Lessons in Work and Self-Esteem at the Mall : Education: A storefront classroom is the launching pad to jobs for the mentally handicapped.

Like many American teen-agers, Claudia Canas works at a fast-food outlet in the local mall. But Canas is not a typical teen-ager--she is mentally handicapped.

“I like working here,” said Canas, 17, taking a break from clearing trays and wiping tables at Taco Bell. “I like earning money.”

As if to explain, she showed off her jeans and a pair of heavy black shoes, both brand new. She flashed a broad, pink-lipsticked smile and quickly returned to help her co-workers deal with the lunch rush.

Canas is one of 20 severely mentally handicapped students, age 17 to 22, who learn practical life skills in a special-education class in a store space at the Puente Hills Mall. Nine of those students work in stores in the mall or nearby.

The Community Classroom, operated by the Los Angeles County Office of Education, opened in the City of Industry mall last month.

Four teachers run classes for the students, most from West Covina’s San Jose School, in the ample store space.

The students live at home with their parents and commute to work and school every day. Teachers said that students who are so severely handicapped they cannot work still benefit from the mall classroom because they are stimulated by the movement and activity.

In addition to classes and work at the mall, the students attend classes at San Jose School, which draws special-education students from the Hacienda La Puente and Rowland unified school districts.

Classes in the mall, held in the morning before businesses open, teach students how to perform tasks as seemingly basic as paying for a soda and getting the correct change back. Students learn to tag items, organize displays, clean stores and perform other tasks.

“We teach them how to respond to customers who say ‘Hello, how are you?’ ” said teacher Wanda Jones. “They have to learn it’s not appropriate to start up a conversation at that point.”

Teachers also touch on personal grooming and stage practice job interviews as part of the curriculum. “We want them to blend in, not stand out,” Jones said.

Administrators place students who are ready to work in jobs at several participating restaurants, bookstores and record dealers in the mall. Students work two-hour shifts three or four days each week, and most are paid slightly less than minimum wage through a waiver from the Department of Labor.

Teachers hope that holding classes in the mall will expose the young adults to the working world. Jones said jobs have “increased the students’ self-esteem tremendously.”

In the mall, students have to adjust to dealing with strangers on a day-to-day basis, as well as learn basic skills, such as maneuvering around a maze of stores and using public transportation to get from their homes to work.

“Our goal is to eventually get them permanent employment and teach them to be responsible citizens,” Jones said. “That means making decisions, taking the initiative, but also following directions.”

Students change jobs after six- to nine-month stints so they are exposed to many different workplaces, Jones said, but an employer may also opt to offer a student a permanent position.

“A point of the program is to be an incentive to employers to see what the special-ed students can do,” she said.

Patricia McNally, a career counselor with the county office of education, said employers benefit because the county pays students’ wages during the training period, and the federal and state governments offer tax breaks to companies that hire such employees.

“But they also get very focused, dedicated employees who rarely miss work,” she said. One of the mall’s restaurants has already hired a mentally handicapped woman permanently, and other outside stores have also hired a few of the students.

Ignacio De Luna, an assistant manager at Taco Bell, said the mentally handicapped employees are a boon to the restaurant. Three workers have already gone through their training periods at the store.

“They’ve given us more employees out in the restaurant, which allows us to give better service,” De Luna said. “They keep the trays in the store and keep the chairs and tables clean.”

San Jose School Principal Jeffrey Heller said the idea for putting a classroom in the heart of a work environment started in 1989 when the Puente Hills management invited mentally handicapped youngsters to trick-or-treat at stores on Halloween.

“The kids enjoyed the mall and I thought it would be wonderful to have a classroom here,” Heller said.

When he proposed the idea, mall management was receptive, but parents and the county office of education were hesitant.

“They wondered whether we would lose kids,” Heller said, but parents and the county organization warmed up to the program after seeing what the teen-agers could do under close supervision.

Heller said the county then signed a temporary lease with mall management and pays a “nominal fee” for the 3,500-square-foot space.

Clair Griffith, the general manager of the mall, declined to give the cost of the lease but said it is “not even comparable to what stores pay.”

“It’s just a win-win situation for the (shopping) center and the classroom,” Griffith said. “We can’t give away every space at this center, but we can spare some spaces to fight for causes we believe in.”

The classroom space is important to Sandra Romero, 17, who recently began her first training stint at the mall’s B. Dalton bookstore.

Romero of La Puente stopped organizing the bookstore’s magazine rack long enough to agree that earning a paycheck is exciting. But when asked what her parents thought about her job, she broke into a proud smile and clutched a magazine close to her.

“They like it,” she said.