A Week in Watts Page #9

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Like, the teachers... they didn't care.

I only had one teacher that really cared.

Also, they wouldn't focus on

who were being bullied

or who was being hurt or anything,

and I would see a lot of fights

in my other school on 112th Street,

and I hung around with the wrong crowd

but not to do bad stuff,

but so I wouldn't get bullied either.

I forgot what it's called,

the Assembly for Awards.

The Awards Assembly. There you go.

They give all the certificates

for people who've been responsible

and people who

haven't got deficiencies or citations.

And people... yeah, and honors,

first honors,

second honors and third honors...

and also people who been here, like,

every day and haven't been tardy.

I got it in sixth, seventh grade

but not today. No.

My life is pretty much at Verb.

I like coming here. I love it.

It's been the best four years so far.

I started here and I was really shy,

but over the years,

I feel like I've grown.

Verbum Dei High School

was opened initially in the early 60s.

The first principal, really critical with

respect to his educational philosophy.

Wanted to make sure these kids

graduated from college.

My friends have the same ambitions

as I do. We all want to go to college.

So we all know that our priority is doing

our schoolwork rather than going out,

but we still like to hang out.

So it's a good balance.

Instead of them sending me

an acceptance letter,

they sent me a letter asking me to send

them money as if I graduated or something.

All right, see you.

Definitely from the Nickerson Gardens

to Verbum Dei is a transition

because when I walk out that door

in the morning, I'm in my suit and tie.

People look at me different, you know.

They don't see me as a typical

African American living in the projects.

They see me something much more,

and that gives me confidence.

It tells me in my head

that I can do certain things.

I can make it out of the projects.

I can get my family out the projects,

and that's my ultimate goal is to get me

and my family away from here.

Hello?

Yeah.

I'm doing pretty well.

How are you doing?

Well, I'm really interested in attending,

but I'm not sure yet if I want to make

the final decision yet.

I get home from school and I look forward

to looking at the mailbox

hoping for a college response.

But I know Reed College,

they send it through mail for sure,

that's the only way they send it.

That's the one I'm looking for

every day because I know everyone else

will send me an email before.

So my first college acceptance

was from St. John's,

and they sent me a text,

and I woke up to the text.

So it was like a good day.

Daisy came into

Operation Progress four years ago,

and she was a fourth grader.

And she was very shy.

I mean, hardly spoke at all.

And you even approach her,

and she would kind of clamp up.

She didn't know what to do.

It was just her

going to school and back home.

She didn't do much outside the house.

With Operation Progress, we give her

the opportunity to leave that environment

for a few hours, either go to the horse

program or we take her to field trips

to Disneyland or Magic Mountain.

So, she's doing a lot more.

She's more active now.

She will have

a full on conversation with you.

She is so friendly and outgoing.

She participates in all of our programs,

and she's just a girl

who wants to be a girl.

She doesn't want anything else.

All she wants is to ride horses.

You can spend hours

talking to her about horses.

That's her thing.

The horses, you share a bond with them

and the people over there are really nice

and generous and they're very loving.

I love horses a lot,

and just like the people there,

they're very good listeners,

and they love us.

They're like family.

It's just a way for me to relieve stress

from all the stress from school.

It's not that stressing. I'm only 16.

Jennifer's very wise beyond her years.

She's got this old soul, very caring soul,

and I think it comes out because

she loves working with elderly people.

So I think that's...

I think it's so depicting of who she is.

On Saturday mornings,

I volunteer at a hospital, St. Francis.

The environment was just very...

it was very soothing.

And they give me a free meal.

So that's nice.

After hospital, one of the officers

picks me up from the hospital,

and we head on over

to Silver Spur Stables,

which is where we go horseback riding.

Every time we go somewhere,

that's the best.

We did a lot of activities before

when my cousin was in the program.

We went to Mulligan's,

then we went laser tagging,

go-cart riding, bowling.

I had confidence,

but I couldn't show my confidence

because I never got to do stuff.

I tell my mom about every

field trip we ever had,

and she really liked

that I'm in Operation Progress.

Are you feeling that?

I've been staring at that wall,

trying to make it even.

One of

the hardest afternoons was

we had taken the kids surfing,

and, you know, in the morning,

they're so afraid to get in the water.

They think they're gonna die and drown.

By the end of the day at five o'clock,

they will not get out.

I mean, we were pulling them

out of the water to leave.

And we left and were driving home

and we're coming back from Malibu,

and we're on Central Avenue,

and we're about to enter in the projects,

and there's

a police helicopter above and sirens,

and it was just so hard to see that

these kids were going home to that.

You could feel it with the kids, too.

They don't want to be dropped off at home.

They don't want to go back to their house.

Sorry.

Well, the crime in Watts

has actually improved,

and Watts is only a small area.

It's about ten square miles.

Southeast in general is ten square miles.

When I came in here eleven years ago,

we were averaging over

110, 115 homicides a year.

Now, I think last year,

we had maybe 30, 32 maybe.

So it has changed a lot, and I think a lot

has to do with the officers we have here

in southeast that are willing

to go out there and work hard,

and a lot has to do with the partnership

we have with the community.

It seems like the community

tends to trust us more.

- Bye, Officer Ortiz.

- Bye. See you, buddy.

- How you doing?

- Good. And yourself?

- Good.

- Glad to see you here.

Oh, thank you, sir. Thank you.

People are now afraid

to do more crimes now,

because they know that there are

a lot more people watching.

- So you've noticed a change?

- Yes.

Before, this used to be an area

with a lot of drugs and prostitution.

Now it still may happen,

but it has to happen after 11 or 12.

So the people are happy with it.

Well, crime has went down

here in this community,

which is in Watts.

The relationships

have change tremendously.

Do we still have challenges?

Yes, because you're going

to have it even with law enforcement.

You're going to even have it

with the community.

But this is the way

we work the problems out

and how we solve any conflict of...

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