Parents on Campus : Volunteers at Jordan High Help Students Stay Out of Trouble

Kitty Guzman was concerned about the student behavior that she saw at Jordan High School, where her son is a sophomore.

“I saw students French kissing and heard them swearing, and the girls (were) dressing provocatively. I thought: ‘My son is seeing that! I don’t want him seduced on the school grounds.’ ”

When school officials said they had bigger problems to deal with, the North Long Beach resident decided to do something on her own. She rounded up about a dozen other parents and formed a campus group, Parent Ambassadors, to help out.

The parents perform a variety of services at school, such as assisting teachers and running the lost and found office. But they also roam the campus, intervening when students’ profanity becomes excessive, their kissing a bit too intense or their clothes too revealing. The parent volunteers also try to discourage student smoking in restrooms.

Guzman said she spends an average of 40 hours a week as an ambassador, working out of the group’s office--which also serves as the lost and found--in the school auditorium.

“You can spend all day being on clothes patrol,” said Guzman, who helped launch the ambassadors this fall after visiting a similar program at Washington Preparatory High School in Los Angeles. Students who come to school in gang attire or clothing that is too skimpy are escorted to the Parent Ambassadors’ office and encouraged to select from a supply of loaner clothes donated to the parents.

“Some of them come to school half undressed, but then when you try to dress them they refuse to wear it because it’s the wrong color or style,” Guzman said. “It can give you a headache.”

Parent Ambassadors do not have authority to make students put on more clothing, but dress code violations can be reported to school officials.

Guzman’s efforts have impressed parents, students, teachers and administrators. “Her dedication is unsurpassed,” said Brad Franklin, 32, a volunteer ambassador and the father of a ninth-grade student.

Teacher Nicholas Church, who runs the school’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, described the parents’ group as “one of the neatest things we have. Mrs. Guzman helps out at every basketball game, football game, ROTC event. She’s always been there for us.”

Most students also like having the Parent Ambassadors on campus, freshman Terry Millay said. “Everybody seems to like them because they help out,” he said. When parents talk to students who are out of line, “the students know they’re telling them the truth, so it doesn’t really bother them.”

Assistant Principal Gwen Mack said more parents have gotten involved at the school this year because of Guzman’s efforts. “We need the parents’ support,” Mack said. “Mrs. Guzman has spent a lot of hours trying to get parents involved.”

As part of her duties, Guzman calls parents when their child’s behavior violates established school rules. For the most part, she said, parents welcome her calls.

“I called one mother and told her about her daughter passionately kissing her boyfriend. She was grateful to hear from me,” Guzman said. “She didn’t even know her daughter had a boyfriend.”

Only one parent so far has complained, Guzman said. “She swore at me. She said she saw nothing wrong with kissing in public,” Guzman said.

In the future, Guzman hopes that more parents will become involved in their children’s education. “We’ve abdicated our role as informed, involved parents for too long,” she said. “Many parents have no idea what’s going on in the schools today.”

Franklin said he decided to volunteer because he was concerned about the school, which is in a rugged neighborhood in North Long Beach and has a high dropout rate. Jordan had a reputation for fights, drugs and gangs, he said. “But after I got here, what I’m learning isn’t the same as what I heard before. We’re getting a bad rap here.”

Church agreed. “I haven’t seen anything at Jordan that I haven’t seen at other high schools,” he said.

Guzman said she and her husband had considered moving to a different district but decided to remain because moving would have required her to work outside the home. “My main mission has always been my kids, not a big house in a fancy neighborhood,” she said.

Guzman has two adult children in addition to her son in high school. She has volunteered in the schools since her oldest was in kindergarten, she said, and she helps out in the nursery at Grace Brethren Church in Long Beach. Her husband, Arthur, is a sales coordinator for a pest control company.

She dismisses the glowing comments about her dedication. “You always have time for what you really care about,” she said. “I’ve neglected stuff around the house, but in the long run, what I’m doing (at Jordan) will matter more than getting the dishes done.”