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<p>The United States Attorney’s Office, in partnership with San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD), has launched an elementary school program designed to teach children that their decisions have consequences.<br>
The eight-week curriculum is aimed at giving fifth-grade students the tools to “sharpen positive decision-making skills” and “resist pressures to join gangs, take drugs, or partake in other harmful behaviors,” informed the U.S. Attorney’s Office.<br>
More than 30 volunteers from the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Coast Guard are teaching a program called Project LEAD to 270 students at five schools.<br>
The program, which includes class discussion and small-group activities, is designed to help the children develop the skills they need to reject drugs and alcohol, as well as gang membership, criminal activity, bigotry, bullying, and other negative behaviors.<br>
“We can’t solve all of society’s problems by prosecuting and incarcerating people,” said U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy. “The best way to stop crime is to prevent it. This is a program that gives children the tools they need to choose a positive path for a productive, happy life”. She also added that today’s fifth-graders are tomorrow’s leaders, so the best investment the program can make is to teach kids good habits from an early age.<br>
The program also serves as a mentoring program where students are guided by volunteers who encourage the students to reach high for their goals.<br>
The elementary schools currently participating in this initial stage are Valencia Park, Johnson, Emerson-Bandini, Logan, and St. Rita’s, but more schools may be added in the future.<br>
This initiative was originally launched in Los Angeles in the 1990s, and is now taught in 46 Los Angeles elementary schools. It has become “a national model.”<br>
The program arrived in San Diego in 2012 at the request of U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel who, while serving as a federal prosecutor from 2002-2006, was a volunteer for Project LEAD in Los Angeles.<br>
After his appointment to the San Diego Superior Court, he encouraged the District Attorney’s Office and La Raza Lawyers Association to support the initiative.<br>
“This program shows kids they can be anything they want to be – a lawyer, a doctor, an engineer, an architect – anything,” said Curiel.<br>
This year, U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy sought to create a federal version of Project LEAD to expand the number of children participating in San Diego in an effort to replicate the successes of Los Angeles.<br>
Duffy hopes to expand the program to more schools next fall.</p>