Attracted to Police Work

Most high school ninth-graders don’t call their teachers “sir” or “ma’am.”

But then too, most aren’t in a forensics class in which they have to determine if a suspicious white powder confiscated from a simulated drug bust is cocaine.

Dressed in light blue shirts and dark pants, junior police academy cadets at Reseda High School are not your typical freshmen.

Their unique curriculum was a highlight at Friday’s reception and tour of the school’s Police Academy Magnet program. For students who want a career in law enforcement, it is the fifth such magnet program in the city and the second in the San Fernando Valley.

When the Reseda program opened in September, some older high school students picked on some of the cadets, said Robert Ortega, 14.

“They called us ‘wannabe pigs,’ and we ignored it,” he said.

Robert joined the academy because he said he wants to be a SWAT team sharpshooter. “It keeps you out of trouble and teaches you discipline,” he said.

The police magnet program in the Los Angeles Unified School District began in 1996, and the first senior class will graduate in 2000. Private and state grants fund the academies, which cost about $5 million to operate.

About 40 students attend the Reseda junior police academy. Nearly 500 attend other programs at Monroe High in North Hills, Dorsey High in the Crenshaw area, Wilson High in El Sereno and San Pedro High.

Ty Blake-Holden, 15, said he wants to be a lawyer but enrolled in the academy to broaden his career options. “I expected more discipline, more like commando training,” he said Friday. “I’m happy it’s not [like that].”

His father, Warren Holden, 47, of Tarzana, likes the results.

“My son gets up at 5 a.m. on Saturdays to go for 15-mile runs,” he said. “It makes me proud of him. He’s much more disciplined. Even his room is more picked-up. It’s kind of scary.”

The ninth-graders take four classes--physical fitness, computer training, forensic science and English--as part of their magnet studies, along with other required courses. They must also maintain 2.0 grade point averages and do at least 20 hours of community service each school year, said Joel Schaeffer, the Reseda High academy coordinator. Students must also take four years of physical education, rather than the required two, and pass weekly dress inspections.

The freshmen train in a sleek weight room and on a challenging obstacle course. They jump walls and hurdles, walk a balance beam and climb a rope--all preferably in under a minute. They also learn to keep criminal investigation records in their computers.

Their forensics lab will be completed during the next school year, said Roberta Weintraub, executive director of the Los Angeles Police Academy Magnet School and a former LAUSD board president. For now, the students learn forensics in a regular science classroom, where they have kits for analyzing hair, fingerprints, DNA and drugs.

“We got all this stuff from the L.A. County Sheriff’s [Department] and the LAPD,” said forensic science teacher Mike Stone. “This is not high school stuff; it’s geared toward professional crime labs.”

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English teacher Alise Cayen incorporates Sherlock Holmes mystery novels and “Dragnet” audiotapes in the curriculum to help the kids think like detectives.

“It’s a chance to mold them early,” she said.

Yarely Maganda, 14, said the academy may help her chances of becoming a police officer.

“My dream was to join the LAPD. I thought it would never happen,” she said. “It helps me a lot.”

Stone added: “These kids will have a definite head start on anybody competing with them to get in [law enforcement].”

The program especially needs women and bilingual students, Weintraub said. “We’re looking for the good kid, not necessarily the straight-A or gifted student,” she said. “We want someone who wants a career, a direction, and we will provide it.”

LAPD Officer Mark L. Horton, who is assigned to counsel and train the cadets, said he enjoys working closely with young people.

“I get so encouraged by being around them,” Horton said, “to see the potential there.”