Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Yale Daily News - Mayor calls on cops to help reform schools


Yale Daily News - Mayor calls on cops to help reform schools:

"“I think there’s a tendency for kids in inner cities to harbor negative attitudes toward the police,” said Ward 7 Alderwoman Frances “Bitsie” Clark, who chairs the Youth Services Committee. “What the mayor is talking about is the role of the police not as enforcers but as educators and role models.”

One program, Gang Resistance Education and Training, or GREAT, a police officer mentoring program in schools that is now in its second year, will be expanded alongside DeStefano’s school reform plans. Ward 20 Alderman Charles Blango, the assistant dropout and truancy prevention coordinator for the Board of Education, said GREAT will be administered at six schools this year, up from two in 2008, and is scheduled to expand to at least two more in 2010."