RESEDA : Disabled Students to Be Honored for Work

Students from Leichman High School, a special school for the disabled in Reseda, will be honored by the Los Angeles City Council on Friday for work they have completed as part of a vocational education pilot program.

Leichman teacher Pat Larson said 39 students between the ages of 16 and 22 will be presented certificates by the council for landscaping and decorating the site of city offices at the corner of Vanowen Street and Vanalden Avenue in Reseda.

Afterward, they will tour City Hall.

The students were recruited for the work by City Councilwoman Laura Chick. Chick field deputy Rayna Gabin said council members now want to thank the students for what they’ve done, laboring two days a week since the start of the school year.

Larson said the landscaping work was organized under the auspices of a new program the school has started to prepare developmentally disabled students for the workplace. The program, which concentrates on horticulture and landscaping, aims to strike a balance between work the students can reasonably expect to do, and work that will actually be marketable.

Besides weeding, planting and decorating, the students are learning traffic and pedestrian safety, and social skills, Larson said.

“What the program tries to do is find jobs that they could truly be paid for,” Larson said. “We are aiming for jobs where there are really openings,” she said.

Getting a certificate for their accomplishments is essential to the students’ work experience, Larson said.

“We want to give them something to do that they will be praised for,” she said. “This award is very important.”

So far, she said, the vocational program’s first year seems to have been a success, and organizers are considering expanding it.