Watchful Eyes

Virgie Simon may look like she’s merely watering the front lawn of her home on West 37th Place near USC, but she’s doing much more. She’s kid watching.

In fact, Simon is part of Kid Watch, a new program in which neighborhood residents watch children on their way to and from school in an effort to ease the worries that many young students have about walking to and from campus.

Recent surveys have indicated that for many students, the concern that ominously looms largest about school is not homework or pop quizzes, but simply getting to school and back home without being beaten up, robbed or even shot.

So, enter Kid Watch.

The USC police, the Los Angeles Police Department’s Southwest Division and the Los Angeles Unified School District police devised the program at four elementary schools and one intermediate school in the USC area.

The idea is to have adult residents outside when the children walk to and from school. Maybe outside watering their lawn, washing their car or perhaps just sitting on the porch reading the paper. But, whatever they are doing, they keep an eye on the kids. The hope is that merely knowing that adults are watching after them will comfort the children.

“We’re just going back to small-town values in a big city,” said Bob Taylor, deputy chief of UCS’s Department of Public Safety.

The plan, which grew out of USC surveys and conversations with area principals who shared the student’s fears, will target the so-called Family of Five Schools: 32nd St./USC Magnet Center, Foshay Learning Center, Norwood Street School, Vermont Avenue School and Weemes Elementary School.

If trouble should arise, the watchers are to call 911. “We are not encouraging them to enter a fray,” said Officer Randy Cochran, the LAPD senior lead officer who has been instrumental in getting the program in gear.

Cochran, a 22-year LAPD veteran, is from New Mexico and exudes the pleasant small-town charm of television’s fictional New Mexico law officer Marshal McCloud. He has been going door-to-door in the neighborhood, handing out fliers and explaining the program to residents. So far, 35 people have signed up.

Cochran said the concept is an offshoot of the short-lived Safe House program in Van Nuys which, unlike Kid Watch, encouraged children to enter people’s houses, raising concerns about potential legal problems. Kid Watch participants are carefully screened for criminal records. Even misdemeanor arrests disqualifies applicants.

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Another important person in the program is Los Angeles Unified School District Police Officer Nancy Ramirez, who goes to the schools and explains Kid Watch to parents and teachers.

Although the 35 residents are watching the kids now, the goal is to get 200 by July 15 when the plan is expected to be officially unveiled to students. They will be told that the homes of residents looking out for them will display a bright yellow 9-inch-by-6-inch decal that depicts a home with hands wrapped around it.

When students at Foshay walk to school, they will pass by the guardian eyes of Simon, who has lived on West 37th Place for more than 30 years. As the children walk by, Simon is outside watering her lawn, picking up leaves and saying hello to the kids.

“The gangs know better than to bother them around me,” said Simon, 61. “I think it is a great idea. Actually, I have usually watched the kids, but this plan gives people more incentive to do so.”

Several blocks away, on Walton Avenue near 30th Street, Juanita Judice, 79, watches the kids on her block on their way to Weemes Elementary. “I know there are some problems, but, when there is a grown-up outside, the older boys usually won’t bother the younger ones,” said Judice, who has lived in the neighborhood for 45 years.

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According to 32nd Street Magnet School Principal Susan Allen, few kids are ever attacked, but it just takes a few incidents to create an atmosphere of fear. “The perception of danger is almost as frightening as real danger,” Allen said. “Kids should be worried about doing their homework right, not looking over their shoulders.”

Although students listed their concerns about safety on the surveys, they put on a show of bravado in interviews. Of the dozens of students interviewed, all said they were not afraid to walk to school. One group of 12- and 13-year-old 32nd Street students, including Sergio Rodriquez, Mike Balazzadeh, Brandon Walker, Kelly Arthurs and Daniel Menendez, answered a question exactly the same--”no problem.”

“These kids should feel safe on the way to school and safe to take advantage of the rich resources here,” said Weemes Principal Annette Kissler. “In what other neighborhood can kids walk to museums, the IMAX [theater], USC, the Rose Garden, the 32nd Street movie theaters. Few inner-city communities have these attractions.”

“We’re just asking the residents to do what they should be doing anyway,” Cochran said. “All it takes to start this up is about $1,000 for printing costs. We’ve already done the legal work. I think this could and should go citywide.”