Third-year student at University of California Santa Barbara majoring in Middle East studies and sociology on a pre-law track. Aspiring international law professional. PESA college intern. Tutor and mentor for diverted youth.
Impressive credentials for any 20-year-old, but even more so for a onetime Teen Court defendant charged with shoplifting. Which is exactly why PESA is so proud of Gizelle (not her real name).
Gizelle embodies the goals at the heart of the Judge David S. Wesley LASC Teen Court Program: To offer first-time offenders a shot at redemption, a chance to make amends, to avoid the grip of the traditional justice system and, importantly, to move forward with their lives with a clean slate.
“It was a dumb mistake,” says Gizelle recalling how, as a 17-year-old, she and a friend stole makeup from a store. “Very little if any thought went into it. It was just us seeing something expensive and pretty and attempting to steal it if we liked it enough. Looking back, it’s ridiculous that we could have been so reckless and seen ourselves as invincible, unable to get caught.”
In fact, she says, getting caught was a blessing, because it happened two months before she turned 18. If she had continued with her actions and gotten caught when she was 18, she would have been tried as an adult, and she could have ended up in jail, with a crime permanently on her record.
Instead, with her case referred to Teen Court, she was able to meet the terms of diversion and have her record expunged, and now sees the incident as “a mistake I learned from rather than one that will haunt me my whole life. I’m glad I’m able to self-reflect on that moment and grow from it.”
Not to mention embark on a whole new phase in her life. “It allowed me to make great connections at PESA,” says Gizelle. After successfully completing the diversion process administered by the CBO, she says she was so positively impacted that she continued working with PESA, serving in a number of different roles, including tutoring and mentoring diverted youth, advising college-bound high schoolers, writing police summaries for Teen Court cases and serving as an observer on Teen Court sessions.
That last experience has perhaps been the most deeply impactful. “It was interesting to see this happen to someone else, especially since it had only been a few years prior that I was in that same position,” she says. “I hope all youth going through the program know how lucky they are to get a second chance, and to truly use the opportunity to better themselves. They should not beat themselves up, because they are not their worst mistake.” ■
If you’d like to support PESA’s many social and educational initiatives, please contact us.