BUENA PARK : Boy’s Anti-Graffiti Message a Winner

Eleven-year-old Kevin Garcia wants to help stop his peers from joining gangs and painting graffiti.

As part of that effort, Kevin created a poster with the slogan “Think It’s Cool, You’re a Fool” that was the winning entry in a recent contest sponsored by the Buena Park Police Department’s gang prevention program, “Positive Avenues for Youth.”

Kevin, who will be a sixth-grader at Gordon H. Beatty Elementary School in September, said the message he wants to get across to his classmates is that graffiti vandalism deteriorates their neighborhoods.

“Writing on walls and houses, it kind of hurts,” he said, adding that “when you join a gang, you’re just a fool to do such a thing.”

About 1,400 Buena Park fifth-grade students who participated in the 10-week anti-gang program during the last school year entered the second annual poster and slogan contest, said Barbara Baiz, gang prevention adviser who teaches the program to students in the Buena Park, Centralia and Savanna school districts.

Baiz said the students submitted posters that exemplified positive, gang-free lifestyles and emphasized good citizenship and alternatives to gangs, such as getting involved in recreational activities--goals of the program.

Entries were judged on the neatness of the artwork and the statement the student made, Baiz said.

“Kevin’s slogan was very appropriate for today’s times because we’ve had such an increase of graffiti vandalism on a countywide basis,” Baiz said. “He certainly is a role model for other youngsters in our community in his zero-tolerance statement and approach to vandalism.”

A series of competitions were held before the selection of a citywide winner, Baiz said. Winners were first selected from each classroom. Then the first-place winners competed, and an overall winner from each of the schools was chosen. Of those winners from the 13 elementary schools, a citywide winner was selected.

The City Council issued a resolution commending Kevin. He also received $100 from the Buena Park Police Assn.

Baiz said that since the anti-gang program promotes family activities, Medieval Times donated complimentary tickets for Kevin and his family.

Kevin’s parents, Greg and Lynda Garcia, said they are proud of their son’s achievements.

“He knows that gangs are not the thing to do, and he has no interest in being in a gang or being connected to a gang,” Greg Garcia said. “We strive for an anti-gang message at home and so does Beatty School.”