IT\u2019S a Saturday morning and a half-dozen adults are sitting in a high school classroom, staring at grim photos of sickly drug addicts and hearing about the deadly consequences of gang crime. They\u2019d rather not be here, but a judge made them come.<\/p>\n
The mums and dads were ordered to attend the class under a new California law giving judges the option of sending parents for training when their kids are convicted of gang crimes for the first time.<\/p>\n
Assemblyman Tony Mendoza, the lawmaker behind the Parent Accountability Act, said it is the first state law to give judges the power to order parents of gang members to school, though other court-mandated classes exist at the local level.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of parents do not know how to handle teenagers,\u201d Mr Mendoza said. \u201cNow more than ever, parents need a guide.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new law went into effect in January and eventually will be in place across California. Budget cuts in Sacramento meant implementation of the classes was delayed and only in the past month or so have they been rolled out on a limited basis in the Los Angeles Unified School District.<\/p>\n
Several of those first classes were canceled due to low attendance, something organisers blamed on judges\u2019 ignorance of the new law. But the sputtering start also speaks to the difficulties of trying to engage parents who may be too busy or apathetic to take a more active role in their kids\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n
Authorities say Los Angeles County has about 80,000 gang members, though those estimates vary. Parents in gang neighbourhoods often struggle to make ends meet and find themselves working more than one job. The long hours mean they can\u2019t spend much time with their kids and some youngsters say they are tempted into gang life by a sense of companionship missing from their own family.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most difficult thing is to have control of the kids,\u201d said Socorro Gonzalez, a housekeeper who was ordered to a recent class after her son, a member of the San Fer gang, got into trouble. \u201cWhen I come home, I don\u2019t know what they have been up to.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the class last month with six parents, an instructor speaking in Spanish flashed images of drug paraphernalia and showed pictures of addicts before and after they acquired their habit. At a later session, another instructor outlined classic warning signs of gang involvement \u2013 tattoos, secretive behaviour, sudden changes in musical tastes and the use of gang hand signals.<\/p>\n
Jose and Rosalva Rodriguez attended one of the first classes, which was held on two consecutive Saturdays at a high school in the San Fernando Valley. Their 16-year-old son had been accused of spraying graffiti when police arrested him at a party attended by gang members.<\/p>\n
In addition to sentencing him to one year\u2019s probation, community service and counselling, the judge ordered the parents to attend the class, where they heard about tough legal penalties levied against gang members and how they could get more involved in their kids\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very important,\u201d Jose Rodriguez said after driving an hour from Lancaster, a sprawling city in the high desert north of Los Angeles. \u201cI\u2019m going to speak to him, listen to him and give him advice.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 48-year-old baker said he learned how to spot the warning signs of gang involvement, including if his son was carrying markers that can be used for gang graffiti.<\/p>\n
Eventually, the classes will include the family members of victims of gang crime speaking to parents about their ordeals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is nothing more moving than someone sitting in front of you, telling you how they felt when they heard the gunshots or their son or daughter was killed,\u201d Mr Mendoza said.<\/p>\n
The classes are supposed to be self funding and parents will eventually pay $20 or so a class, but the fee is being waived for now to draw more participants.<\/p>\n
If parents fail to attend, they could be held in contempt of court. Judges are likely to lenient initially because only four high schools are offering the classes, making it impractical for parents without cars to attend.<\/p>\n
Olu Orange, an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California\u2019s political science department, said he was troubled by the possibility of parents being held in contempt for an offense committed by their child and adjudicated by a juvenile judge and not a jury.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe prospect of parents being subject to criminal penalties for violating a court order that is imposed on them as part of a non-jury process scares me,\u201d Professor Orange said.<\/p>\n
The law was inspired by Mr Mendoza\u2019s own brush with gang life.<\/p>\n
Growing up in the gritty Florence neighbourhood south of downtown Los Angeles, Mr Mendoza saw the importance of parental involvement. The second youngest of nine kids, he was drifting toward gang life and sported the shaved head and baggy Dickies shorts favored by many Latino street gang members.<\/p>\n
His cousin was headed the same way. But when Mr Mendoza\u2019s mother started to clamp down on which friends he could hang out with, his aunt was less strict. The cousin eventually became a full-blown member of the Florencia-13 street gang and was killed in a drive-by shooting in the early 1990s.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mom started getting more involved and prohibited us from hanging out with certain people,\u201d Mr Mendoza said. \u201cMy aunt didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other court-mandated classes exist, including the Parent Project, a 10-week program in Los Angeles County that counsels parents and their kids who may be skipping school, taking drugs or involved in gang life.<\/p>\n
Rick Velasquez, executive director of Youth Outreach Services in Chicago, said parenting classes seemed like a good idea but noted that judges could often do a much better job of getting parents involved in their child\u2019s activities simply by speaking with them when they show up in court to support their children.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, other penalties exist for parents of children who get into trouble. In several jurisdictions, including Santa Fe, New Mexico, and San Juan Capistrano in Orange County, parents of kids caught spraying graffiti must pay the bill to clean it up.<\/p>\n
A new law going into effect in California next year would let officials prosecute parents when their kids skip school.<\/p>\n
Pasadena juvenile Judge Philip Soto said he\u2019d not had a case yet where he could send parents to the new Parent Accountability class, but he supported it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always difficult in court when the parents come in and feign ignorance and say, \u2018I didn\u2019t know anything about this,\u2019\u201d Judge Soto said. \u201cYou have to sit back and wonder how can you miss these signs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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