By Kate Day

Telina Martinez/special to the Town Crier Alta Vista Fresh Lifelines for Youth (FLY) participants, whose anonymity is protected, pose at a FLY event.

“Thank you for giving us this amazing gift of knowledge and understanding,” said an Alta Vista senior at her recognition ceremony for the Fresh Lifelines for Youth (FLY) program.

Alta Vista, a continuation school in the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District, is one of only five schools in which FLY operates its legal education program for youth on probation or at risk. The school’s latest 22 participants celebrated their recognition ceremony at the Isaac Newton Center in San Jose May 11.

Stanford law graduate Christa Gannon started FLY in 1996 and continues to be the driving force behind the program, which incorporated as a non-profit in 2000 and now works with more than 2,000 minors a year.

Standing 6 feet 2 inches, Gannon is hard to miss. But it’s her enthusiasm and driving commitment that captivate. Founding board member and longtime Los Altan Randee Fenner met Gannon when she was a student. “She is truly one of the most amazing people I have ever met,” Fenner says of Gannon. “When you’re with Christa, you feel if you want to do something, you can.”

“When I met Christa, I was sold on the program immediately,” said John Figueroa, an Alta Vista teacher whose civics class is given over to FLY’s legal education once a week.

Volunteer law students, such as Emma Wadsworth, lead facilitator at Alta Vista, teach classes covering vandalism, victim awareness and drug and alcohol abuse. “It’s exciting to use the law as a vehicle to teach life skills,” she said. Many of her students have used skills learned in class, such as anger management techniques, to avoid negative interaction with the police. “And I learn from them how the law plays out in school and in the streets,” she added.

“FLY gives kids choices, options,” Figueroa said. “But it’s not buttered up for them. Police officers tell them exactly the way it is.”

As a student volunteer in a juvenile-detention center, Gannon worked with young people facing sentences of 10 or 20 years, even life imprisonment. She asked them what would have prevented them from getting so heavily involved in crime.

“They described FLY,” she said. “They wanted information on the law, someone who cares and a chance to do something good for their community.

“This is not just about poor kids and kids with no role models,” according to Gannon. “More affluent kids have access to high-end drugs. I’m really worried about these kids driving while high up in the hills.”

In addition to Alta Vista, FLY operates in four other high schools and with incarcerated youth. The non-profit offers mentoring to juveniles with drug or alcohol addictions and youth on probation, and a community-service leadership program for graduates of the legal training and mentoring programs. The Law for Your Life Prevention program targets middle-school students, informing them how to avoid making mistakes before it is too late.

FLY is one of a continuum of services to which judges and probation officers refer juveniles. But the program is unique, according to Marc Buller, assistant district attorney. “It’s more comprehensive than other programs. Kids are not just learning knowledge, they’re learning how to respond differently,” he said.

Fenner agrees. “FLY gets kids to buy into the legal system because they come to understand it,” she said. “It’s no longer something imposed on them.”

Delores Nnam, public information officer for the county probation service, attributed FLY’s success to its utilization of younger adults who can relate to juveniles.

“FLY does terrific work,” said Judge Richard Loftus, presiding judge at the Santa Clara County Juvenile Court. The program is successful with good kids who have gone astray and with repeat offenders who eventually rehabilitate, he said.

Gannon’s energy seems limitless. She hopes to expand FLY and overcome the capacity restraints that necessitate waiting lists for all the programs. “We have to offer these kids unconditionality,” she said. “We never go away.”