Foster School Kids Treated to Clippers Game

A group of 85 fifth-graders waited less than patiently on the playground at E.P. Foster School in Ventura on Sunday afternoon, eagerly watching for the arrival of the yellow school buses.

The weekend outing was no ordinary field trip. The children, from one of Ventura County’s poorest areas, were riding with neighborhood police to see their first L.A. Clippers game.

“For some of these kids, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” said Ventura Police Officer John Castellano, watching as the youths jostled each other playfully on the damp asphalt.

Castellano is among 12 officers from the Ventura Police Department who volunteered part of their Sunday to accompany scores of schoolchildren on a trip to see the Clippers play the Milwaukee Bucks at the Los Angeles Sports Arena.

The majority of the 10- and 11-year-olds on the trip seldom venture from the neighborhood and have never been to a professional basketball game, Castellano said. The tickets, which normally sell for $24 each, were donated by the Clippers.

Police in Ventura hope that the trip, and others planned in the future, will help bridge the gap between members of law enforcement and the community.

“Kids in the community only see cops in uniform,” said Castellano, clad in a gray sweatshirt and pants. By serving as role models, officers also hope to steer youths away from the allure of gangs and drugs, which have long troubled the city’s west end.

“The police are doing this because they want to get kids off the streets,” said Robyn Jones, 10, one of the fifth-graders waiting to see the Clippers on Sunday.

Robyn wouldn’t predict the winner of Sunday’s game, but 10-year-old Drew Pacheco, on the other hand, was much more sure about how the game would turn out.

“The Clippers are gonna knock them out. . . . They’re bad,” Drew said.

Drew, who brought a large sign proclaiming “E.P. Foster School--Ventura,” which he planned to hold up during the game, said he couldn’t wait to finally see the players he had been watching so long on TV.

“I’m gonna have a good time,” he said with a grin.