Youths Put Gang Signals Aside for $4.25 an Hour : Training: Thirteen teen-agers, many with felony convictions, are cleaning beaches and canyons under a new education program.

For the past six weeks, a group of mostly teen-age gang members have stopped fighting and flashing gang signals long enough to clear hiking trails, paint buildings and pick up litter.

The 13 teen-agers, many of whom have felony convictions, have been paid $4.25 an hour to work in Point Mugu State Park under a new program run by the office of the Ventura County superintendent of schools.

Wearing uniforms of blue pants and khaki-colored shirts in place of the usual homeboy outfits of baggy slacks and T-shirts, the boys have worked from 7:15 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. four days a week on the beaches and in the canyons along the Pacific Coast Highway.

They spent Fridays in workshops on such topics as self-esteem and on field trips, including a visit to a state prison where convicts warned the boys to change their ways.

The federally funded program, called Future Leadership Youth Training, is intended to give the boys work experience for their resumes, build self-confidence and show them positive alternatives to gang activity.

Both the administrators and the boys who participated said the program, which ends this week, has been a success.

But it hasn’t been easy.

Sixteen teen-agers began the program, but the work crew shrunk when one teen-ager was kicked out for refusing to work and two were ousted for fighting.

The youths also knew that they would be kicked out of the program if they violated probation during their off-hours.

The fighting was prohibited by a contract the boys signed at the beginning of the program, a precaution taken because many of the teen-agers, all from Oxnard and Port Hueneme, belong to rival gangs.

“The first day, they wouldn’t look at each other,” said Mark Pearson, the program’s director.

Tensions eased as the boys became used to working together.

But tempers still flared when the temperatures rose, the boys said. One day, they walked five miles in 95-degree heat carrying hoes and other equipment to clear trails in the canyons above Pacific Coast Highway.

“Everybody was getting mad,” said Eduardo, 16, who is on probation for possessing a stolen gun. “But everybody holds each other back.” Eduardo’s name and those of the other boys cited here have been changed because they are juveniles.

Just knowing they have a job to report to the next morning makes it easier to stay out of trouble, said Marcos, a lanky 17-year-old.

“It keeps me busy,” he said. “Ever since I was little, I liked working.”

Marcos, who has spent time in the county’s juvenile home for assaulting a rival gang member, is the hardest worker in the group, said Mark Varela, a deputy probation officer who helped run the program. Program participants were recommended by their probation officers.

Marcos said his father was also in a gang and has been in and out of prison. But Marcos said he wants a different future for himself.

He and the other boys, however, said they are worried that they will drift back into criminal activity after the program ends Friday.

“It’s the neighborhood that we live in,” said Antonio, 17, referring to La Colonia, where most of the boys are from. “There’s a lot of drugs.”

And gang members from other neighborhoods always want to fight, he said. “You have to watch your backs.”

Program administrators are seeking grant money to keep the youths working part-time during the school year as mentors to other children in their schools and neighborhoods.