EPISODE THREE: Catching Them Early

MANNY JOHNSON: So the question I wanna put to the group today, the question is gonna be, what is it that you are the most scared of growing up?

ABRAHAN: Bein' killed

MANNY JOHNSON: Getting killed? Getting killed by a...?

ABRAHAN: By gangs, members.

MANNY JOHNSON: Gang members? Are there any gang members that you know of?

ABRAHAN: Yeah.

NARRATION:
Crime in America has been falling. But for some kids, violence has become part of everyday life. The criminal justice system doesn't protect them because it comes into play only after harm has been done.

Richmond California is a typical low income community trying to do what the justice system can't. Against tremendous odds, Richmond is working with kids of all ages to stop them from getting involved in crime and violence in the first place.

Just across the bay from San Francisco, Richmond is worlds away economically. The city's industrial base has eroded, leaving its diverse population dependent on low wage service jobs with few prospects. Unemployment is high, especially in the hard-pressed Iron Triangle, where the median income is one-third of the surrounding county's. For kids growing up in this bleak environment, childhood has taken on a whole new meaning.

MANNY JOHNSON: I work with young people that are planning their own funerals. I mean as far as what they want to wear and what music they want to be played.

NARRATION:
As in much of America, the most serious teenage violence in Richmond is gang-related and involves guns. 17 gangs operate in this town of less than 100,000 people.

MARCO GONZALES: Here our kids have to deal with guns and knives, retaliation, drive-bys, innocent families being exposed to all that just because of where they happen to live.

RICKY: My cousin got shot in the back four times.

MANNY JOHNSON: And he was how old?

RICKY: About sixteen.

KID (in blue bandanna): It's all about your rep and respect, cuz if you live in the blue lock, you got to die for the blue, you gotta be ready to kill for the blue. Cuz if they catch you slipping, they gonna kill you too.

ROGER GRAEF: The criminal justice system is a reactive system. It delivers punishment. But why should we wait until victims have been created in order for us to do something about crime? If we're going to stop crime, we have to give young offenders, the people most likely to offend, reasons not to offend. And those have to be the same reasons that most of don't, we have something to lose.

NARRATION:
It's the end of the school day at Richmond High. As students converge on their way home, the danger of conflict reaches a peak. These outreach workers roam the school grounds in an effort to mediate disputes before they turn violent. The outreach workers are part of Familias Unidas, an unusual community health organization that has made crime prevention a central part of its mission.

GONZALO RUCOBO: What's this right here?

JOSE RAMIREZ: Hold up hold up.

GONZALO RUCOBO: Let it get squared out first.

GONZALO RUCOBO: Here goes...

GONZALO RUCOBO: When I was growing up, we all looked up to people that went to jail and stuff like that. I wish I had someone to say "hey you know what, if you go to school, you can become something. If you keep hanging out in the streets, you're gonna keep getting in trouble with the police"...and telling me the consequences.

NARRATION:
27-year old Gonzalo Rucobo is a former gang member who saw several of his friends killed. Now he's a full-time counselor, one of several Familias Unidas staff members who work in the neighborhood where they grew up.

GONZALO RUCOBO: I didn't get into gangs until my mom and dad got divorced. Everything was pretty mixed in elementary school. Everything was pretty cool, but then when I went to high school, because I didn't speak good Spanish and everybody that didn't speak good Spanish, we were Chicanos, and then the ones that did speak Spanish, they were Mexicanos. They were like, you gotta become a Norteño, because all the Chicanos are Norteños...

ROSINA KEREN: Different people join for different reasons, one is the adrenaline high, status could be another reason, something to do, that's a very simple reason. Some of the youth have very strong families, some of them don't have very cohesive families, and the gang provides a sense of belonging and being cared about.

NARRATION:
To make families more cohesive, Familias Unidas does everything from finding housing, jobs and immigration counseling to raising money so that kids who want to change their lives can have their gang tattoos removed.

ROSINA KEREN: Hey Joel, how are you doing?

NARRATION :
One of the most important things it does is offer an alternative to boredom.

On homecoming day Richmond teens have something to do in the afternoon. Though it seems trivial, simple boredom and lack of constructive after school activities are among the chief factors contributing to teenage violence.

On most days, recreational opportunities for teens in Richmond are few.

The Familias Unidas drop-in center offers kids somewhere to go other than the street.

ROSINA KEREN: Actually the drop in center was started by two youth. And we're talking with them about why do they get in trouble, why do they do drugs, why are they involved in gangs. And they said, "we have nothing to do. There is nothing in Richmond to do." And then they turned to us, and they said, "Help us find something to do, help us make something to do."

The kids are off the street, they're not getting in trouble, they have somewhere to go, they are supervised so their parents are comfortable. No drugs allowed, no alcohol, and yet they still have fun, they have a great time. We want the gang involved youth in the drop-in center , because we want to provide them with a safe place to be, to stay out of trouble and a possibility of getting out of gangs. And they're role models for the younger ones, because they are already role models in the streets, in the schools, in their home, so for the younger ones to see the older ones changing and publicly saying, I am no longer going to be in a gang, is a very positive move that we could never do ourselves.

GONZALO RUCOBO: You can do something and if you're known for being here, then you're going to bring it over here to us and then we're out in the park, next you know we'll see about three or four cars pull up and they're going to come out with guns and what are we going to do, throw a football at them? (Laughter) I'm being serious. Cause I'm going to tell you this right now, I'm getting out of the way.

ROSINA KEREN: Gonzalo came as a volunteer, and then I hired him. He was a teen parent and now he's in this because this is the work he wants to do, and the kids know that. You can't tell a youth what to do. They need to see, why are you doing this? And if they believe you, if you are credible, it will work.

GONZALO RUBOBO: When I first got out, it took me about two years to struggle with getting out, and it took something major to happen in my life, for me to get out. I got into a shootout one night, and I was working at the time so I would go to work out in Oakland, and I'd leave my car with my wife, we had just gotten married, and I had a daughter, and she was expecting my other daughter, and they were driving home one night, and they got shot at. And it woke me up, I used to always think that it was my life and what I wanted to do, it was just affecting me.

NARRATION:
The struggle to leave gangs is also familiar to 19 year old Pepe Victorino whose trying to change his life yet still stay loyal to friends. He's now working with Gonzalo as a volunteer at Familias Unidas.

GONZALO RUCOBO: As you start growing up and you start changing in your life, your school work, how you're acting at home and stuff like that, you'll start realizing who your real friends are, and who your friends aren't. Because everybody wants you to do dirt with them. You know what I mean? Because if not, then who's going to get busted with them?

PEPE: That's what I'm saying you know, but there's some other fools that want you to do their dirt for them.

GONZALO RUCOBO: Some people are lucky to get out. Like Pepe, he's lucky to make it, to get out right now. He's getting out now. I was lucky to get out. I could have been killed, you know what I mean? You never know.

PEPE: Two, two of my friends that, you know, have got shot down, they were not bangin' anymore. They were, they had quit already, and they got shot and killed. So I'm not....I don't feel lucky, I'm just.. trying to stay away from trouble....I don't say I'm lucky till probably 10 years from now....if, you know, if people forget what I did to them, or whatever.

NARRATION:
Pepe's resolve to give up gang violence was put to the test the very next day when members of an Asian gang shot at his car.

PEPE: What's up, man?

GONZALO RUCOBO: What's up, man?

PEPE: I just got bucked at, man.

GONZALO: By who?

PEPE: Slobs. COBs.

GONZALO: C.O.B.'S. Where at?

PEPE: Bust my window with a ...with a blast.

GONZALO: They shot your window out?

PEPE: Yeah. And they threw a rock after that, right up like, right...

GUY: COB's did. They ***ed window man?

GONZALO: No one didn't get hit right?

PEPE: No, I just ducked

GONZALO: Oh yeah, they hit you right here

KID: There's only two of them, dude

KID: They ***ed up **** [omitted] car too

KID: they ***ed up my car too, cuando...

PEPE: They threw the rock and then they bucked at me. But they want to *** with me like that, I'm just gonna walk, you know, down the ***ing street and buck them.

GONZALO: Well, what's that going to do? That ain't gonna do nothing.

PEPE: *** that man.

GONZALO: That ain't gonna do nothing for you, though.

PEP:: Mean they ain't gonna, you know, they ain't gonna stop, you know ***ing with me either.

GONZALO: Doesn't matter.

PEPE: I mean I ain't looking for trouble, man, but if they come looking for, you know, for ***, they'll, they'll find it, man. I mean, I ain't tripping...

GONZALO: What we can do is, what we can do is go, well I'll get...

PEPE: I'm just trying to you know calm down and stay away from trouble, but it just seems like...

GONZALO RUCOBO: Just stay away from over there. Cause then who we gonna have to help us out up at the Center? Right? We can replace this, like I said, but we can't replace you. You know what I mean?

GONZALO RUCOBO: It's kind of hard, like I was telling them, when I first got out of the gang, um, it's like, people test you to make sure if you're really out or not. Or you just get caught up in it because of the things that you've done in your past.

PEPE: I've been in situations where you know, there's a gun right in front of me, you know, pointing to my head. And I just...I just haven't been afraid, I'm not afraid because, you know, if God wants to take my life, he takes it, any time he wants. Because I'll believe in God, and Our Lady of Guadalupe.

ROGER GRAEF: If we want to stop crime, we have to do the same things that stop us from committing crime. Give people a source of self-respect, a source of income, a source of status, that they don't want to jeopardize. Now that makes sense. It isn't rocket science. If they have nothing to lose, they're gonna go out there with a gun, and they don't care if they die. And if they don't care if they die, they're not gonna mind being arrested and taken to court, and sent away for five or ten years. The great irony about prison is, that it's actually safer for many of these kids than it is to be alive on the streets.

DIEGO GARCIA: Gato changed, and he is going to college. He is also working and Pepe, I think, he's gonna be doing the same thing, if he keeps it up. So this award, we have it to give to Pepe. So step up, Pepe. (Applause)

PEPE: Thank you.

ROSINA KEREN: Nice job.

DIEGO GARCIA: As you can see, Pepe, Gato, made a change already. We need more of you guys to make a change. Like Gonzalo say, to make a change in Richmond, and anybody, anywhere else, we got to step up. We can't just have it with two people, three, four, we need everybody. And that's if you love your little brothers, little cousins, or anybody. So just think about that, and if you wanna step up, we wanna give more awards like this.

ROSINA KEREN: To get a youth out of the gang, one thing that we provide is a positive peer support group. And then we also provide the youth with other things. For instance, they say, if I had a job, I wouldn't be getting in trouble so much. And I really think that's true. But it's very hard for a fifteen, sixteen year old teenager to find a job. There's not that many people who are willing to hire these kids and take a risk.

GONZALO RUCOBO: You tried at McDonald's?

RUBEN: Yeah, cuz um I know the manager, and she says, hey we need people, and I go, alright well hook it up. And next you know, I talked to her like, what a week ago and she said yeah we're gonna call you tomorrow. And next you know, she still hasn't given me an application to sign. They want us to work how are they gonna want us to work if they don't give us a job?

GONZALO RUCOBO: You can't act the way you act on the streets when you go in to a get a job

RUBEN: I don't act like that man, I even crossing my hands, bust them with a newspaper, and I say whassup, let's talks business here. Naw man, for real, for real though.

ROSINA KEREN: It's a challenge to get, to teach them you need to be on time for a job. You need to dress in a certain way for a job, you cannot come to a job under the influence of drugs or alcohol. But once we provide that structure, for the most part, they make it through.

NARRATION:
The chances that Pepe will make it through are still uncertain. Although he's hunting for a job, he hasn't made it any easier with new tattoos commemorating the deaths of fellow gang members.

PEPE: These are my homeboys right here, they got killed, with guns, not talking about no sticks or knives right there. But guns. And I just wouldn't like to, you know, have another name of my little homies on my skin.

GONZALO RUCOBO: I don't never give up on these kids. I'll work with them as much as I can, and then if they don't want the help, then I'll stop working with them. But I let them know, you know, this is nothing personal. You know where I'm at and I'm always here for you, when you're ready, you can come back, and I'll help you still.

NARRATION:
Although most prevention efforts focus on young males, the rate of violence is actually rising more quickly among teenage girls. Once a week Familias Unidas conducts a group that offers them another way to resolve conflicts.

ROSINA KEREN: The girls group in particular is a place where the girls can talk by themselves with other women and not have to worry about how the boys are going to see them. What the young men are going to think. And we resolve issues in the group. We try to teach them the difference between being assertive and being aggressive, and once they hear that, then they start using it and it really makes a difference in how they approach situations.

VALERIE: If somebody jump in there of course, you're gonna back up your friends....but if it's a one on one fight, okay, there's no need for nobody to jump in.

SORAIDA: What if it was you that was getting your ass whooped? And what if your friend was right there?

VALERIE: I would want to get my ass whooped by myself and I would not have my friends jump in there because that was going to make me look like a punk that I can't defend myself,..If I...If I'm getting my ass whooped that's-oh well, I'm getting my ass whooped.

YOLANDA NAJERA: This jumping, it's sometimes also a part of wanting to be as tough as a man, you know, and then you got to show your, um, your friends that you're as tough as them.

ROSINA KEREN(VO): Yolanda has been exactly where these girls are, and she understands where they're coming from. There's a lot of things that they don't need to say to each other that's already understood.

YOLANDA NAJERA: I didn't learn how to control my anger until I realized what was wrong with me. (IV) I came here when I was about seven from El Salvador. There was a lot abuse from both my dad and my stepmother so I decided at age 13 that I was going to run away from home. I had already tried to commit suicide, because I just felt I needed to get out and I was going to do it one way or another.

SORAIDA: They just ***ed with me and they jump me or whatever, I'm going to go and just jump them back. That's it, I'm not going to hurt them bad, bad, bad but if they did like something really, really bad like they shot me or whatever. It's like bye-bye, you are going six-feet under.

YOLANDA NAJERA: And I see a lot of the girls having the same type of temper that I had, you know, but it's that anger that you have inside of you and you need to let it out one way or the other and you're going to do with somebody that you can hit. You're not going to hit your parents.

YOLANDA NAJERA: My mother sent me here when I was six, so I hated her for sending me here and not raising me. My father, I hated him because he had no control of his wife and his wife would beat me, okay, every single day, okay? Another thing I was angry at is my brother being a drunk. At your age he was already a drunk. But at the time you know what I was doing? Every time I would get hit at home that was a sure fight out on the street, and I don't care who the hell it was.

ELENA: Damn, you savage.

YOLANDA NAJERA: Okay. I was a savage. Okay, you have something that you are angry about, if you don't deal with what you are angry about, okay, you are going to go around hurting everybody and you are going to go around that....the rest of your life.

NARRATION:
Teenage girls frequently act out, not just through violence but by having babies. Yolanda had 2 children by the time she was 17. Lorraine gave birth to her child when she was only 15, and 2 years later she's resuming her first year at high school.

LORRAINE: When my mom got together with my stepdad, I was 3. He did drugs, was with other girls, he used to hit us, and my mom left him like a few, like four year ago because she couldn't, she didn't hang no more, she couldn't deal with him.

NARRATION:
Teenage motherhood has become so common that schools like Kennedy High provide day care centers to keep the moms in school.

LORRAINE: Is she asleep? Aw man...

NARRATION:
A history of conflict at home leaves many of these young parents with no idea how to care for their own children. Inexperienced mothers may often be tempted to hit their kids. Adult staff teach them not to, because it sets a bad example for their children.

LORRAINE: When I do that to Graciela, she don't do that.

GAIL KEYES: Yeah, I know, but you know what, you are doing wrong to your little children. You think they don't do it now, you wait till they get three or four. You wait till they get eight or nine, they start punching out people. You can't control them anymore, it's not going to be funny, because you'll think back to it yourself, "I did that to her."

ROGER GRAEF: Just being a witness to violence for children can be enough to hurt their development. If a child grows up in an atmosphere of lots of domestic violence, lots of abuse, they don't even have been hit themselves, but the stress level in the family can damage their brain. That means by the time they get to school, they're already behind, and they're more likely to fail, and if they fail at school, they're gonna end up on the streets and they're more likely to end up in crime.

ROSINA KEREN: Now, for real, if you be hitting on your little sisters, what do you think your mom's going to say?

PEPE: He probably thinks, you know, they get used to it when they get married, they won't trip if they, you know, if they husband hits them.

ROSINA KEREN: You know, Pepe, you made a joke, that's not..that's actually very true. What kids grow up with, that's what they get used to. That's what they're going to look for. Or if not look for...

PEPE: Yeah... they get used to it...

CLAUDIA: Naw, not really, not really.

ROSINA KEREN: Tell me, Claudia.

CLAUDIA: Man, I had three older brothers. Every time I walked through the hallway, bam, I'd be on the ground. It only made me tougher. I'm OK.

LORRAINE: You know, I went through some physical abuse by my stepdad, you know, y yo sé, quedé traumada. You know, I don't want my little girl doing that *** cause, I mean, ****[omitted] hits her and I don't like that and you know, and-and I'd be telling him off. I'd be like, you ain't nobody to be touching my daughter, you know?

YOLANDA NAJERA: If I go around hitting my kids, OK, and tell 'em this is to make you tougher, I mean, I'm just teaching them it's OK to hit. Well like my kids, they'll hit each other and then if I go and hit them, what am I teaching them? It's OK to hit.

DR. SHEA-EVERIDGE: Abuse is handed on in most cases, and it's handed on for a very simple reason. The way you are handled and responded to: fed, diapered, played with, changed, in your first year of life, it becomes the closest thing to instinct.

NARRATION:
Teaching youngsters how to raise their own children, without resorting to violence is the first step in breaking the cycle of abuse. Child Haven, in nearby Fairfield, has developed an acclaimed program for the most vulnerable parents, especially those who have been abused themselves.

DR. SHEA-EVERIDGE: Parents will instinctively respond to their child the way they were responded to, unless someone moves in and changes that awareness, and says hey, look at your baby, look at what your baby wants. I was at the penitentiary of New Mexico, where we did psychological services. Every single inmate that I worked with had been abused prior to age three, bar none. And the earlier and more drastic the abuse, the worse the criminal acting-out behavior was. Abuse in the first year of life, led to a sadistic pattern of interaction. If they hadn't been abused in the first year and it began in the second, had a less disastrous consequence. And if you looked at where were the inmates who were not abused prior to their third year of life, I couldn't find any. You know, clearly it was, if you want to prevent this horrendous behavior, you have to provide services that are focused on those first years of life.

NARRATION:
Child Haven's programs pay special attention to premature and low birth weight babies, who are often born to young mothers unprepared to cope with their special needs. Research shows the combination of traumatic birth and lack of early maternal bonding is a strong predictor of later violence. This young mother has just given birth to a baby born three months early.

NURSE: So, how many weeks gestation was Jade?

SENAMI FISHER: She was born at 25 and a half weeks.

PAM PARSONS: Yeah, so she was a pretty tiny little girl and had some complications.

PAM PARSONS: We work with moms and babies and if you have any questions about any kinds of the concerns that you might have, having a really sick baby, then we can sure help you with that.

PAM PARSONS: This mother is very in love with this baby, she holds her very closely, she is very proud to show her. But, nobody is really ready to be a mother at, you know, fourteen through seventeen or eighteen. it's often very much a fantasy baby in that these adolescents think that there's going to be this little baby doll to love. And it's just going to be again focused around me and my needs. Compound that with prematurity and the whole set of risks that then the baby comes with, and it can be a very, very dangerous situation, that really predisposes young mothers to neglect and abuse just because they are so overwhelmed, they're so angry, they're so frightened, they're so depressed.

NARRATION:
Young mothers' emotional problems are compounded by poverty. The Head Start program for 3 to 5 year olds, helps them to prepare their children for school. Head Start graduates are more likely to go to college, get jobs, and stay out of trouble. One 30 year study showed that every dollar invested in high quality preschools saved 7 dollars in welfare, special education, and crime costs.

BARBARA BOOTH: In an area where there's been a lot of violence, children see it every weekend, it's a safe haven. If you stop to think about a simple thing as a balanced meal, our children might only get a good balanced meal here at our program. Most of the families don't have time to set a table and sit down and that's one of the things that we really do, we have family style meals. We have the children sit down. They get their place, their utensils, they help serve themselves, so that they learn the basic skills of everyday living. They're taught how to do proper toothbrushing, or hand washing, something as simple as hand washing, they're taught how to do that. And why they should do it. Parents are invited here to come in and participate, by setting up the meals, helping to cut out papers, or they can just sit and observe to see what actually goes on.

MELANIE JONES: (singing) Choo choo the fast train is coming down the track. Stop look and listen, stop look and listen.

NARRATION:
One of Head Start's main goals is to promote self-determination among parents and children who are used to seeing life as beyond their control.

LAURA TAPIA: Did you like that one?

KIDS: Yeah.

LAURA TAPIA: What about Christina? What can you do all by yourself?

CHRISTINA: I brush my teeth.

LAURA TAPIA: Besides that? You can brush your teeth and...

CHRISTINA: Wash my hands.

LAURA TAPIA: Wash your hands! That's a good one. And Isaiah, what can you do all by yourself?

ISAIAH: Brush my hair.

LAURA TAPIA: Brush your hair, alright? Isaiah said that he can brush his hair. He has very short hair...

BARBARA BOOTH: Every weekend, there's a shooting, or a break-in. So they need to be able to talk about that, and to know that that's not routine, that's not routine, it's routine and normal for them, but it isn't for our everyday lifestyle. And they actually act out what they see and what they hear. So the teachers are there to try to give them some direction, and to show them a different way to do things. Otherwise, if all these feelings are kept bottled up forever, then you have a child at 15 or 16 that's very explosive, you know, he doesn't know how to handle his emotions.

LEWIS ALLEN: Wait a minute, wait a minute. No Miguel, you got to ask. No, no you can't take hers. No it's hers. That's hers. You gotta take your own. No...

BARBARA BOOTH: If you don't catch them young, then you've got a job. Because it's already ingrained and it's already embedded. But I'm not saying it can't be corrected. You just have to work a little harder.

NARRATION:
Most Richmond children come from stable homes and work hard at school. But roughly ten percent of the community's kids are growing up in troubled families and are at risk of sliding into gangs, violence, and crime. Failure at school increases that risk dramatically. So Lincoln Elementary School has redefined its role.

MARCO GONZALES: The old school of thinking I think among school administrators and schools in general, was that we're just the school and we can only do so much and our job is to educate. But what has really happened over the past couple years is that the schools have become almost a catch-all, they've become the safety net. And so our teachers and our staff are, are teachers, and they're nurses, and psychologists, and counselors, and surrogate parents. They fulfill all the roles that kids have missing in their lives, from the model that we knew ourselves growing up.

NARRATION:
Sitting still and paying attention in class can be hard for hungry children. 99% of the children at Lincoln are so poor that they qualify for federally subsidized meals. The school provides lunch for all the students and breakfast for any child who arrives hungry.

MARCO GONZALES: Violence and crime are negative responses to real life needs. Being poor is nothing that anyone is proud of, and that parents and kids will go to great extremes to hide the fact that they are struggling financially. With poverty comes frustration and despair, and when you make most of your decisions around food, or basic needs in your home, you know, kids see all that.

EDUARDO DE LOA: Ok you guys, monitor, you guys have to stay and clean up, help them clean up.

MARCO GONZALES: We instituted the system a couple years ago so that we'd have all our kids, um, just have more responsibility. They make a mess, they clean it up and, uh, it's nothing different than I think what they're expected to do at home. Each week a student or two students serve as the monitors who are expected to wipe the tables, sweep the floor underneath, and then come and get points, and there's a point system that the kids can earn to, um, get extra recess and go to a video, and...same kinds of things kids' parents are teaching at home, you know? You make a mess, you clean it up.

(Singing in unison) TEACHER: Left, Left you're marching on your left. GIRLS: You're right. TEACHER: You're marching on your left. GIRLS: You're right. TEACHER: You're left...

NARRATION:
Children are at greatest risk in the hours after school. So Lincoln provides cultural activities like sports, theater, and African and Mexican dancing.

GIRLS: Let's hit it, uno, dos, tres...

The drill team is especially popular. It teaches the girls discipline and teamwork while keeping them out of trouble .

GIRLS: One two three four, one two .. three four

MARCO GONZALES (VO) : Each day a week there's something after school for kids to do here, where they can feel safe, where they can do arts and crafts, where they can be kids, where they can enjoy their childhood. It's not fair to lump the 90% who are trying to do the right things with their families, together with the 10 or 15 percent who produce the majority of the crime in the neighborhood. But the kids in the families where that's happening can really exhaust the resources of a school.

CHRISTINE PETERS: What this book is going to be about is Journey learning that its okay. That his life is just fine.

NARRATION:
Students who fail in school are more likely to get into trouble as they grow older. Lincoln's teachers try to balance academic tasks with the social support some kids need to stay in school and do well. In her 5th grade class, Christine Peters uses the children's own life experiences as a tool to help them learn to read.

CHRISTINE PETERS: His mother left, his father left, but he's got grandparents who love him. And what he learns in the course of this book, is that things don't have to be perfect. You don't have to have a perfect family to be OK. How many of you live with your fathers in the same house? Nancy, Ray, Roberto.

CARLOS: I'm like Journey because I haven't seen my father for a long time, and I haven't seen my...

CHRISTINE PETERS: How old were you when you last saw your dad.

CARLOS: Four.

CHRISTINE PETERS: Four.

CARLOS: And I haven't seen my brother at all. I've never seen my brother.

CHRISTINE PETERS: The brother that you left in Mexico?

CARLOS: unhuh

CHRISTINE PETERS: I, do not as a teacher, teach to the bottom of my class. I teach to the top of my class, I teach right under the top. So that I can add extensions on for the top kids, it works beautiful for the majority of my class. It challenges the top kids, and I bring along the bottom as best I can.

CHRISTINE PETERS (Sync) : You live with your father?

STUDENT: Stepfather.

CHRISTINE PETERS: Stepfather, okay.

CHRISTINE PETERS: It's so easy when you have so many kids with needs and so much at risk, to get totally sucked in by their problems, and you can't. Because you are here to teach them, and you are here to help them learn. And you have to also think about the other 50 percent, or 60 or 70 percent of the class, who don't have those problems, who are here to learn, and that's where you have to focus.

NARRATION:
Because teachers' primary task is education, Lincoln takes the unusual step of bringing in workers from community agencies to support the kids most in need.

MANNY JOHNSON: ....I don't know, whoever's in first group, first group, first group. Boys, girls were yesterday. First group.

NARRATION:
Twice a week, Manny Johnson, a counselor from the gateway project gathers kids from all over Lincoln to take part in a group he started four years ago called lion's club.

MANNY JOHNSON: One quick announcement that we're going to our trip, on the Twenty-eighth, to Waterworld.

KIDS: Yeah, Waterworld!

MANNY JOHNSON: These are kids that you will see in every low-income area across the United States. It's just that this happens to be Richmond, California, it's no different anyplace across United States. Lots of them come in crack addicted, sometimes no family support, the boys need the male bonding, they really need that, that's why we formed the Lions Club with Mr. De Loa and myself. I mean, I could be a big brother, I could be a father, I could be a grandfather. So I find out what they need and what I need to be to them and that's what I am.

MANNY JOHNSON: So when you guys go to the....you have options, you have choices, and you can tell your friends, "Hey, I don't need gangs, I don't need drugs."

MANNY JOHNSON: What's your single most fear, that scares you the most about growing up?

KID: Guns.

MANNY JOHNSON: Guns? Why is guns for you?

KID: Cause my cousin got shot in the head.

MANNY JOHNSON(IV) : You hear how all the kids talk about the funerals, the shootings, the drugs you know, they learn how to duck down, jump into the tub, or this or that, so it's real, it's everyday real. When they come here they feel safe....but when they leave here they're looking over their shoulder, watching out for each other's back.

MANNY JOHNSON: Let's not glorify these gangs, right...lets not make them think they're all of that. And when you go up there showing their signs you're thinking its cool, right?

KID: Yeah.

MANNY JOHNSON: So you're glorifying them... so we're giving them the power...we're trying to stop gangs all around the country, especially in Richmond, because that's where we're living now so please think about that.

CARLOS: Some other guy from another gang was there, South Central, and he was, um, they were walking down the street and the guy brought out a gun on him, and he shot him, but he got, he got out a gun and he shot him too, but the guy shot him three times in his heart and he died, and then they went to find him, and they shot him in the head.

MANNY JOHNSON: How, how does that make you feel?

CARLOS: It makes me feel bad, because what happens happens, he can't change it. It-it was his destiny--he-he-he joined a gang and he had to suffer the consequences.

MANNY JOHNSON: That's good, right on, give him a clap for that, all right. That's good.

(clapping)

MARCO GONZALES: As a school you can't take full responsibility. We're helpers in the process, and there's alot we can do, but families and kids still have to make some decisions on their own. And if we can empower the kids and the families to make good decisions, and to set the right priorities, then we've been successful. (VO) Some parents are more prepared to help than others, and if parents aren't prepared to help, it is a mistake to try to be an absolute substitute for them. The first thing is to try to support them in a way so that they can support their own children.

EDUARDO DE LOA: I'm gonna be a dad.

NARRATION:
Eduardo De Loa is another full time outreach counselor who works closely with the lions club kids and their parents to maintain their performance in school. His work often takes him into tough parts of town.

EDUARDO DE LOA: where we're going is a rough neighborhood, it's North Richmond. Sometimes even the police are scared to go there, you know?

NARRATION:
Eduardo is on his way to visit the home of Naila, a 3rd grader who was involved in a fight at Lincoln the week before. Since the incident she has missed several days of class and the school hasn't heard from her family.

EDUARDO DE LOA: Ms. Hutchinson, how you doin'?

MS. HUTCHINSON: Alright. I just got out of the tub.

EDUARDO DE LOA: O.K., hey Mr. Hutchinson, how you doin'? Take your time, take your time. Yeah, just like I said, we just came to check on Naila to see how she's doing, you know, I know she's been missing a little bit of the school so...I know she wasn't there... was she there yesterday?

MR. HUTCHINSON: She missed the last three days.

EDUARDO DE LOA: The last three days....

MR. HUTCHINSON: Except for yesterday...

EDUARDO DE LOA: For yesterday, OK....

MR. HUTCHINSON: She had the fight.

EDUARDO DE LOA: Yeah, she had the little confrontation with two other girls, you know?

NAILA: They had tried to have her beat me up, so I told Mr. Howard, then she started cussing at me, and Elise, she came in the office and kicked her and she kicked her back.

MR. HUTCHINSON: Came in the office, too?

EDUARDO DE LOA: Wow.

NAILA: Yeah, and then...

EDUARDO DE LOA: Oh, yeah....

MR. HUTCHINSON: Yeah, I went there ahead of time to tell, you know, Mr. Gonzales, but I talked to the lady that was in the office, and let her know that ahead of time that the girl said that she was going to jump on her. And the lady was supposed to get to the girls before this happened, and...

EDUARDO DE LOA: Before it happened, huh....

MR. HUTCHINSON: Yeah, she didn't.

MR. HUTCHINSON: Did the other girls get suspended too? O.K., well...

EDUARDO DE LOA: Yeah. Because I'm on my way to visit them, later on.

MR. HUTCHINSON: Yeah, that's fair I guess. But I told her, you know, she's not to fight unless she's defending herself.

EDUARDO DE LOA: That's good, Mr. Hutchinson.

MR. HUTCHINSON: and uh, the girl hit her so....you know she ain't like Jesus.

EDUARDO DE LOA: Yeah. I know. Well you know.

MR. HUTCHINSON: She ain't going to turn the other cheek.

EDUARDO DE LOA: We try to...

MANNY JOHNSON: What's up? That's two days in a row, what's going on? Huh? Somebody bothering you?

CLARENCE: No he, talking about my granny.

MANNY JOHNSON: Who talkin about your granny, who? Who?

CLARENCE: Dionel.

MANNY JOHNSON: Dionel, Dionel, what room is Dionel in?

NARRATION:
Everyone at Lincoln is trained in conflict resolution. Manny Johnson patrols the schoolyard, dealing with confrontations as they occur.

MANNY JOHNSON: Now you all know that we're brothers, right? All black brothers, right? And we also know that when you talk about someone's mama or grandmother, that hurts their feelings, right?

KID: Right.

MANNY JOHNSON: And today, you know Clarence was really sad because he said that you said something about his grandma. You know? And I know you didn't really mean that, did you? Huh? Have a seat, have a seat. But you know it hurt his feelings right? How did that make you feel Clarence?

CLARENCE: He hurt my feelings.

MANNY JOHNSON: He hurt your feelings?

CLARENCE: Yeah.

MANNY JOHNSON: Why did you say that? Were you angry yourself?

DIONEL: Yeah.

MANNY JOHNSON: Were you mad at someone today?

DIONEL: No.

MANNY JOHNSON: So what, what happened with you and Clarence?

DIONEL: We got into a fight.

MANNY JOHNSON: About what?

DIONEL: 'Cuz, he was always talkin' about me.

MANNY JOHNSON: He's always talking about you. So, so then you wanted to get him back.

DIONEL: Yes.

MANNY JOHNSON: So then you said something about his grandma?

DIONEL: Yeah.

MANNY JOHNSON: So did you mean to say that?

DIONEL: No.

MANNY JOHNSON: Do you...how would you feel if some one said some thing about your grandmother?

DIONEL: I'd feel mad.

MANNY JOHNSON: You feel mad. How you think he felt?

DIONEL: Mad.

MANNY JOHNSON: So are you sorry that you said that?

DIONEL: Yeah.

MANNY JOHNSON: Can you tell him that?

DIONEL: I'm sorry, Clarence.

MANNY JOHNSON: Can you guys shake hands?

DIONEL: Yeah.

MANNY JOHNSON: OK, let's do it. Let's shake hands. So then we're not going to have any more problems?

KIDS: No.

MANNY JOHNSON: Okay.

MANNY JOHNSON: I had to deal with it today because this happened today. You know I can't come back on Monday and deal with it. You have two--Clarence has to go home, and spend the next two days upset, that he got dis-respected, and you know, who knows, he might see Dionel again someplace in the neighborhood this weekend, and they might have a fight. That's what you call intervention, and prevention--intervention because I made intervention today, prevention is so it don't happen again on Monday. So if you wait until Monday, defeats the whole purpose.

NARRATION:
Patricia Subia is another outreach worker at Lincoln. She's trying to help seven-year-old Laticia Vandycke who has complained of stomach pains.

PATRICIA SUBIA: And this is your mom's phone number? You don't know the name of the place where she works at?

LATICIA: Call my auntie and she'll give it to you.

PATRICIA SUBIA: What's your auntie's phone number?

LATICIA: Six...

PATRICIA SUBIA: Uh huh.

LATICIA: Three....

PATRICIA SUBIA: Uh huh....

LATICIA: Nine....

PATRICIA SUBIA: Uh huh....

LATICIA: Nine....wait.....that's six three nine...

PATRICIA SUBIA: Uh huh?

LATICIA: Zero, seven, seven.

PATRICIA SUBIA: Zero, seven, seven...give me one more number. Say it again in your head.

PATRICIA SUBIA: Then I called this number right now and that's the grandfather, her step-grandfather. So he doesn't know anything. Doesn't know where she's at or anything.

MARCO GONZALES: Is she working now do you know?

PATRICIA SUBIA: Um, last time I checked which was about two weeks ago she was.

MARCO GONZALES: Yeah, that's what I thought. See if we can get Mom and, um, you and me maybe and Laticia all in the same room and make sure we're clear what's going on. It could be very well that something's going on that we're not being informed of.

PATRICIA SUBIA: A lot of parents feel disconnected from the school. A lot of parents feel intimidated by the school and what we're trying to do is just pull them in. That's what I do. That's why I always try to do my visits very casually. It's crucial because it also lets the child know, that I know his mom. I know his mom now. I know your dad now. And so, I'm just gonna skip the middle man. I'm gonna skip the child when I have a problem. I'm just gonna go to the source.

MARCO GONZALES: All communities, no matter what that socio-economic status is, whatever the racial composition, there are families who are in crisis in someway, and unless we address the kids and their whole families, no matter what we do at school, can be easily washed away with an event or an episode at home.

NARRATION:
When 8 year old Tae'Shannee Banks saw her teenage brother T.J. murdered by a friend in their own living room, her world collapsed. Lincoln's ability to keep students in school by working with their families was put to a dramatic test.

AMY ALVIDREZ: Since the death of her brother, since he was murdered, I've noticed a big change in her, being upset a lot, being really angry and getting in a lot of fights. Um...breaking down in tears a lot, and she's had a lot of physical complaints.

SONYA BANKS: She has these nightmares sometimes that someone came to the school and they, they were looking for her and they were gonna shoot her and they were gonna kill her, too. She don't eat sometimes. Sometimes I can't stop her from crying.

PATRICIA SUBIA: I was introduced to Tae'Shannee about a month after her brother died and that's because she had been out of school for about a month. And then when I met her I was so impressed, here was this little 8 year old girl, she's so articulate, and then I heard the story of how her brother died and that she was in the house when it happened and I was...well, what are we doing, what are we doing with this little girl?

PATRICIA SUBIA: We'd like to make her part of the Wednesday group...

SONYA BANKS: OK

PATRICIA SUBIA: ...and that's a children's therapy group and it's uh, what she does is she takes them out on field trips, and uh, she just kind of just has them in a room and they talk to other kids, and it's a group of ten kids.

SONYA BANKS: OK

PATRICIA SUBIA: and that would be on Wednesdays.

SONYA BANKS: Wednesdays.

PATRICIA SUBIA: Today would be the first day.

SONYA BANKS: Yeah, she told me about today.

PATRICIA SUBIA: Oh, she did, good. And what I would do is, I would take them and I would bring them back.

SONYA BANKS: OK

PATRICIA SUBIA: So it's from 2 to 5.

SONYA BANKS: If it was not for Ms. Subia...I don't think I, I couldn't have...I don't think I could have gotten through to Tae'shannee, at all, cause she really didn't pay me any attention. I couldn't talk to her, make her speak, do anything. You know?

NARRATION:
Once a week Patricia takes Tae'Shannee and three other children from Lincoln to attend a group therapy session led by Dr. Dolores Sanchez, a psychologist who works with kids who need special attention.

DR. SANCHEZ: Do any of you know social workers?

KIDS: Yeah....

DR. SANCHEZ: Yeah...you all know social workers, huh?

IRIS: It's like some people that come and visit you and if you like...it's like a lady...

BOY: and if you're real good they'll take you to visit your mom and dad.

IRIS: Yep.

DR. SANCHEZ: Some are foster children, some, uh, live with grandparents, some, uh, live with a parent. All of them have had serious trauma. Uh, one child was abandoned at four months in a laundromat. There are parents with AIDS, there are parents who are unable for whatever reason to care for them.

DR. SANCHEZ: (Reading to children) In the morning there was this court hearing and my mom goes to jail for dealing drugs and drinking too much and for not protecting us from getting beaten up. I wish I hadn't screamed, I'd still be home. My mom is going to stop doing drugs and drinking and then I'll go home, probably next week.

DR. SANCHEZ: The book provides a validation of their experience so that they feel that other children have the same experience and someone has taken the time to write a book and draw pictures for them and I think that's helpful for them.

DR. SANCHEZ: The children don't really know why they're here. I think most of it comes out in the circle.

DR. SANCHEZ: All the way down here I feel sad.

MATTHEW: I feel like this, cause at school...

DR. SANCHEZ: Like this?

MATTHEW: Yeah, cause at school the boy, he picked me up by my neck and slammed me on the cement.

DR. SANCHEZ: Mmm, Mmm.

IRIS: How did you feel when you bent my hand, my finger?

DR. SANCHEZ: This one?

DR. SANCHEZ (VO): I don't know that anyone ever really truly recovers from a trauma of that nature. But we integrate it into our life pattern. Very often in families that have had this kind of trauma, there isn't a lot of stability, they tend to move, they tend to change schools, although they want to help their children, they're not sure that this is the right way to do it, and they might be right, I mean I can't say that we have any answers, it is hard to measure, very hard to measure whether we're really being successful.

NARRATION:
Each killing threatens to unsettle other local kids. After a drive-by shooting in the neighborhood, Manny visits two of his Lion's Club alumnae, now in middle school, to see if they're okay.

MANNY JOHNSON: I was trying to...

FATIMA: You was carrying, you was carrying.

MANNY JOHNSON: I wasn't carrying no way.

MANNY JOHNSON: Your life's not sacred no more. In my day, I mean, if you had a fight with somebody I beat you, you beat me, I was embarrassed but I might wanna fight you again but I wouldn't kill you. Now if you have a fight with somebody and if you beat him, he or she is coming back to kill you, armed with a gun.

MANNY JOHNSON: So you, you guys read about this in the paper, this killing on...

KRISTSANDRA: It was right across the street from my house.

MANNY JOHNSON: It was right about across the street from your house? Did you know anybody that was involved in this? Did you know....

(Girl nods)

KRISTSANDRA: My cousin Troy.

MANNY JOHNSON: Your cousin Troy? Was he the one, one of the people that got shot?

KRISTSANDRA: Yep.

MANNY JOHNSON: Cause I heard that there was five people that got shot. I heard that it was just an innocent... I mean, a person just opened fire on a street corner, he just rode by in a car.

MANNY JOHNSON: What I'll do is I'll, um, talk to a few people today and like I say they always know the story... find out was any relatives or loved ones that you know, do we need to deal with it do we need to talk about it so they don't get that anger inside them and they feel they have to go out and retaliate because this eye for an eye just doesn't work.

NARRATION:
By the time Manny's Lion's Club kids graduate to the Helm's Middle School, many of them accept violence as part of everyday life. During their junior high years they are particularly vulnerable to peer pressure, drugs, and the lure of gangs.

MANNY JOHNSON: How many of you guys feel scared when you come to school? No one feels scared? See he's honest, he feels scared. He's the only one?

MANNY JOHNSON: Would you feel more safer at Helms or at Kennedy?

ERICK: Kennedy, cause I have more backup.

MANNY JOHNSON: You have more backup. Why do you need backup?

ERICK: Cause.....Probably they kick my butt and stuff.

(Laughter)

MANNY JOHNSON: Who would do that? Who'd kick your butt and stuff.

ERIC: Them black peoples, somethin', slobs or Chinese or Asians.

MANNY JOHNSON: The only people that could be bothering you are blacks and Asians? What about Spanish, Spanish wouldn't bother you just 'cause you're Spanish?

ERICK: Yeah, but not that much.

MANNY JOHNSON: What do you about that when they bother you?

ERICK: I walk away.

MANNY JOHNSON: You walk away? Have you ever told anybody?

ERICK: No, just my friends.

MANNY JOHNSON: Because you never told me that. You know that you can tell me that, right?

ERICK: Yeah.

MANNY JOHNSON: And you know that if you tell me that we go get the boys and, you know, we straighten the thing out.

ROSINA KEREN: The junior high is a crucial place to start doing a prevention program with the kids. Because they're coming out of elementary school where most of them are still pre-pubescent and they're going into junior high where the whole atmosphere is changed. And this is when a lot of the youth start getting involved with drugs, they experiment with drinking, they start getting involved in gangs, and some of them are sexually active already. So that's really a time where we need to jump in and provide them with things that interest them, before they start getting waylaid on different things that are a lot harder to fix. The drop-in center has junior high and high school, because the junior high kids already see gang members on the street, they already see drinking. But what we like to do is provide them with people they admire and look up to from their community, but these are youth we've already worked with, who we've trained, who are now saying to the younger ones, you know, this is what I did, but that's not what I want for you.

NARRATION:
Gonzalo has continued to work closely with Pepe. With his help, Pepe has graduated from high school and managed to find a job. If he can keep himself employed, Pepe will stand a good chance of becoming the role model he'd like to be for the rest of his family.

PEPE (VO): I have been working for almost two months now, 10 hours a day. It has been helping me a lot because it keeps me away from trouble, out of the streets and I'm learning that there's more things out there than just a gang and you know, rivals. But then you never know who's gonna come up behind you.

PEPE (VO): I have three brothers and two sisters. One of my sisters, she's seventeen, and I would like her to keep on with her studies, but now she has a little girl, right, and it's hard cuz she's working right now too. My brothers, I wouldn't like them to mess up like I did. I see them like, they're kind of like messing up now, and I don't want the same for them. I'm thinking of a better way of living, and to be somebody. It's hard, but, I know I can make it. I can make a change in my life.

ROGER GRAEF: It's been tempting in the criminal justice debate to pose these two alternatives between spending more money on prisons or just talking about a kind of social revolution where we provide jobs and health care for everyone. We always think there's a magic bullet. There isn't one, we actually have to recognize that there is no single way to stop crime. Indeed, that there will always be different kinds of crime happening all around us. The question is what level will we tolerate, what level do we need to accept in order just to live our lives peacefully?

SONYA BANKS: My kids got to the point where they didn't want to stay here anymore, you know. They had this little thing that their brother was still in the home. And Tae'Shannee said he scares her at night, she can hear him walking, and so I couldn't have them stay here and be fearful, so we moved out.

SONYA BANKS: (sync) He died right here and there was blood, a big heavy blood stain. They told me that you could never clean blood from a carpet, and it took me, I guess these three, two three months to really just get it out as light as it is now. But, um, it's a smell of blood. I will probably never get rid of the scent. And I guess this is probably what just really urged me to move. I just couldn't stand seeing it everyday, the first thing I would see through the door was the spot that he died in. And the blood stain that he left there so.

DR. SANCHEZ: The children are there, if they have the proper resources, and environment, and housing, and employment and food and nurturing and schooling and all of those things, you give them the opportunity to succeed and they will.

PAM PARSONS: If children don't get help, you're just going to see much more crime ,and much more chaos than we have now, and I think that the prison populations are going to boom. It's absolutely imperative to look at our children and realize that unless we do something pretty quickly here, that we're going to be in trouble.

MARCO GONZALES: We know that if we're always beatin' kids over the head, if we're always calling their attention to their negative behavior, the poor behavior, then that can become the focus. But if we can teach values to children, if we can instill upon them some sense that they're not in the world by themselves, I'd like to think that we'll have an impact in reducing violence and crime.

MARCO GONZALES: There's one real message I'd really like you to remember. Never ever tell yourself that something is impossible. Something may be hard, something may seem improbable, something may seem like it's so far away that you'll never get there, but I can promise you that you never will get there if you say it's impossible. And I'm looking forward to the day when you'll come and visit me and you'll say, Mr. Gonzalez look, this Friday I'm gonna graduate from Richmond High School. Because boys and girls, you have to graduate. You have to graduate from high school and you have to plan to go to college. All of you can make it, but only if you make that your goal.

MARCO GONZALES (IV): It only takes one adult, in the life of a kid during his adolescence or during his years to make a difference. It could be his teacher, it could be the counselor, it could be the crossing guard. But one adult, who takes the time to listen to, to understand, to make a connection. Every community has things to offer, and some have more, some have less. If you approach it from what would you want your own child to have, and what I wouldn't accept for my own child-I can't accept for any kid, if you take that approach, it's real easy.

CHARACTER UPDATES:

Marco Gonzales is now head of the first new primary school to open in Richmond in nearly 30 years. He is building a coalition of community agencies to work with students at risk, and their families.

Child Haven has been recognized by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges as the model most likely to break the cycle of child abuse.

Tae'Shannee Banks has changed schools. As a reward for outstanding grades, she has become a hall monitor and computer room assistant.

Yolanda Najera and Gonzalo Rucobo now work on a city-wide program for first-time offenders under fifteen. Yolanda is pregnant with her third child.