Deepa Bharath “Not the eyebrows, guys, please!”...

Deepa Bharath

“Not the eyebrows, guys, please!”

The plea for mercy came from Oscar Santoyo, director of Save Our

Youth, as he sat on a chair Friday evening surrounded by a bunch of

students armed with hair clippers and hair dye.

Santoyo had promised his students in Save Our Youth’s academic

program that if they each earned a grade point average of 2.8, they

could do whatever they liked to his hair and he would keep the

“style” for a week, however humiliating.

Well, to put it mildly, Santoyo’s poor hair didn’t stand a chance.

The students’ cumulative GPA was 3.1.

Santoyo was not the only one who made a deal. Two of the

coordinators promised the kids that they could pelt them with pies if

they got good grades. So Academic Coordinator Navie Hurtado and Boys

Coordinator Jose Zapien ate quite a bit of whipped cream as students

hurled pie after pie.

“I hate whipped cream!” Hurtado yelled, spitting out the white

mess.

Zapien was the masochist. He sat unruffled as the plastic plates

filled with cream slammed against his face. Some flying cream saucers

landed on his head.

After all, Zapien had done it himself. It turns out pie-throwing

and haircutting is not new at Save Our Youth.

“I’ve been coming to the SOY center since it first opened way back

when,” he said. “I loved doing this when I was their age. Now it’s

their turn.”

Santoyo has shaved his head several times in the past. He had not

done it for the last two years because he didn’t want to “scare my

son,” who is now 2 years old.

“But this year, I wanted to do it,” Santoyo said. “Hopefully, my

son won’t freak out too much.”

Save Our Youth’s academic program started several years ago,

aiming to keep kids in high school. Today, it’s gone one step

further.

“Our goal now is to see them continue and go to college,” Santoyo

said.

And it seems to be happening. Last year, out of 13 seniors, nine got into universities, he said.

“If we can achieve that, if we can motivate them to learn; this is

totally worth it,” Santoyo said.

Santoyo, of course, regretted those words the second he sat on

“the chair.” Giggling boys and girls used clippers to shave his hair

from the middle of his head and then proceeded to take some off the

sides. Then, they painted what was left on his head with bright pink

and purple dye that probably won’t wash off for at least a week.

Then, there were the hecklers.

“Bad hair day, Oscar?”

“You look sexy, Oscar!”

Santoyo responded with a sarcastic nod, his eyes half closed,

cocking his eyebrows -- which were spared.

Juan Flores, an eighth-grader at TeWinkle Middle School, said he’s

gotten a 4.0 GPA for the last two years.

“This did motivate me in a way,” he said. “I couldn’t wait. I

wanted to mess up his hair.”

Perla Zaragoza, a freshman at Estancia High, said Santoyo and the

coordinators were being “good sports.”

“But they deserve it,” she said with mock meanness. “They’re

always asking me to do my homework. And Oscar made me do sit-ups this

one time I said a bad word. It’s payback time.”

As for Santoyo, he has no regrets.

“It’s just hair,” he said. “It’ll grow back.”

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at deepa.bharath@latimes.com.