LAPD Lauds Once-Troubled Teens

They cheered for Oscar Medina, 16, a Reseda High School junior who turned his life around after committing several burglaries that nearly led to prison.

And for Roseanna Luna, 15, who is just discovering she and her mother share much in common, now that the two stopped the vicious fights that regularly brought police to their Canoga Park home.

And for 21-year-old Alex Villasenor, who often loitered in the neighborhood park frequented by gang members but now supervises a youth program aimed at keeping kids occupied.

During an all-day rally held at Lanark Park on Saturday, more than 150 Los Angeles police officers and community volunteers lauded the success of local teens and young adults who participated in their youth outreach programs this year.

The “Teens Against Gangs” rally was sponsored by the Los Angeles Police Department and the city Department of Recreation and Parks.

In its second year, it is an effort to pull even more kids into the scores of sports, tutoring, and counseling programs offered in the San Fernando Valley. At the rally there were booths representing about 20 Valley youth programs.

“These kids are going to be a force in our community,” said LAPD Chief Bernard Parks, one of a handful of city officials at the event. “They are peer leaders in the fight against gangs.”

While musicians played nearby on a makeshift stage, some of the teens at the event were awarded plaques for such accomplishments as keeping their grades up or staying out of trouble for a year.

Others joined sports programs that required them to sign contracts promising they would not join a gang and would stay away from drugs, obey their parents and maintain at least a 2.0 average in school.

Should they break that contract, “We’ll call their parents,” said Villasenor, a coordinator for a Valley-wide organization called KYDS (Keeping Youth Doing Something.)

Roseanna Luna, who participates in the LAPD Jeopardy program, said she can do without such phone calls. In trouble often in the past for ditching school, the high school sophomore who is now pulling Bs and Cs said things are starting to go well with her mother, Cynthia Valenzuela.

Crediting Jeopardy for helping her manage anger previously directed at her mom, she said: “I got tired of getting grounded.”