The start of summer means the end of school, and the conclusion of another successful year for Project LEAD, the office’s law-related education program.
The 20-week curriculum, developed in conjunction with the Constitutional Rights Foundation, teaches fifth-grade students about the criminal justice system and the importance of making good decisions.
For the 2015-16 school year, Project LEAD reached more than 2,200 students in 73 classrooms across 46 Los Angeles County schools. More than 173 prosecutors, investigators and other criminal justice professionals volunteered to work with the students.
This year, as part of the United States Department of Justice’s Violence Reduction Network, Project LEAD was taught at three schools in the Compton Unified School District. The initiative is focused on bringing together local and federal resources to combat chronic and violent crime.
Fourteen deputy district attorneys and investigators primarily from the Compton Branch Office, the Compton Juvenile Office and the Hardcore Gang Division in Compton taught the program at McKinley, Washington and Rosecrans elementary schools.
Research shows that students who complete the Project LEAD curriculum gain a solid respect for authority figures and “protective factors” that help them stay out of trouble.
Since 1993, more than 30,000 fifth-graders have completed the program.
For more information on Project LEAD, go to http://projectlead.lacounty.gov.