A Turnabout for Troubled Youths

He was a kid whose life ambition, authorities complained, was to cuss and brawl and slather walls with graffiti--a hard-core wild child who makes police want to slap handcuffs on real fast and forget.

But in this case, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies didn’t forget 16-year-old Oscar Cornejo, who graduated recently from a pilot program aimed at straightening out troubled youths before they collide again with the criminal justice system.

After 16 consecutive Saturdays of compulsory physical fitness training, family counseling, health instruction and raise-your-hackles testimonials from former juvenile delinquents, the teenager from South-Central Los Angeles said Thursday that he has boosted his high school grades to a B-plus average and now wants to attend UCLA. Cornejo said he has learned a lot about “respect and discipline.”

At a news conference, Sheriff Lee Baca introduced Cornejo and two other recent graduates of the Vital Intervention and Directional Alternatives, or VIDA, program, and announced that the course has been so successful at its East Los Angeles location that it will soon be expanded to 10 more sheriff’s stations throughout the county. On Saturday, the department will enroll a new class of 550 VIDA students, the largest group yet.

Standing beside deputies who started the program, Cornejo and the other young people heaped praise on VIDA for helping them to get along with their parents and to look forward to the future.

“Before the program, all I did was skip school and watch television,” said 16-year-old Cindy Hernandez. “I had a nasty attitude and nobody was going to tell me what to do.” Now, she wants to become a probation officer.

The biggest change in the girl’s life, though, has been in her relationship with her mother. Before VIDA, Cindy said, she either fought bitterly with her mother or ignored her. “Before, I couldn’t even communicate with my mother or even look at her. Now I can tell her I love her.”

Her mother, Nancy Hernandez, agreed. “I was so nervous about her that I would cry. Now I feel relief. Everything is going to be OK,” the mother said.

The VIDA program was started two years ago by two longtime East Los Angeles deputies, Drew Birtness and Vincent M. Romero, who said they had grown tired of watching local youths wind up in prison or the grave.

“I worked the streets of East Los Angeles for 21 years and all I did was lock kids like this up,” Birtness said. “It did no good. We decided we needed to do something else.” Many have compared VIDA to boot camp programs, but Birtness said there is a significant difference: Participants in the Saturday classes are not in a lock-down setting, and they live at home and attend school.

Also, parents and social service providers are involved. “We’ve found that a lot of parents aren’t responsible; they don’t know how to deal with their kids,” Birtness said. “Part of what we’re doing is teaching them to be parents.”

Initially, most participants were sent by courts or probation officers. Now, most of the youngsters are referred directly by their parents.

Some participants have been as young as 10, like Jesus Vallin of Whittier. A recent graduate of VIDA, Jesus wore a smart vest and white shirt and sat quietly by the podium during Thursday’s news conference as deputies and his mother painted a very different picture of his previous behavior.

“He was very, you know, hyper, and always fighting with his brothers,” said his mother, Rosie Vallin, who marveled at the change. “It’s like having a new child.”

Although the three recent VIDA graduates spoke highly of the program, they said they were initially resentful. In fact, sheriff’s deputies introduced a fourth youth Thursday who was scheduled to begin the training Saturday.

Arlene Delgado, 14, of East Los Angeles, has been ordered to attend VIDA because of such problems as fighting and bad grades. “I don’t want to be there; it’s just that I don’t have a choice,” she said.