A Week in Watts Page #6

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was through that call.

You know, it's interesting with Daisy

because on the outside it seems like

she hasn't been fazed by anything,

and I think that's with a lot of kids.

They look like kids and they're wearing

these uniforms and they look so happy,

but Daisy, and like many of the students,

deals with a lot of PTSD.

I was in a fifth grade class at Grape

Street Elementary with another officer,

and we asked the kids how many of you

in this room know someone

that's been shot or killed?

Every single fifth grader

raised their hands in that classroom.

For the past two years,

I had two family members that died.

Imperial Court, two years ago, there's

a gentleman walking down the street.

His girlfriend's waiting for him across

the street, and he's texting on his phone.

And this car pulled up, and they got out,

and they shot him and they executed him.

And there were a group of kids walking

across the street that saw this happen.

And he literally landed in front of the

recreation center in Imperial Courts,

and he died.

That same car

left that housing development,

went to another housing development

and shot and killed somebody else.

And eventually, the car

was stopped by LAPD officers,

and he was taken into custody.

But to be that child that was

walking across the street

and just witness something

so cold and callous like that,

is just unimaginable.

And then, when you have an incident

like that occur that's very traumatic,

that kid goes to bed,

wakes up, puts on his clothes,

go to school, sits in a classroom,

and he's expected to learn.

How is he going to concentrate if no one's

even addressed that traumatic incident

that happened?

It's big time here,

because anytime you can bring

a six-year-old or five-year-old

or seven-year-old and they tell you about

witnessing their cousin or their best...

their uncle or somebody laying there

murdered and they have to witness that,

and that kid carried that for a long time.

But if you was living in another

entire different neighborhood,

you would have counselors.

You would have all kind of folks

who would come into that community

and try to help the families

on down to the friends.

You see it all the time on the news.

But it seem like in these type of areas,

you don't see that.

Oh, they'll be all right.

After the funeral, they'll be all right.

We now know that kids who experience

trauma in neighborhoods all the time...

don't have their brains developed

the way they were supposed to

because there's adrenaline all the time.

They get attention deficit disorder.

They can't concentrate in school.

And what we know now is that if

you are a child in that situation,

you may never fulfill your destiny.

You may never be able to be

who you were meant to be

because your brain's development

has been altered

because adults don't know how

to organize their neighborhoods.

We're reaching out

to our young people, you guys,

those who really not understanding

and understanding lives is precious,

and our young people losing their lives

like you go to the store and buy candy.

These kids have to grow up fast by seeing

all the trauma and hearing the stories.

It's not like these kids go home

to a normal house where dinner's made

and it's on the table, and their parents

are asking how they're doing that day.

They go home to hearing about

the gossip in the neighborhood,

who's been shooting who?

Who's coming after who?

The drug deals...

I mean, they know everything, right?

And how do you process that

at ten years old?

Between sex, drugs,

shootings, domestic violence,

we are trying to treat each kid

with post-traumatic stress here

just from the things

that they see on the street.

Who goes to school at 7:00 a. m.

and passes 15 prostitutes?

Walking to school, as innocent as that

might sound for some of these kids

becomes an adventure.

I even told my mom

that if she had a car

and she would bring us every morning,

I think I'll enjoy coming to school more

because I just don't like walking.

I used to have a car,

but they stole it from me.

So I've known Petra

since she was in second grade.

I've kind of been raising her

along with her mother

and helping her mom and her family out

and I love Petra, because she's just got

this great spirit about her,

but yet she's got sass and she can be

outspoken sometimes as well,

but she cares a lot about people,

and her goal is to become a lawyer,

and I see that in her already.

She's very much about justice.

Well, she says that

she wants to be a lawyer.

I want her to be a doctor.

I'm not really sure what she wants to do

when she grows up... Petra.

My name is Petra,

and I would like to be a divorce lawyer.

A divorce lawyer?

Is that what she said?

Petra said divorce lawyer?

That's crazy.

I like to put up a fight.

I like to argue for other people.

I just said that.

Meah and Petra, you're not in their group.

I'm sorry. What's with the together thing?

We're doing our definitions for you

because we had to move...

Yeah, but... Is this the situation

that we would have expected?

Meah has been there all my life.

She's my best friend.

She's my other half.

What would I do without her?

She's always been there.

She'll have my back

when somebody's talking about me.

- And I love this girl to death. So, yeah.

- I love you more, honey.

Okay, number 20, Ariel,

and that's not the...

isn't that a fish or something in a movie?

No...

Petra's great. She arrived

in the sixth grade here at St. Lawrence.

She has a lot of potential.

It was just a matter of

harnessing her potential

and giving her some direction,

and once that was pointed out to her,

she really fell right into step

and she does well here at school.

She's well liked.

She gets along well with her peers,

and she respects all that we stand for

here at St. Lawrence.

So we really enjoy having

Petra here as a student.

- I brought you some Doritos.

- No, you didn't.

I did.

My favorite thing about school is

coming to see the lovely children.

They make my day.

- Can you do me a favor?

- Yes.

Can you run over there for me?

Oh, yeah.

I think Petra's unique

because she's at the tipping point

where she needs to make a choice

of how she's going to live her life.

She clearly has potential to do well,

but it's a tough age.

For me, I think

it's important to reach them

before they hit their early teens,

because when they're younger,

they're still at that impressionable age

where you can still kind of guide them

to do the right thing.

Once they hit 12, 13...

I mean, it's sad to say, but sometimes

they already made up their mind.

Eight to 13, that's where my focus is at,

because that's where they're

determining what route I need to take.

With all the kids from Nickerson,

Imperial Courts, Jordan Downs,

they all go to one middle school.

So you got three gangs

in one middle school.

So, obviously, at that point,

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