Responding to Hate Crimes With a JOLT of Education

Hoping to curb the number of hate crimes committed by children and teenagers, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office and the Museum of Tolerance are launching a rehabilitative school this month for minor offenders and their parents.

The 18-month pilot program, called Juvenile Offenders Learning Tolerance, or JOLT, will be limited to the Antelope Valley and is being funded by a $450,000 U.S. Justice Department grant. The project, believed to be the first of its kind, also features tolerance education aimed at the region’s fourth- through 12th-graders.

Young people who complete the course are spared suspension or expulsion from school and avoid further punishment in the juvenile court system.

“I want us to focus on kids. They are the ones who commit the most hate crimes,” Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti said. He unveiled the program Thursday at a news conference with Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean at the museum, which is the educational arm of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Hatred is learned, Cooper said, and the message of hate is being spread on the World Wide Web on sites created by such groups as the Ku Klux Klan. “Some of those sites are trying to attract kids who are 9 or 10 years old,” he said.

Minors who are first-time offenders and whose hate crimes are considered “low-level”--not involving injury or major damage--will be eligible to apply for the seven-class JOLT program, officials said. The program will be conducted in Lancaster and Palmdale.

The classes will teach children and their parents anger management, conflict resolution and other hate-curbing skills, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Linda Baek, the program’s coordinator. Offenders also must write letters of apology or make restitution to victims when appropriate, she said.

Whether JOLT will be expanded or made permanent will depend on finding more funding, county officials said.

While the 769 hate crimes reported in the county in 1998 was 6% below the previous year, more than half were committed by juveniles, according to the county’s Commission on Human Relations. Victims were targeted because of their race in 436 of the cases, followed by sexual orientation in 226 cases.

The number of racially motivated crimes reported at schools went up almost 50% between 1997 and 1998, the commission found.

“Teachers set the tone, the climate, whether kids will react positively to each other or not,” said AnnMarie Gentry, who teaches freshman English and was among 20 Antelope Valley high school teachers trained by the museum as part of the new program. “Most kids want to do the right thing. . . . We want to show them they can.”