Students Sought for Police Academy

The nation’s first middle school Junior Cadet Police Academy, which begins this fall at Mulholland Middle School, is still recruiting students.

An orientation and recruitment dinner will begin at 5 p.m. Tuesday in the school’s multipurpose room. The event is free, said Roberta Weintraub, executive director of the academy, which offers specialized classes to give students a close look at law enforcement careers.

Five city high schools already have cadet police academies, including Monroe and Reseda highs in the San Fernando Valley. Uniformed Los Angeles Police Department officers serve as instructors and role models.

“We have been looking at how to expand beyond the high schools,” said Weintraub, a former board member for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Monroe High graduated 40 students from its police academy this year, she said, and the program at Reseda will begin its 11th-grade cadet classes in the fall. The academy has just hired a college counselor to work exclusively with high school cadets.

Weintraub said only about 50 of the 200 seventh-grade slots at Mulholland have been filled.

The Junior Police Academy receives federal funding, she said, which will pay for the construction of a gym with new weight equipment and the creation of a forensics lab at Mulholland.