Disabled Learn How to Avoid Being Victims

Distinguishing the good guys from the bad is what Fred Baron is trying to teach mentally disabled students, society’s most vulnerable potential victims, he says.

“One of the problems with the mentally challenged is that they want to give everyone a hug,” says Dr. Donna Olmstead, principal at Leichman Special Education Center in Reseda. “They think everyone is their friend. They don’t know the difference.”

Baron, 69, a volunteer teacher’s assistant and a reserve Los Angeles police officer, travels from one special education school within the Los Angeles Unified School District to another, instructing students how to dial 911 in emergencies, what to do when approached by a stranger and how to recognize law enforcement officers.

He hopes to reach more than 3,000 kids in 18 special education schools in the LAUSD and show them that there is somewhere to turn if they get into trouble.

It’s not easy to teach the children--some of whom lack the ability to speak or have multiple handicaps, such as Down’s syndrome and spina bifida--when they should call 911.

Most students in the Leichman program have the mental capabilities of a 5-year-old, says Tim Bayes, an administrative assistant.

“They have to be taught that 911 is not for a banged knee,” Baron said. “Many times, that banged knee is an emergency to them.”

Baron said it is even more difficult for students who can’t speak. He teaches them to call 911 and then put the receiver down.

“Many kids can’t even say ‘Help,’ ” he said, but because 911 operators can see where calls come from, Baron hopes they would send officers to the spot.

“I don’t know how emergency operators would respond to that kind of situation,” said Baron, who added that emergency operators will not hang up on any call while there is still a connection. “But this way the kids have a chance at getting some help where they had none before.”

Baron, a retired businessman, started working with disabled children about a year ago after another officer told him about the students at special education schools.

“They need love, and they need to know that someone is out there looking out for them,” Baron said.

Olmstead said that after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, students at the school were very alarmed and frustrated. The program shows them where to go when they need help.

“When they are in trouble, they’ll run up to a stranger and become hysterical,” Olmstead said. “At least the program can embed in their minds that they can look for somebody in uniform.”

Baron has posters of a telephone keypad, on which he teaches students to push the numbers 911.

To show the students what policemen look like, Baron gets some of his buddies from the Valley’s Traffic Division to show up in uniform, some riding motorcycles or others with small plastic badges to hand out.

“They love the visits,” Olmstead said. “Having fun like that really helps them remember the information they learned that day.”

One of Baron’s students helped a boy who was having a seizure not too long ago. He rushed into the principal’s office yelling “Call 911. Call 911.”

When Olmstead investigated she found the other boy who was having the seizure and did call 911. She made the boy who rushed into her office “the Principal’s Hero” for the day.

“He told me, ‘See, I told you it was an emergency,’ ” Olmstead said.