SAN CLEMENTE : Gang Intervention at Campus Proposed

A landmark gang intervention program involving vocational educators and county mental health counselors may soon make its way to the campus of San Clemente High School.

In a unanimous vote Monday, the Capistrano Unified School District Board of Trustees approved the gang intervention counseling and career center, which also involves the efforts of the County Health Care Agency and the Capistrano-Laguna Beach Regional Occupational Program.

“Gangs are clearly of concern throughout many communities in our nation,” Thomas Anthony, director of secondary schools, said in a report to the board. “We have a choice as a school district to become actively involved in working with the community resources to combat gangs.”

The cooperative program, which still requires approval from the County Board of Supervisors, would bring together various school and community gang prevention resources into one center to provide counseling and expanded job training programs for students who are involved in gangs or at risk of becoming involved. The center, the first of its type in the county, would also serve the parents and siblings of gang members.

“I view the school district as the umbrella organization in combatting the gangs,” board President Crystal Kochendorfer said.

As proposed, a committee made up of educators, mental health counselors, social workers and probation officers will refer students, primarily from San Clemente High School, into the program.

A key to the program will be giving students positive alternatives to gang involvement, officials said.

Anthony said he expects to open the center in April or May, and he expects to serve about 15 to 20 students from the high school at first. Eventually, Anthony said, he would like to see similar centers at all district high schools.

Meanwhile, district officials assured board members that they will avoid bringing rival gang members from surrounding district schools or numerous non-students into the campus center.

The center would also be built at a minimal cost to the school district, officials said. The ROP program would pay for the portable classrooms and vocational educators needed for the center, while the Health Care Agency would provide the counselors and other personnel.

The school district will offer the land rent free and pay for custodial and maintenance services.

This is not the first time the district has formed social service partnerships with the county. In September, the Health Care Agency opened a mental health clinic at R.H. Dana Elementary School in Dana Point, the third such school-based clinic in the district and the sixth in the county.