SPECIAL KIDS GET LOWDOWN FROM POLICE; OFFICERS TALK ABOUT STRANGERS, STRESS COPS ARE THERE TO HELP.

Byline: Jenifer Hanrahan Daily News Staff Writer

The students at the Lowman Special Education Center sure know how to charm police officers.

The kids piled into a Los Angeles police cruiser as if it were a contest to see how many people can fit in a phone booth. They honked the horn, switched on the lights and shouted into the loudspeaker.

All while Los Angeles police Reserve Officer Fred Baron and three full-time officers looked on - smiling, no less.

It was all part of a unique program to make special-education students comfortable dealing with the police and to teach them straightforward lessons about distinguishing good strangers from bad.

``We love you and we care about you and we'll always be there to protect you,'' Baron told the 200 students last week during an assembly at the school's North Hollywood campus.

Baron, a 69-year-old West Hills resident, has dubbed his program Police Officers Supporting Special Education, or POSSE.

``These children are not aware that strangers can be harmful to them,'' Baron said. ``In most cases they're very loving, very trusting young people. The whole purpose of this program is if they're lost, I want them to recognize what a police officer looks like and know they can help.''

For many children, the lesson is not an easy one to learn.

For students at Lowman, the lesson can be complicated by their disabilities - the same disabilities that can make them targets of crime.

Many have serious medical problems and physical disabilities, combined with such developmental disorders as autism and Down syndrome, said Principal Helen Hartel.

Baron, a reserve officer for eight years and a retired businessman who sold wholesale linen and pet supplies, developed the program about a year ago out of concern for society's ``most vulnerable'' young people.

It's unclear how much of Baron's lesson the children absorb, but he said he knows of at least one case in which a student at a special-education school had gone into convulsions, and another student ran to the principal's office telling him to call 911 - just as Baron had instructed.

And Robby Argote, 10, impressed his teachers and mother by shouting the answers to several of Baron's questions.

``It's pretty good for him to yell out that loudly,'' said his mother, Stacee Carillo of Sylmar. ``He doesn't usually do that.''

Baron has presented his program to other San Fernando Valley special-education schools, and he hopes to reach more than 3,000 kids in 18 similar schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

What's more, Baron now is a substitute special-education teacher.

``He is in love with our students,'' Hartel said. ``He tries to give the kids who need that little extra boost, that extra help. He is a very, very caring man.''

One day last week, Baron teamed up with Los Angeles police Officers Santiago Rosales and Vic Masi and California Highway Patrol Officer Fernando Martinez to teach the children to recognize a police uniform, a police car and a badge.

He also showed them how to dial 911 in case of emergency. And for those children who have difficulty speaking or making themselves understood verbally, he told them to dial 911 and leave the receiver off the hook. A dispatcher will send an officer, he said.

Twelve-year-old Karina Gutierrez was the star of Baron's 911 demonstration. She yelled ``Help! Fire!'' into the phone as the crowd of her peers and teachers cheered.

And when Chelsea Hazeldine, 6, marched to the front of the crowd to take her turn dialing 911, she took a bow.

Many of the students at Lowman can't speak, but throughout Baron's presentation they registered their delight, some by using an electronic keyboard, some just by smiling. When an LAPD helicopter circled overhead, the more-mobile students jumped up and down, waved and cheered.

``He's here just for you!'' Baron told the students.

In the police cruiser, 13-year-old David Hernandez of Sun Valley figured out how to use the loudspeaker immediately. Known among his classmates as a class clown, he stretched out in the back seat with his hands clasped behind his back as if he were wearing handcuffs.

With unwavering patience, Masi lifted several dozen children, some in wheelchairs, onto his motorcycle and let them turn on the siren. Several lined up more than once, but he didn't seem to mind.

``These are great kids,'' Masi said. ``I'll lift them as long as they're here.''

Some reached out to touch Baron's shiny badge. Another youngster grabbed his hand and shook it forcefully, saying ``Thank you, thank you'' over and over again.

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2 Photos

Photo: (1) LAPD Officer Vic Masi shows a student his motorcycle at the Lowman Special Education Center.

(2) Reserve Officer Fred Baron helps Karina Gutierrez, 12, dial 911.

Tina Gerson/Daily News