

“They’re still kids with a lot of the same concerns that every other young teen-ager has.”

Three of the 10 students have had problems with the law and are on probation, he said.

“Those students tend to be a little easier to work with because they have to go to school as a condition of probation, and if they violate they go back into detention, and they don’t want that,” Beckman said.

District officials, citing privacy laws, declined to allow students in the program to be interviewed.

Students are required to remain in the program for a minimum of six weeks. They attend either a morning or afternoon class, and must stay home for the balance of each school day. Beckman makes spot telephone calls and home visits to make sure the students stay at home when they are assigned to be there.

The program can handle only 12 students because they tend to misbehave around large groups, Beckman said.

“Because of group dynamics, they can’t handle peer pressure,” he said. “They can’t handle peers in general.”

The goal of the program is to prepare the children for a return to the regular classroom. Of the original 10 students, nine are still in the special classes and one has returned to a regular classroom.

School board President Antonio Valle Jr. is a supporter of the classes.

“It’s an important program, and we’re hopeful that it will be successful and provide help to a group of students who really need help,” Valle said.