VALLEY ROUNDUP : San Fernando : Officer to Counsel Students Full Time
The city of San Fernando has received a federal grant to hire a police officer to counsel troubled youth at schools full time.
The $125,000 grant will help pay the new officer’s salary for three years, said Tom Waldman, a spokesman for Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Mission Hills). The funds are being provided by the U.S. Justice Department’s COPS in Schools program, he said.
According to Chief Dominick Rivetti of the San Fernando Police Department, the grant will pay part of the officer’s salary and benefits, about $70,000 a year. The city will pay the rest.
“It’s an excellent way for an officer to be on campus as a positive role model for our young people,” said Rivetti.
The officer, who will probably be bilingual, will be teamed with a county probation officer who has been working at schools in the city since last year, Rivetti said. The officer will give lectures and meet with students in groups or one on one at all the city’s schools--four elementary schools, one middle school and one high school.
“We’ve never been able to dedicate an officer to strictly deal with individual juveniles,” Rivetti said. “It’s filling a void that is needed in our community with the primary goals of reducing violence and breaking the cycle of gang involvement.”
An experienced San Fernando police officer will be hired to visit the schools, Rivetti said, and another officer will be hired to fill that vacancy.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
