After-School Clubs Popular at Parkman

More than 200 Parkman Middle School students gathered inside a school auditorium Tuesday afternoon to watched Parkman’s after-school creative writing club stage a student-scripted play that would make Quentin Tarantino cringe.

The play was part of Parkman’s DARE+PLUS culmination ceremony, a display of activities performed by after-school clubs affiliated with DARE AMERICA’s still new DARE+PLUS program.

DARE+PLUS, which stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education plus Play and Learn Under Supervision, is designed to provide middle school students alternatives to “hanging out” on city streets, where they may be tempted by gangs and drugs.

Initiated in Los Angeles County by DARE AMERICA two years ago, the program came to Parkman in January.

In Tuesday’s play, a well-endowed character named Ruby lures a police investigator to a local lounge in time for him to witness her gun down her belly-dancing aunt.

After the troupe’s performance, sixth-grader Jennifer Younany, who played the aunt, lamented her performance. “That (was) so bad,” she winced.

But before she could critique herself further, Jennifer was asked to convey her views on the O.J. Simpson trial as a member of the DARE+PLUS young lawyers’ club.

Summing up why she thinks a person should be considered innocent until proven guilty, she said: “We need to have the legal system, because we can’t let society run amok.”

Though the program has only been at the Woodland Hills school for a few months, about 350 Parkman students belong to at least one of the 24 DARE+PLUS after-school clubs that meet on campus once a week.

Coordinated by community volunteers, the clubs range from flag football to city planning to gardening. Former professional football star turned minister Roosevelt (Rosey) Grier is the volunteer coach for the football team.

Many students, like Jennifer, belong to more than one club. “I go to a club Monday through Thursday,” she said. “It gives me something to do.”

Glenn Lavant, executive director of DARE AMERICA Worldwide, said “something to do” after school is what many Los Angeles area pre-adolescents want, but that has been sorely missing for years.

Citing the fact that about 40% of Parkman’s student body is bused into Woodland Hills from areas such as Watts and South-Central Los Angeles, Lavant noted that many students do not have time for after-school activities in their own neighborhoods until late at night.

“They wake up at 5 a.m. and do not get home until after dark,” Lavant said.

“Kids at this age are susceptible to a lot of negative influences,” he said. “We’re trying to provide them with some positive alternatives.”