Neighborhood Council Not Ready to Support Peace Warriors Program

To local youth advocate and longtime public school teacher Joe Carmona, the solution to gang related violence in Northeast Los Angeles' middle schools is intervention.

And, as he told the on Thursday evening, he is among the most uniquely qualified candidates in the area to run a much needed intervention program at .

Carmona gave an impassioned presentation to the neighborhood council on Thursday evening about his Peace Warriors program, through which he and a group of volunteers would be given unfettered access to local schools to work with students who are at risk of being recruited by local gangs.

"We need to get into the schools to meet, organize and recruit," Carmona said. "We also must get the city involved, because we need the authority to be in the schools and working with kids every day."

To that end, Carmona was seeking a letter of support from the neighborhood council to be sent to the office of Councilman José Huizar, who he hopes can convince the Los Angeles Unified School District to give him the kind of access to students he needs.

However, while council members said they respected Carmona's passion, many said they had too many questions that needed to be answered before they could support his program.

"I'm just not sure about you," said council member Tina Gulotta-Miller following Carmona's presentation, a sentiment shared by many of her fellow HHPNC members.

Reaching Out to "Street Smart" Students

Carmona's mission is an ambitious one. He hopes to be given unlimited access to students at Burbank, Florence Nightingale and Irving Middle Schools.

Further, he said he must be given full authority to hand pick the students who participate in the program, and that there cannot be any academic achievement requirements for the Peace Warriors.

"I don't care if they get all Fs," Carmona said. "If they are helping to stop the violence in the schools, then they are doing their job."

He said his program hinges on singling out street-savvy students with innate leadership ability, and channeling those qualities toward fighting gang violence at the schools.

"I need to be able to pick the kids," he said. "These kids are street-smart, intelligent leaders."

Carmona is convinced this program can be success, as he's seen it work before.

He claims the program was directly responsible for reducing the number of suspensions in the 2008/2009 school year at Luther Burbank from 650 to 120.

Carmona was backed by a group of about 20 supporters on Thursday evening, some of whom are Peace Warriors volunteers and others who had participated in the program as students at Burbank Middle School.

Among those supporters was former gang member Michael Penaloza, who now volunteers with the Peace Warriors program.

He spoke to the council about the urgent need for the program.

"What we're asking for is for you to support us so we can get into the school and start helping these kids," Penaloza said.

Lingering Questions and Concerns

Despite the strong show of support that backed Carmona on Thursday evening, many neighborhood council members said they still had too many questions about Carmona's methods. 

Council member Lisa Brewer said she needed to see more than just the general outline of the Peace Warriors program that Carmona had provided to the council.

"Don't you need a business plan?" Brewer asked. "There's a little more work that needs to be done before I can put my name on this."

Brewer also asked how the Peace Warriors program would cooperate with Aztecs Rising , a Lincoln Heights based gang intervention program that has gradually been increasing its presence inside Northeast Los Angeles' Schools.

Gulotta-Miller had some of the most pointed questions for Carmona, asking directly why he was forced out of Luther Burbank Middle School following the 2008/2009 school year. 

Carmona was not given the opportunity to answer the question, however, he admitted to Patch in previous conversations that administrators were concerned with the amount of freedom that the program afforded to students, some of whom failed to maintain passing grades.

Gulotta-Miller said that she too still had too many questions that needed to be answered before she could support the program.

"You're very passionate, very knowledgeable, but I still have questions," Gulotta-Miller said. "Do I fully understand the program? Do I fully understand the community concerns? It's very complicated."

More Discussion Needed

Following a motion to table Carmona's request, HHPNC President Chris Smith directed Carmona to communicate with both Aztecs Rising and Councilman Huizar's office, in order to be better able to respond to the council's questions at their upcoming September meeting.

Smith said tabling the request would be better for the Peace Warriors' chances than an up or down vote, as the council seemed likely to reject his request.

Following the meeting, Carmona distributed an e-mail to his supporters, thanking them for attending the meeting and expressing his disappointment with the council's decision.

"As I explained to the council [on Thursday] night, the schools are not trained or willing to work with the at-risk youth. Being such, we will again begin to lose more of our children to the gang culture and violence. This, to me, is hard to take. I have seen this happen year after year and I do not know how much longer I can take it," he said. "Obviously, there are more meetings down the road. I hope that those that did not make it this time can attend."