By Darlene Donloe
Contributing Writer
LEIMERT PARK — In the heart of Los Angeles, where gangbangers and graffiti taggers run roughshod over the streets, a quiet revolution is underway.
At the helm of the It’s Cool To Be In School revolution is an initiative, its founder, Darryl Crutchfield, said could turn schools upside-down.
In partnership with his nonprofit, Save All Kids, It’s Cool To Be In School offers general and financial literacy programs, plus its own entertainment network, bi-weekly TV shows, events, an annual concert, a clothing line, and accessories — all in collaboration with its community outreach partner, High Level Hollywood.
Crutchfield said the acronym SCHOOL stands for Seriously, Controlling my future, Having the ability to Overcome the Obstacles of Life.
“The way I see it, if you have to be in school anyway, why not make it fun?” said Crutchfield, who came up with the idea in 2005. “We teach them to read and to lead. Education just got better.”
The program is the flagship project under Crutchfield’s Save All Kids’ umbrella, a nonprofit that fights to boost literacy, keep kids in classrooms, steer youth away from drugs, gangs and crime, and slash homelessness, teen pregnancy, and dropout rates among young people aged 12 to 26.
“Some of those things are the things that hurt me,” Crutchfield said. “That’s why I focus on them. Dropping out of school decreases the chance of youth and young adults obtaining any type of employment, which can lead them to rob, steal or sell drugs. I’m trying to prevent that.”
By addressing those issues and providing these services, Crutchfield, 59, said the youth and various communities become safer due to less gang activity, a decrease in poverty, homicides and robberies.
Crutchfield, who knows a thing or two about being a delinquent, imagined It’s Cool To Be In School as a vibrant mix of education, entrepreneurship and entertainment that makes learning feel like a party.
He came up with the idea after he broke free from a life of drugs and crime that led to years of incarceration.
“My life started off rocky,” Crutchfield said.
A former hustler turned game-changer, Crutchfield’s life reads like a gritty screenplay.
Born into tragedy — his father was murdered before he was born — he fled his broken home and ditched school, landing in the hands of street gangsters who used him as a pawn in their drug empire.
Unknowingly groomed to sell dope, his final bust came when he faced undercover federal agents, pulled a gun, and got arrested with a drug-trafficking charge. Behind bars, the fire in him didn’t die; it sparked a vision to flip the script on education.
Crutchfield said he got “out of the life” when he was 26.
“The Youth Authority had charged me as an adult,” he said. “I did a year, and got five years supervised. I almost got 15 to life. I ended up doing six years and a couple of months on a 10-year sentence.”
While he was in custody, Crutchfield began attending school.
“I came to my senses,” he said. “The first time I was in jail in Eastlake Juvenile Hall, they woke us up first thing in the morning. We would eat, line up and they would march us to a building. It was a school. We were going to school.
“I said, ‘I could have done this at home. I may as well go to school on the street; don’t do it in jail.’ That’s when God and I had a pow-wow. I did well on the [American College Testing]. I also went to college there. I also began to write.”
Thirty years later, Crutchfield, who made the dean’s list twice, is still writing. As the CEO, he creates all of the content for High Level Hollywood, an interactive, profit-sharing, independent entertainment network featuring bi-weekly TV shows, talent showcases, webinars, films and concerts. He also writes songs.
Crutchfield, who was born in Chicago but was raised in Los Angeles since the age of 8, said he started It’s Cool To Be In School, and Save All Kids after having yet another conversation with God.
“’He told me, I had to save the kids,” Crutchfield said. “It was a literal conversation. There were too many kids out there getting killed, getting life sentences — 40 years in a grown man’s jail.”
It’s Cool To Be In School is conducted both in schools and at the brick-and-mortar facility in Leimert Park.
“We do programs in some schools to make it fun to learn,” said Crutchfield, who holds degrees from Chapman University, Los Angeles Trade Tech and the LA Film School. “I provide the kids with what I didn’t have. My whole vision for this program was education.
“They can’t take it from you. It’s going to help you in life. I realized education, entrepreneurship and working are key. These kids need to get skills so they can get better jobs.”
In addition to education, counseling, tutoring, the arts, entertainment and entrepreneurship, Crutchfield helps kids start their businesses from beginning to end, including their corporate filing fees.
The program offers hands-on business training to help them launch their own California-based startups, turning dreams into real-world ventures.
“When people want to do building and construction trade, we pay for their steel-toe boots, hard hats, safety glasses and safety gloves,” said Crutchfield, who also holds a certified welder’s license and plans to launch a construction company.
Crutchfield said his kids’ programs are not without barriers.
“Of course, funding is always an issue,” he said. “But a lot of barriers come from the kids themselves having trust issues. They’ve been lied to all the time. We have to build that trust, which takes time.”
The nonprofit, which opened in Leimert Park last year, is housed in a business-and-education center — a sprawling hub packed with tutoring labs, counseling rooms, startup incubators, art studios, and state-of-the-art virtual classrooms.
The center hosts on-site events where teens jam with mentors in music workshops, pitch business ideas to investors and dive into interactive science labs. Off-site, the program rolls out mobile “learning pods” that pop up in neighborhoods, bringing live tutoring and career coaching to the streets.
By making school cool, Save All Kids aims to lock the dropout door, shrink gang activity, lower poverty and cut homicides and robberies in the community. Crutchfield believes “it’s working.”
His programs, which he has taken to 20 different schools, are taking education to a new level, proving that when school feels cool, communities become safer, brighter and full of opportunity.
In a city notorious for its struggles, Crutchfield believes It’s Cool To Be In School is a beacon of hope — proof that with the right support, even the toughest kids can thrive.
“If we can make school cool, we can change the world,” he said.
Saving All Kids and It’s Cool To Be In School are located at 4332 Leimert Blvd.; phone 424 646-1328.
Darlene Donloe is a freelance reporter for Wave Newspapers who covers South Los Angeles. She can be reached at ddonloe@gmail.com.
