For Officer Dennis Barnett, the Fontana Leadership Intervention Program (FLIP) is rooted in the belief that struggling students should not be written off. After all, he said, there’s hope for every single one of them.
“The toughest kids that I have are the best kids for me to work with,”Barnettsaid. “The ones that are having the toughest time that people have dismissed are some of the kids that have the greatest potential.”
Led by the Fontana School Police Department, FLIP is an intervention program designed to help struggling middle to high school students to get back on track. FLIP features mandatory weekly tutoring to help the students keep up with their classes, along with multiple activities designed to help them develop teamwork and leadership skills. The young people also take part in various extracurricular opportunities, including taking college field trips and meeting with professionals to learn more about possible careers and other post-secondary paths. Using what Barnett described as a “semiparamilitary” structure, the students have responsibilities that they are expected to follow through on…