| Angel Hernandez started getting in trouble his freshman year. "I got
into fights. I didn't come to school," he said.
For nearly two years he spent most of his time hanging out with gang members
- smoking marijuana, not doing anything, he said.
| By his sophomore year, he had fallen so far behind in school that he was
referred to continuation school.
"He was headed toward court and the juvenile probation system,"
said San Bernardino County Probation Officer Robert Martinez.
But last spring, the Home Run Program, headed by Martinez at Chaffey High School in Ontario, helped Hernandez get back on
track. |
 Hernandez waits outside to see his counselor. The Home Run Program helps keep students out of
the juvenile justice system. |
The program was started by the state Bureau of Corrections just over a year ago
and is run by probation officers at a number of high schools throughout the
state, including Fontana High School.
 A Junior at Chaffey High School, Angel Hernandez,
16, walks to class after meeting with his counselor
to adjust his schedule. |
The program is designed to address and correct the behavior of teen-agers
considered to be at risk of entering the juvenile justice system. This is done
through a combination of counseling, home visits, referrals and following
through with parents and teachers.
The idea is to get these students back in the habit of going to school,
instead of punishing them, Martinez said. |
Last year, 300 students throughout the Chaffey
Joint Union High School District were referred to the Home Run
Program.
One of the first things Martinez does when students are referred to him is
set up an attendance agreement, for which he checks their daily school
attendance and punctuality.
When students cut school, join gangs and do drugs, often they are crying for
attention, he said.
Most of them lack role models at home, he said. Some get involved with gangs
because they are lonely.
He also meets with parents.
"I have counseling sessions with the kids and parents, and I tell them
what will happen if (the teens) continue the way they are going. I make a lot of
home calls," Martinez said.
"Officer Martinez knows where we are coming from," said 14-year-old
Erica Beltran, who was referred to the Home Run Program last spring after she
was arrested for possession of a firearm.
She had dropped out of school at age 12 and was addicted tomethamphetamine,
she said.
"I started hanging around with the wrong crowd. I'd stay out for weeks
at a time. My mom would think I was dead," she said.
She said her parents were never home and her four siblings were grown up and
out of the house. "I thought the gang members were my friends," she
said.
Martinez referred her to a drug rehabilitation program and helped her get
involved in weekend outdoor activities.
"We go to the park or to the lake. A lot of teen-agers come,"
Beltran said, adding that those activities keep her out of trouble.
Martinez checks in with all the students in the program, who are referred by
school counselors, parents or police.
"He will just come by to talk to me, to see if I'm staying sober,"
Beltran said, adding she has been off drugs since May. And, since then, her
attendance has improved at Chaffey East community school, she said.
Hernandez, who also started with the Home Run Program in the spring, last
week started his junior year at Chaffey High.
Instead of hanging out with a gang over the summer, he said he spent his free
time playing sports with his cousins.
He also started spending time with his 3-month-old son, who lives with his
girlfriend and her parents.
"I had to grow up finally," said the 16-year-old. "I want to
go to college and be a paramedic," he said.
Beltran said she hopes to go into the military and then perhaps become a
lawyer. |
