Dropping the Game of Tag : Course Teaches Pupils to Steer Away From Painting Buses

Thirteen weeks is how long it takes to teach a roomful of schoolchildren how to multiply numbers. Or how to do long division or write a complete sentence or learn the history of indigenous people who inhabited this area hundreds of years ago.

And 13 weeks is the length of time it takes to teach youngsters that it’s wrong to paint graffiti on Los Angeles buses.

Nearly 240 third- and fourth-graders at Ford Boulevard Elementary School on the Eastside received diplomas, T-shirts, baseball caps, prizes, punch and cookies for completing a don’t-paint-on-buses course Thursday.

The unusual course was taught by Metropolitan Transportation Authority police, who say that marking-pen and spray-paint vandalism has become too serious a problem to be glossed over. The MTA spends $13 million a year scrubbing scrawls off the

sides and seats of buses. Officials say another $7 million is spent on anti-graffiti education and prevention.

So officers decided to leave nothing to chance when they unveiled their curriculum in March.

Stunts such as a “talking” miniature robot bus were used to catch children’s attention. Bus drivers, maintenance men and reformed bus vandals were brought in to discuss the graffiti issue.

Youngsters learned the consequences that await those caught committing vandalism. They learned how to tell the difference between real art and “tagger” paintings. They discussed how to handle peer pressure and avoid gangs.

The course was proposed by MTA Officer Belinda Byrd after she arrested a 9-year-old who was spray-painting a bus at Crenshaw Avenue and Venice Boulevard. Byrd wrote the curriculum herself. “I feel if you wait until the fifth or sixth grade you’ve lost them,” she said.

About 100 parents watched the children sing, dance

and recite poems during Thursday’s ceremony. “It’s really ugly, not a pretty sight to see. So let’s clean this place up so it’s better for you and me,” said Rita Diaz, 9.

“This will help the children learn to respect other people’s property,” said Lupe Fernandez of Pico Rivera, who took time off from work as a juvenile probation officer to watch her 8-year-old daughter, Magali, receive her certificate. “They should learn that you can end up in juvenile hall if you don’t.”

MTA officials said they hope to eventually expand the program to hundreds of campuses. School officials said that’s fine with them.

Evangelina Stockwell, a regional superintendent for the Los Angeles Unified School District, said $20 million could put computers in nearly 10,000 elementary classrooms--or pay the salaries of 400 or so additional teachers if it wasn’t being spent on bus graffiti removal and prevention.

“These MTA officers have taught a very valuable lesson,” Stockwell told the youngsters.

“You have baby brothers and sisters at home. Now you’re going to be the teachers.”