A long-running truancy-prevention program in Watsonville is on its way to being tried out in santa cruz. The north-county broad-based apprehension, suppression, treatment and alternatives program, known as BASTA, got closer to implementation at a meeting yesterday. The goal of the program is to better share information and prevention techniques, to keep students from skipping school, and becoming active in gangs. The Watsonville BATSA program has been operating since 1990. the North County BASTA steering committee is scheduled to meet again, in February.
