Police Help Students Get New Clothes

Police officers with the Los Angeles Unified School District have started identifying students in San Fernando Valley schools who could benefit from Operation School Bell, a nonprofit agency that provides free clothing to children.

Officers recently chose one elementary student each from Langdon Avenue in North Hills, Pinewood Avenue in Tujunga, Gridley Street in San Fernando and Sylvan Park in Van Nuys to refer to the Hollywood-based agency. The students and about two dozen others from the district were fitted for five new sets of clothing.

“It makes all the difference in the world to see the kids’ faces when they get new clothes,” said David Anthony, a police officer and director of the department’s Police Activity League, a 3-year-old program that works to create better relations between students and school police. “To see the kids’ expressions was unbelievable.”

Anthony and many other officers accompanied the students on their shopping spree.

Typically, teachers and school counselors refer students to Operation School Bell for appointments. But school police are getting involved to “show the caring side of police officers to the kids,” Anthony said.

Each year, Operation School Bell provides about 3,300 district students with school uniforms, casual clothes, underwear, socks--even toothbrushes and combs. Administrators have found that children perform better and are more likely to attend school when they have clothing that is not worn out or tattered.

Children visiting Operation School Bell choose new clothing from styles they like during one-on-one appointments with volunteers. For many of the children from low-income families, the clothes may be their first that are not hand-me-downs.

The district’s Police Department is made up of 320 sworn officers, detectives, sergeants and lieutenants who provide security for elementary, middle and high schools. Its recent collaboration with Operation School Bell is its newest outreach program, Anthony said.

In the past three years, the department has developed after-school and bicycle safety programs throughout the district.

“We’re working on programs that work on getting kids to run to us instead of away from us,” Anthony said. “If you do something nice for a child and you are in uniform, that child will remember that all his life.”

Operation School Bell can be reached at 1360 N. St. Andrews Place, Hollywood 90028. (323) 469-6017.

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KUDOS

Winning Composer: Raymond Burkhart, director of the Glendale Community College Jazz Band, has received an award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers for work composed over the past year.

This is the fourth consecutive year the Tujunga resident has been recognized by the group for his compositions.

Fresh Grass: Students at St. Finbar School, a kindergarten through eighth grade Catholic school in Burbank, are playing on a large swath of grass for the first time in the school’s 55-year history. Parents raised $10,000, organized volunteers and planted the grass in the summer.

The grassy area contains five trees, playground equipment, a garden for the kindergarten and first grades, a flagpole and a spot for eighth-graders to eat lunch.

“Grass is a sign of growth and calmness,” said Principal Sallie LeSage. “It has a very calming effect on students.”

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