ECHO PARK : Youth Sports Plan Gets Mixed Reviews

The scheduled opening of a weekend recreation program at Elysian Heights Elementary School intended for schoolchildren, youths and gang members continues to anger some parents who say it puts their children in danger. But others applaud the move as a way to reduce gang activity.

The debate among parents, residents and a social service agency has preceded the May 6 opening of the recreation program at the school at 1562 Baxter St. Although parents still have concerns, Los Angeles Unified School District board member Victoria Castro, who represents the area, gave it her approval.

The program is open to children 5 through 18, offering them activities such as basketball and handball, as well as workshops in arts and crafts. Although the school is closed Saturdays, the program is intended for its students and other children in the community.

The children would participate in activities with the clients of El Centro Del Pueblo, an agency that provides counseling and intervention services for first-time offenders and gang members. An LAUSD recreation supervisor, an assistant and volunteers organized by El Centro Del Centro will supervise between noon and 6 p.m. The program will run through June.

Castro said the program is already attracting volunteer supervisors and could only benefit the community. She said she was aware of parents’ worries that children participating in a Saturday program at the school may be hit by bullets intended for gang members also on the playground.

“They are legitimate concerns but I don’t think they are enough to say ‘No,’ ” Castro said. “I don’t think that this is going to become a gang hangout. Usually, (younger) kids are respected.”

But some parents contend the school will gain a reputation as a gang hangout, possibly drawing violence. Parent Lupe Mendoza-Fernandez, a member of the school leadership council, said the playground is already used by gang members who gather and drink alcohol on weekends.

“We have a gang problem in the neighborhood and there has been shooting on the weekends,” said Mendoza-Fernandez, whose children are in first and third grades. “If (rival gang members) decide they want to hit one of these guys out there, they are not going to ask people to duck. Our main concern as parents was safety.”

Willie Martinez, El Centro’s youth coordinator and the organizer of the recreation program, said Echo Park residents must do something to help neighborhood youths. The mingling of youths with adult volunteers who provide role models will decrease gang membership, Martinez said.

“This is a vehicle to reach the youth who will some day contemplate getting into a gang,” he said. “This is a chance for them to see that they can coexist in Echo Park without getting into a gang.”

Martinez also said that those who refuse to help or acknowledge young gang members are ignoring the neighborhood’s social problems. “Either we deal with the Echo Park gang or they will deal with us through their negative behavior.”

The idea for the recreation program came from an unlikely mix. After a series of shootings last year involving an Echo Park gang, members of a Neighborhood Watch group asked the gang how to help stem the violence.

Gang members said they needed a safe, legal place for recreation, such as the school playground. The residents approached El Centro Del Pueblo, a 20-year-old agency, which then created the proposal for the recreation program.

“We were concerned that the young people didn’t have anywhere to pass the time,” said Guadalupe Sandoval, a member of the Preston-Ewing Neighborhood Watch and an Elysian Heights Elementary School alumna. “It will take some of the kids off the streets.”

But when the proposal was presented to parents, they rejected the idea, citing safety concerns, said Fernandez-Mendoza. El Centro representatives then approached the school leadership council, which also voted against the program. But after El Centro representatives explained that the program was not exclusively for gang members and the activities would be supervised, the parents gave their approval.

Some residents were offended when program organizers and school district did not seek their opinion.

“I think the people in the community should be seen as having a stake in this,” said Susan Borden, a member of the Echo Park Improvement Assn.