SOUTH : Mentor Program Fuels Healthy Debate

The debate over censoring gangsta rap is fast-paced and heated among the sixth-graders at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School.

“Gangsta rappers aren’t here to set an example but to express their feelings,” said Lilia Bowie, 12. “If we want to change our community then we have to do it, not them.”

Her response to a comment from Ingrid Pinentel, who said some rap artists are unaware of the damage their music can do to communities, is quick and passionate.

While student debates are not new at King Elementary, it’s a first for Rod Watson, an agent with the Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. He is part of a mentor program.

Project Outreach, a program sponsored by the Washington-based National Organization of Black Law Enforcement, or NOBLE, pairs African American law enforcement officials with schools to establish role models for youths in areas such as South-Central.

“We talk about gangs and drugs mostly,” Watson said. “I think a lot of the kids don’t have someone they can talk to and they can call us. The kids have my pager number and they call me occasionally.”

Locally, Watson and about 20 officers from federal and local agencies including the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service and the Los Angeles Police Department, have been working weekly with sixth-graders at King since 1990. The school was selected by NOBLE because of concern over inner-city drop-out rates and gang problems. Watson said there is hope of NOBLE adopting another school next year.

This school year, officers helping at King started the debates as a way to get students interested in writing and expressing themselves, said Brenda Grady, a teacher at the school.

“It forces them to express themselves,” said Grady, who had four students from her class take part in the debate. “Among our students, writing is one of the skills they tend to perform lowest. In doing the debates, they had to be organized and write out their points.”

The debates also provided a forum for the students to interact with Watson and his fellow law enforcement officials. “However we can reach a kid, well that’s one less kid we’ll have to put handcuffs on,” Watson said.

For students such as Brandon Gordon, 12, the debates and the program itself help broaden the way they think.

“Usually I just listen to the music and don’t really think about it,” he said. “Now, I have a different point of view and maybe gangsta rap is getting worse and hurting people.”