Making Gangs the Bad Guys : Pride Club: Project started in territory infiltrated by Santa Ana gangs gives fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders another way to go.

“On my honor, I will pledge to help the city of Santa Ana fight the gang problem by not becoming a gang member myself. . . . I pledge to do my best and to help others remain gang free.”

These are serious words for fourth-graders, but they may help keep some children out of gangs.

The pledge is for the Pride Club, a city parks and recreation program designed to win the hearts and minds of fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders before the gangs do. The stakes are high in Santa Ana, which has an estimated 7,000 active gang members, highest in the county.

“I’ll never join a gang because it will ruin my life,” said Corina Torrez, a 10-year-old club member.

Today, Santa Ana’s 2-year-old Pride program will receive the 1989 California Parks and Recreation Society’s award of excellence.

Pride--which stands for Parks and Recreation Inspire Dignity and Esteem--is an eight-week course as well as an after-school club. The greatest challenge is to break through a child’s acceptance of gangs, program coordinator Jenny Rios said.

“The kids can be very cynical and sarcastic about a program like Pride if they think gangs aren’t that bad,” Rios added.

For many children, gangs are part of their neighborhood, part of their family. Some of the children have brothers, uncles, even fathers who are in gangs, Erendira Moreno, a Pride instructor, explained.

The younger ones do not know whether gang members are heroes or criminals, those close to the problem say. The older ones know the initiations, the slogans, the hand signals, the colors.

Pride tries to show the children that gangs are not just about colors and slogans, Moreno said. Pride shows that gangs kill people too.

Many of the students say they do not want to join gangs for fear that they would be beaten or killed.

Luis Morfin, 9, lives in the Lopers gang territory in the east side of the city. Some friends have asked him to join.

“No way,” Luis said. “They beat people up.”

The Santa Ana City Council approved Pride as a pilot project after the number of gang-related crimes tripled from 123 in 1976 to 393 in 1987. The program was launched in six schools with chronic gang problems and is now at 10 schools.

Originally, the eight-week course was offered to fifth graders but was channeled to fourth graders when school officials noticed that the younger children were already knowledgeable about gangs.

Children who live in gang neighborhoods have to know there are choices other than gangs, said Tony Borbon, director of Turning Point Gang Prevention and Intervention, an outreach program in Garden Grove.

“If programs like Pride don’t start in elementary schools, these kids can easily turn to gangs by junior high and they will be gone,” Borbon said.

Gangs are commonplace in the Glenn Martin Elementary School neighborhood. Lopers hang out west of the neighborhood; F-Troop is on the east; the Crips on the north, and the south side is carved up among all three.

But the Martin school has about 50 Pride members. They faithfully attend club meetings. They have after-school activities and are taught self-esteem skills. Fourth-grader Carlos, whose last name has been withheld, joined the Martin school Pride club recently. He recited the pledge proudly and has received a membership card.

Sometimes, the gangs look “cool” to him, he says. But he knows that many of his neighbors live in constant fear of gang members. He’s frank about why he won’t join a gang.

“They scare me,” Carlos said.