TEENS LOOK OUT FOR HOT SPOTS.

Byline: Sue Doyle Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - They're trained to look for the hot spots, to listen for the words and to recognize the players.

They're known as safe school ambassadors, about 300 junior high and high school students trained to defuse situations and alert others about problems on nearly all the campuses of the William S. Hart Union High School District.

Advocates of the program say it gives administrators and teachers a connection to the climate of their schools, because students often see and hear more about what's happening day to day with their peers than adults do.

In addition, they say, it pulls students into a better understanding of campus safety.

``It's always been the responsibility of administrators and teachers, and the reality is that we're outnumbered,'' said Rhonda Carr, Hart High School psychology teacher and intervention coordinator for the ambassador program. ``They (students) have the information and often after major incidents have occurred, we find that students knew about it ahead of time.''

The program began more than a year ago at Golden Valley High School and has since grown to include most schools in the district, with Hart High School the most recent to join the trend.

The safe school ambassador program comes from Santa Rosa-based Community Matters. The organization sends trainers to participating schools, where students learn strategies for intervention and skills to recognize when problems are arising, during two-day training programs at each school. The sessions cost about $4,500 each.

There are about 40 high school students and 20 junior school student ambassadors at all Hart schools except West Ranch High School and Rancho Pico Junior High. Although students are free to tell others that they are ambassadors, some keep that information to themselves.

``The program is set up so that they are largely anonymous so that they can move in that milieu, in that environment, without being thought of as being 'part of the management,' so to speak,'' said Greg Lee, Hart district diversity coordinator.

With nearly all campuses on board, Lee said the district is preparing to meet with the schools and evaluate the effectiveness of the program and decide whether it's worth the cost.

At Valencia High School, where there have been safe school ambassadors in place since the fall, teacher Joni Stiman said it's hard to gauge the effectiveness of one intervention program because there are so many proactive programs already on a campus that's usually peaceful.

``It's hard to measure when things don't happen,'' she said.

Stiman said conflicts that the students assist with are kept confidential and only the types of problems are recorded.

Lee said programs such as safe student ambassador have their place on campuses, because students are often in places, such as the locker room or fast-food joints, where adults are not. These students can catch small problems before they grow.

``I think people involved in student discipline realize that they need to find out what happened over the weekend, because what happened will have an effect on campus,'' Lee said.

Sue Doyle, [phone]

sue.doyle(at)dailynews.com