A Place for PALs

Hundreds of Ventura County youth are in voluntary police custody and seem to be enjoying every minute of it. After school, these kids, many of whom have working parents and limited after-school options, are showing up at local Police Activity League centers.

Enrollment has begun to climb at county PAL chapters, with kids showing up to do homework, play basketball, join sports teams and meet friends after class.

California has more than 110 PAL chapters, three of which are in Ventura County: Oxnard, Ojai Valley and Ventura. In the east county, police officers interact with youths through Cops ‘n’ Jocks programs, in which police departments adopt high school sports teams.

PAL attempts to get at-risk youths involved in positive activities, such as tutoring, mentoring and athletics, said Deputy Mark Burgess, youth service officer.

Over the summer, 90 youths were registered at the newest league chapter, the Oak View Community Center in the Ojai Valley.

“We are up to about 105 now,” Burgess said, “and we anticipate another 30 for the wrestling team,” which started registering kids Friday. And more are expected to sign up for the basketball team, which will start play in early October, Burgess said.

Many of the PAL programs for youths in Ventura are run at the Westpark Community Center.

“Westpark is a kind of hub for kids to find all kinds of city-run programs as well as PAL programs,” said Amy Crittenden, the center’s recreation coordinator.

Over the summer, Crittenden said, her center attracted about 300 kids a week, mostly 8- to 14-year-olds.

“We are working right now on PAL’s fall schedule and the year 2000 activity calendar,” she said.

Plans for fall and winter, she said, include a Halloween dance and a USC or UCLA football game.

“Kids have the opportunity to do things they never would have had a chance to do,” she said. “If this place wasn’t here, I would hate to think what they would be doing.”

The 5-year-old Oxnard program, which has met at the former high school for about four years, has many regulars who have come since it opened, but there are always new participants, staff members said.

“With school there is a big increase,” said Terrel Harrison, assistant director at Oxnard. “This is a good safe-meeting place.”

Ashley Zomalt came to PAL in Oxnard for the first time this summer hoping to make friends.

“I got involved in some bad things,” admitted the 15-year-old. “I can avoid them by coming here after school. Everyone is nice and here to have a good time.”

Heather Handcock, a staff member at the Oxnard Police Activities League, said the best feature of the league is that its activities are free. She wishes she’d had a similar place to go when she was a teen.

“Even if you don’t have any money in your pockets, the doors are open,” she said.

Kim Wirth Bowman of Oak View signed up her 8-year-old daughter so the third-grader could get homework help at the center. There is a sign at the facility reminding PAL kids that their homework must be finished before they can play.

“When I go back to work it will make it easier for her to get her homework done,” Bowman said. “She won’t be at home in front of the TV.”

Isidro Jauregui, 13, of Ventura said he stopped doing his homework and his grades slipped. Now, Deputy Jon Castellanos, director of the Ventura center, helps him finish his assignments.

“My grades are getting better,” he said. “When I used to have a test I’d get an F. I had [a test] last week and I got a B cause I started doing work here.”

Xavier Duarte of Oxnard said he visited PAL nearly every day over the summer. It kept him out of trouble and he had a lot of fun, he said.

“I come here because everything is here,” the 7-year-old said. “I don’t have much to do at home. When my mom comes she asks me about my day and I can tell here I had a good day, because I did.”

Deputy Vic Boswell, director of the Oxnard chapter, said the center has helped teens who have had run-ins with the law.

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“They get to have this close communication with a police officer other than him being the man with the badge and the gun telling them what to do or what not to do,” he said. “It makes my contacts on the street much easier.”

Castellanos, who helped establish the Ventura league, said it helps to counteract the stereotypes of police as “bad guys” by joining the youngsters on field trips.

“We take them on excursions in shorts and T-shirts and they see us in a totally different light,” he said.

Dayton Robbs, 17, had his first contact with the Oxnard PAL center when he was sentenced to perform community service after getting in trouble over graffiti when he was 14. Dayton enjoyed the people and activities and has been coming back ever since. He now helps recruit new members.

Edwin Moraila, 17, of Ventura said he can’t get enough of PAL.

“I work here and when I don’t work here I come anyway,” he said.