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After many incidents of gang violence this year in Pasadena, PCC has been asked to join an 11-member City Committee to address the issue.As a part of the solution, the college is now working on a new vocational training program.

The violence has stirred concern by city and education officials, and the spiritual community. All will now be working together on the committee “to reduce violence in the short term and to develop sustainable community-wide policy and infrastructure to maintain a safe community in the long term,” according to a report prepared by City Manager Cynthia Kurtz.

Thousands of field interviews and traffic stops, along with hundreds of citations and arrests have been made in northwest Pasadena, where much of the violence has occurred, police reports indicate.

The city fully committed to curbing the violence shortly after two killings and two attempts were reported against men aged 17 to 21 on northwest streets during the first week of February.

Then, a May 6 shooting outside a liquor store on North Orange Grove Boulevard left a 19-year-old Latino man paralyzed. Police later arrested a 15-year-old suspected.

On May 7, a brazen mid-day shooting on Washington Boulevard left two men, 20 and 37 years old dead. Police suspect four gang members in the incident.

Investigations of most of the incidents have revealed that gang affiliation, not race, has been the primary motivation, according to police.

It is not known yet which two trustees will be on the committee.

Seeking a permanent solution, Councilman Victor Gordo has been collaborating with the PCC Board of Trustees to introduce a truck-driving program, which would be offered at the Community Education Center.

“Every child should have the opportunity to go to college. but in the end, not every child will go to college, or wants to go to college,” said Gordo. “That means we have to [make available] different opportunities to be successful, including vocational training,” he said on Monday’s meeting.

Gordo said such programs have built-in incentives for students to fully dedicate themselves to becoming valuable employees, and avoid the perils and downfalls of gang life.

The program aims to change the view students have of what a vocational education has to offer, and to dismiss the idea that such an opportunity is made solely for students of a particular background.

Today, PCC Board members will be meeting with Gordo and Ricky L. Hodge, division dean of CEC, to work out the details of the program. “Talk of the program is in the early planning stages,” said Jeanette Mann, PCC trustee.

The training is to be free; though, Mann said standard health and enrollment fees might apply.
Retired members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters will teach the program. Upon completing it, students will have to take the state truckers exam for their license – with prospects of them continuing into union or non- union jobs.

Graduates of the program can expect to get jobs starting at $65,000 a year, Gordo said. The equipment, including trucks and trailers, will be provided by the trucking industry.

Both Gordo and Mann have recounted instances when students partake in widely publicized vocational training programs that do not follow through. They have cited repeated accounts of students taking out loans of up to $20,000, and ending up working at $8 to $9 per hour jobs.

Gordo has also cited two Los Angeles trade schools that recently agreed to refund their students nearly $6 million after the state attorney general accused them of misrepresenting their success rates, employment opportunities and starting salaries.

Reports indicate that acts of violence between gang members in Pasadena and Altadena began to spike last year. It
A subset to the new committee is the Youth and Violence Prevention Committee, consisting of Council members Jacque Robinson, Gordo and Steve Madison, along with a member of the Altadena Town Council.

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