Teens at Sea Find New Direction

Edgar Guerra, a continuation high school student with a stormy past, found the motivation to study in the choppy waters beyond Los Angeles Harbor.

So did classmate David Govea, on probation and permanently banned from traditional public high schools in Los Angeles.

The two students at Addams High School in Granada Hills are enrolled in a sailing program that Los Angeles Unified School District officials said has helped thousands of troubled young people complete their education.

On one recent outing, Capt. Mike McLaughlin, a former Navy officer with short-cropped hair, dark shades and a deep voice, barked commands at Guerra and Govea, who were on their fourth trip aboard the 95-foot schooner Bill of Rights. Guerra used an expletive to describe the way he would normally respond to someone yelling orders at him that way.

But 12 miles out to sea, humility sets in.

“You got to listen or there could be trouble,” Guerra said, an 18-year-old with spiked yellow hair who has served time in a juvenile detention center. He was sitting in the stern, sipping a canned soda.

“This has been a blessing,” said Govea, 17, as the wind blew through his black hair. “It makes you want to come to school. It’s also made me talk to people I never used to talk to.”

TopSail, as the year-round program is called, is the brainchild of former L.A. Unified teacher Jim Gladson. Take potential dropouts away from their tough, urban environments, teach them challenging new skills, and they will be inspired to come back for more, Gladson reasoned.

And if they enjoy the sea excursions, he figured, they are more likely to attend other classes.

“It’s therapeutic for these kids,” Gladson said. “It also teaches them discipline and gives them confidence.”

The daylong jaunts are sponsored by the Los Angeles Maritime Museum in San Pedro. School administrators acknowledge that the program, started in 1991, is not a cure-all for the dropout problem. No numbers are available to assess its effectiveness. But teachers and principals said they have seen enough positive results to keep recommending students to the program.

About 1,500 students--many of whom are gang members or wards of the court or have criminal records--participate each year.

Some are low performers from poor neighborhoods, such as those from Kranz Middle School in El Monte, where teacher Armand Almarez has taken 125 students sailing in the last five years. He estimated that 85% of them improved their attendance and most saw their grades edge up.

“It also really taught the kids teamwork because they realize the ship is not going to go anywhere without teamwork,” he said.

About 25 students set sail one day each week. If they behave, attend class and obey the ship’s rules, they are rewarded with a four-day trip to Catalina Island, which an Addams High group of 19 students will take later this month.

The Maritime Museum, operated by the city Department of Recreation and Parks, picks up TopSail’s annual cost of $400,000. Funding comes from the city and private donations, Gladson said.

A corps of volunteers staffs the Bill of Rights and a second vessel, the 70-foot Swift of Ipswich, which years ago belonged to actor James Cagney.

On this midmorning journey, five Addams High girls lined up on the starboard side of the Bill of Rights and raised the sail by pulling a thick rope. On the port side, six boys and a girl yanked hard at an equally fat line to hoist the throat.

“Some of these kids have never even seen the ocean before,” McLaughlin said. “They come in here acting tough because it’s their defense mechanism and that’s what they need to do to survive where they live. But eventually they realize they don’t have to do that here.”

Guerra said he used to ditch school two or three times a week and didn’t care about his grades. But because he wanted to go sailing this semester, that changed.

“I’ve done more work in school since I started sailing this year than I did my whole high school life,” Guerra said.

He will attend Santa Clarita’s College of the Canyons in July, and Govea starts at Pierce College in Woodland Hills in the fall.

Addams High Principal Nick Bryan, who accompanies the students on all the voyages, called the program “remarkable.” He said it has produced real growth in “tough kids who are not good at taking instruction from parents or teachers.”

“They’re in a different setting and they have to be disciplined,” said Bryan, who was lounging below decks. “They know it’s different out here at sea.”