NLV's wayward teens to receive 'special ed'

Teens in North Las Vegas with a criminal record will soon be enrolled in a class intended to teach them the consequences of their crimes.

A $20,000 grant awarded to the Crime Prevention Division of the North Las Vegas Police Department will fund two crime prevention specialists to teach the course "Teens, Crime and the Community" to 60 juveniles on probation with Clark County Family and Youth Services.

Juveniles residing in North Las Vegas will be given first priority to participate in the program, set to begin in the next few weeks.

The crime specialists will teach the program, introduced through the Clark County School District.

Maria Chairez, director of secondary success programs for the school district, said she is planning for the first training session this weekend, when she will introduce the specialists to the curriculum.

The class is currently taught to students in the school district, but it will be the first time being taught to high-risk probationers, she said. The class was first introduced at Horizon High School in 1991 and has since grown to 17 middle schools, four high schools, and six community-based programs.

Clark County Family and Youth Services will provide two trained employees to transport and supervise the juveniles to attend classes, as well as providing classroom facilities.

The North Las Vegas City Council on Wednesday agreed to pay $4,752 of the grant money to the Clark County Family and Youth Services for its staff.

The focus of the course is on crime prevention, making teens aware of the effects of crime and the risks of victimization, Charlotte Salyer, acting crime prevention manager, said.

In addition to attending classes, the teens will work on community action projects such as mural painting, making videotapes and creating a crime prevention brochure.

"It teaches them that crime can affect them and teaches them how they can prevent it, why they should not be a perpetrator of a crime, and how it affects people," Chairez said. "It teaches them the value of trying to fight crime in their school, neighborhood and community."

The grant was awarded by the Nevada Juvenile Justice Commission with Nevada Division of Child and Family Services.

In 1998 the number of juvenile arrests in North Las Vegas for serious crimes including murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault and burglary rose 4.4 percent over 1997, city figures show. Twenty-nine percent of them occurred after school.

archive