Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Children’s Safe House Program Called a Success : Law enforcement: About 500 people have designated their homes as havens for youths if they feel in danger.

The only Safe House program operated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has been so successful in its first year that other stations are looking to implement it, authorities said Thursday.

About 500 residents have placed green triangles provided by the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station on their door, signifying the house is a safe place for children to go if they feel in danger or need other emergency help, said Karin Nelson, a station volunteer.

Only a few of those residents have reported incidents where children came to their houses for help since the program began last May, Nelson said. But she said a recent student essay contest about the program indicates that the safe houses are more broadly used.

“We didn’t think it was used very often because parents didn’t turn in their reports,” she said. “But we were constantly getting letters [with the essays] about times it was being used.”

The program is used nationwide, but the Santa Clarita station is the only sheriff’s station with an active program, said Deputy Tom Drake.

Officials there celebrated the first anniversary of the program Thursday by giving new mountain bikes to three students who entered the contest.

One of the essays, by Angela DePietro, 9, a fourth-grader at Canyon Springs Elementary School whose mother is a Safe House participant, focused on an incident that occurred last November.

“One night, my friend Shauna had been at a friend’s house playing till after dark,” Angela wrote. “She was walking home and someone started following her so she came to my house, my mom went outside and looked around, but she didn’t see anybody, but we didn’t want to take a chance so my mom took Shauna home in our car.”

The other first-place winners among the 400 students who entered were Elizabeth White, 8, a second-grader at Newhall Elementary School, and Eric Peterson, 7, a first-grader at Skyblue Mesa Elementary School.

Nelson said she looked for students who could provide accurate details about the program in determining the winners, but some students winning lesser prizes also gave dramatic accounts.

“A man approached a girl playing after school and tried to molest her,” Nelson said of an unnamed girl who received a second-place prize. “She said in her essay she wished we had the Safe House program then because she could have run to it.”