City Of Prosser Saving Gang Prevention Counselors

Share

By Sade Malloy

Summary

Cut from the budget but saved in the end. The city of Prosser will pay to keep gang prevention counselors in the school. Is it worth the money?

Story Published: Jul 29, 2009 at 4:50 PM PST

Prosser -- Cut from the budget but saved in the end. The city of Prosser will pay to keep gang prevention counselors in the school. Is it worth the money?

Action News asks, "Is the number of gang members increasing or changing?"
"I can't tell if the numbers have increased or not, but the reality is they're becoming much more pronounced," says Dr. Ray Tolcacher, Prosser School District, Superintendent.

Preventing gang problems in Prosser is costly. After Washington State's bad budget the school district had to cut its gang prevention counselors.

"It was understandable the school had to take those cuts, it just worked out well that we could step in," says Paul Warden, Mayor of Prosser.

The cut didn't last long. In a unanimous decision the city of Prosser is taking $50,0000 from the criminal justice fund to bring them back.

"We definitely decided this year we'll see what happens next year with the budget situation at the school and at the city," says Warden.

Prosser's two gang counselors have been with the district for
a year-and-a-half working with teachers, parents and principals on techniques to i.d. gang members and how to connect with at risk children. Prosser school officials say the counselors work. When Action News asked for hard proof they didn't have that.

Pasco School District has something similar to gang counselors. They couldn't give us any hard numbers, they say they don't track gang students.

"The complexity of gangs are unbelievable and it's gonna take a long time to be able to deal with the problem, we've only scratched the surface," says Tolcacher.

In a community where gang violence is growing gang prevention is crucial, that's why the city felt it was worth the expense.