Students Happy to Stop Studying and Meet History

For a week, the students at Pio Pico Elementary had heard about President Clinton, whose life was changed when he himself looked on a President with a child’s eyes.

On Friday, wide-eyed and wearing their Sunday best, the boys and girls from one of Santa Ana’s most troubled neighborhoods filed across Highland Street for their own chance to meet a history-making figure.

“I want to see him in person,” said Reyna Navarro, 9, who tried to beat the oppressive heat at the Boys & Girls Club of Santa Ana with a red, white and blue fan she made just for the occasion. “I always had the dream to see him in person.”

About 3,000 people, most of them students from local schools, crowded the bleachers and a grassy lot behind the clubhouse to witness a rare visit by the most powerful man in the world. There was some debate, however, among the youngsters whether that title belonged to Clinton or the towering Shaquille O’Neal, the basketball superstar who shared the stage with him.

The speeches by politicos and police were about community programs and crime, but the subject mattered little for many of the little ones waving their American flags and squealing with delight.

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High school seniors also eagerly craned their necks to see the celebrities, but afterward they resumed the haughty cynicism of those in their teens.

“We’re going to be the leaders and we’re going to be voting here next year,” said the unimpressed Guadalupe Morales, 17, a senior from Saddleback High School. “He needs to come here.”

Greg Anaya, 18, was shocked that Clinton even knew where Santa Ana was and that he wanted to come. “I was a little surprised when he said he was coming over here, because of all the violence. I thought he’d always be somewhere in the Midwest. . . . I think it’s good. It shows that he cares.”

O’Neal wasn’t held to the same scrutiny. The teens cheered wildly when Shaq tossed T-shirts to the crowd and bent low to slap a few high fives. Sal Aguilar, 15, a junior at Century High School, said he has followed O’Neal’s stellar career since it began.

“He’s great . . . he plays, he shoots hoops, he gets into advertising,” Aguilar said. “Bill Clinton, he’s more the serious type. He just works, works and works.”

Pio Pico Elementary Principal Judith Magsaysay had no such reservations about the chief executive. She said her staff had told students all week about the teen-age Clinton’s 1963 meeting with John F. Kennedy and the impact it made on the future President’s life.

“For one of these children, this could be the same kind of day,” she said. “Today was a lifetime thrill.”

Jessie Torres, who lives a few doors down from the Boys & Girls Club, missed out on the speech, but he did have a front-row seat for the controlled chaos that consumed Highland Street for most of Friday.

Leaning on a chain-link fence in his yard, the painter watched a fleet of police cars, Secret Service agents and even a President whiz past his home. A few years earlier, he said, an observer would likely have seen a different sort of drama playing out on the boulevard.

“Every day there was a dead person and a lot of drug selling,” Torres, 27, said. “But the [January opening of the elementary] school changed all that. Now, there are always cops patrolling the area, and the teachers at the school are putting in a lot of effort.”

Though he was the crowd favorite during the ceremonies, O’Neal graciously tried to divert some attention to Clinton by starting a chant of “Bill! Bill! Bill!” when he left the dais. O’Neal appeared as one of the spokesmen for the national “TEENSupreme” youth program announced by Taco Bell on Friday.

O’Neal, who had to duck through doorways and a Secret Service metal detector, made some of the youngest children step back when he approached them. “He’s so big, I bet he can’t swim,” one little boy whispered to a friend about the 7-foot-1 behemoth.

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A few youngsters were treated briefly for heat-related ailments, but the huge operation otherwise went off without incident. More than 60 Santa Ana police officers were on site, along with dozens of Secret Service agents: “I’d tell you how many, but then I’d have to kill you,” deadpanned Special Agent Bob Bond.

The motorcade that whisked the President past barricaded streets did not cause any traffic snarls, officials said. The route between the Santa Ana speech site and the President’s departure spot, the Tustin Marine Corps Helicopter Air Station, was relatively clear, mainly because the route was kept secret, said officials with the Santa Ana police and California Highway Patrol.

“We had people who called in wanting to know which way the President would be going so they could avoid the area,” said CHP Officer Kari Keul. “We didn’t know, so we couldn’t tell them. There were no traffic jams or complaints.”

A crowd of about 300 people stood at the corner of Highland and Flower streets for more than two hours beneath the hot afternoon sun, hoping to catch a fleeting glimpse of the presidential motorcade.

Some stood on fences, others on top of cars. The group was shunted to different sides of the street over a two-hour span, keeping everyone guessing about which exit route the motorcade would take.

Star Cruz, 13, one of those who waited for a look at the motorcade, said she begged her aunt to take her to see the President.

“I just wanted to see him,” she said. “I’m really excited. He thinks we’re important. I think he’s a really good President, trying to help the poor. When I grow up, if I get a good job, I want to help the poor too.”

Yolanda Sanchez, 39, stood patiently behind the yellow tape police had set up to keep the ever-growing crowd out of the street. The longtime Santa Ana resident said she was envious of those who got to see and hear Clinton.

“I wish I could shake his hand,” she said wistfully. “He reminds me of John Kennedy. Nice, young, and he seems so understanding.”

But others were less enamored by the President and the reasons for his first visit to Santa Ana since taking office in January, 1993.

Gilbert Duran, 44, questioned Clinton’s resolve to step up the battle on street crime. “I think it’s all for show. What? The gangs just reappeared this year? They’ve always been here. These gang shootings go on every day.”

Patricia Escobar, a 24-year-old law student, agreed: “It’s only for the votes,” she said. “I just feel that he’s doing this because it’s almost time for reelection. It’s hype. Politicians don’t do anything from the heart. Everything has a motive.

“The reason I’m here is because I’ve never seen a President.”

Times staff writer Lee Romney contributed to this report.

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Neighborhood Crime

The Boys & Girls Club of Santa Ana, where President Clinton spoke, straddles two police reporting districts bounded by 1st, Flower and Bristol streets and Edinger Avenue. Here are crime statistics for the neighborhood for the first eight months of 1995 and for the same period of 1994. The homicides came despite a reduction in the number of slayings citywide.

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1994 1995 Narcotics-related arrests 70 68 Vehicle thefts 71 60 Grand/petty thefts 50 60 Burglaries 76 51 Assaults 29 36 Robberies 51 20 Homicides 0 5 Rapes 2 1 Weapons possession 6 1

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Source: Santa Ana Police Department