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Youth in the NewsVolume 2, Number 6, March 16-31, 2007 Contents STATE WATCH
RESEARCH
GOVERNMENT
ARTICLES NEW JERSEY It used to be that girls had coo ties, and boys were icky. Budding sexual feelings were played out in games of "Girls Against the Boys," capturing each other after breathless, thrilling chases. The playground battle of the sexes still rages, but in the age of graphically violent video games, how children unleash this tension has changed. And it is a change that worries parents, even though experts downplay the links between video games and extreme, Columbine-like violence. In "The War of the Boys and Girls: One Winning Team, Many Losses, Tons of Deaths," girls are annihilated with a variety of weapons, only to pop up and be dispatched all over again -- a mirror of many video games popular among school-age boys. But it's not a game. It's a book written by four fifth-grade boys at McKeown Elementary School in Hampton Township, raising alarm among the parents of female classmates who are the book's victims. It also raises questions about the media's effect on how children process these developmental milestones, and their future behavior. "It blows your mind that 9-, 10- and 11-year-old boys are even thinking things like this," said the parent of one of the girls in the story, who did not want his daughter identified. "If the teachers caught it before it be came Columbine, great for them. That's what we're mostly afraid of -- we don't want another Columbine up here in Sussex County." The boys are to undergo psychiatric evaluations. While the parents' reaction might be understandable, experts said there's no probability the boys in question are destined to become psychopathic killers. There's ample research showing a link between violent video game playing and aggressive behavior, but no research tying it to overt acts of violence. In fact, as video game playing has skyrocketed, youth violence has decreased, according to Karen Sternheimer, a sociologist at the University of Southern California who has studied youth behavior. But violent media, such as video games and movies, do influence how children process their worlds, said Michael Rich, the director of the Center for Media and Child Health and an adolescent medicine pediatrician at Boston Children's Hospital. "It means 'I'm confused and I don't know how to deal with confusing feelings I have about girls and I'm expressing myself in a format that I know,'" he said. The book "is imitating a video game in its structure. Any one of these games set up an environment where the only way you can deal with something is trying to kill whatever the 'other' is until it goes away. But it never does, be cause more come on and you go to the next level," Rich said. The book was written over more than two years by the boys. It named 11 of their female classmates, including two of their own sisters, and a female teacher as the victims of assaults. The victims meet gruesome endings; they are beheaded, eviscerated and shot, with military weapons like miniature howitzers and flame-throwers. The book is in four sections, starting in elementary school and moving on through middle and high school and college -- similar to levels of increasing difficulty in most games. While Rich stressed he is not familiar with the case, he said the psychological evaluations may only serve to stigmatize the boys. But counseling might help them sort out their feelings. "It's overkill to have these kids psychiatrically evaluated. They're not doing anything but mimicking what they are consuming for entertainment," Rich said. "We as a society say this is entertainment, this is what you do to have fun. We think that kids go to school and learn about Abraham Lincoln and photosynthesis and then they come home and switch their brains off when they play 'Halo,'" he said, referring to a popular video game that is rated M for mature, but is played by many younger boys. "They're sponges, they pick everything up. You may be separating these boys out from a whole bunch of kids with the same feelings who didn't have the creativity to make the book or the stupidity to bring it to school," he said. Sternheimer said she sees creating the book as a kind of male bonding. "They use the narrative they're familiar with in video games to create some kind of shared culture: "'I'm one of the guys ... I don't like girls,'" said Sternheimer, the author of "Kids These Days: Fact and Fiction About Today's Youth." While she said psychiatric evaluations might be "overboard," the incident provides an opportunity to talk about gender and how girls are devalued in the culture. What's troubling, she said, is that the book is a reflection of that. "That's one of the things I would be targeting with these young boys," she said. Rich said the boys' parents might want to take a hard look at what kinds of video games, movies and other entertainment the kids are consuming. He said he empathized with the girls named in the book, and that they might benefit from talking to adults about it, too. The fact that the boys targeted their own sisters, however, indicated to him these attacks were not meant to be taken personally. "If I'm confused and frustrated about my powerful feelings about females, you are the closest one to me. You are the icon for all femalehood," he said of the sisters. 
OHIO With Cincinnati's homicide rate at a modern-era high, local leaders are making an urgent push to adopt a violence-prevention program that has shown some success in Boston, Chicago and several other cities. Their proposed version of the so-called "Boston Strategy" to reduce youth violence - which uses social networking analysis to target a small group of most likely offenders with a beefed-up "carrot and stick" deterrent approach - will soon become the subject of debate in Cincinnati City Council and the community at large. Mayor Mark Mallory wants the city to finalize a two-year, $1 million contract for the Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV), perhaps this week. And he wants it to start using the strategy by summer in hopes of quickly driving down the number of homicides, which many believe is the single biggest factor holding back Cincinnati's social and economic progress. "None of the other numbers matter," Mallory told The Enquirer Editorial Board last week. "If we have a high homicide rate, the perception is that crime is out of control." Developed in 1996 by David M. Kennedy, then of Harvard University, the Boston Gun Project's Operation Ceasefire was credited as the major factor behind a rapid, dramatic 63 percent reduction in Boston youth homicides - although experts note that homicide rates were declining in cities across the nation anyway. Boston's project had two main strategies: combating illegal gun trafficking; and what Kennedy calls "pulling levers" to deter the most likely violent offenders. Other cities such as Minneapolis, Chicago, San Francisco, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh and Baltimore have done programs based on Kennedy's principles. So how does the "Boston Strategy" work? Studies by Kennedy and other researchers show that a relatively small number of "bad apples" commit or influence most of a city's violent crime. In Cincinnati, that may be as few as 80 people, experts say. Leaders gather information from law enforcement, community members, a network of "street workers" and other sources to identify members of various groups - not necessarily "gangs" - that may be prone to violence. That data are subjected to "social networking" analysis, aided by software tools, to discover "how individual offenders are connected to each other, and how those networks are connected together," said John Eck, professor of criminal justice at the University of Cincinnati. As Eck's UC colleague Robin Engel, associate professor of criminal justice, put it, analysts look at "who has a beef with whom," putting together what are called "sociograms" of alliances and antagonisms. Once identified, the key players - who aren't necessarily gang leaders - are brought in for what are called "notification meetings." These interventions are led by law enforcement, social service agencies, clergy, family and community members. At these meetings, the targeted players receive a two-pronged message: Stop your violent ways, and we'll help you avoid substance abuse, continue your education, get a job and obtain other social services. Choose not to stop, and we'll use every legal tool available - including federal prosecution - to put you away. Turn a handful of these key players from violence, Kennedy discovered, and you reduce conflicts among and within groups; shootings should decline as a result. "The dynamics of these groups are not as we think of them," said Dr. Victor Garcia, director of trauma services at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, who would chair CIRV's governing board. "Often, they're not out to be violent. They don't know how to get out of it ... they egg each other on." If after two or three such meetings a core offender isn't persuaded, law enforcement starts to apply those "levers" - serving warrants, disrupting drug trade or other activity, changing conditions of parole or probation, federal prosecution and the like. Kennedy notes that the more a person is involved in illegal behavior, the more levers law enforcement has available against that person. "But the idea is to use law enforcement to arrest as few people as possible," Engel said. This approach has been shown to lead to quick reductions in crime. But even its strongest advocates warn that without constant follow-through by law enforcement and community pressure on gangs, violence will spike upward within a few years. In Boston, youth homicides fell from 47 in 1995 to only 15 in 2000, but rose to 36 in 2004. A former Kennedy associate notes that the Baltimore and Minneapolis projects "rapidly unraveled and were soon abandoned." So Kennedy's strategy hasn't been greeted with universal acclaim in the criminal justice field. Some believe that its focus on one type of offense, such as gun homicides, can enable other types of crime, such as drug sales, to continue. Others question whether the "street worker" group can be effective unless it includes the gang members' peers, who themselves may be involved in illegal activity. But in Cincinnati, reducing homicides is clearly Job One, so CIRV leaders believe it's critical that the community get solidly behind the program now, and they're confident they've learned enough from other cities' experiences to adapt the approach successfully here. "This is urgent. I'm concerned that we're approaching warmer weather," Garcia said. CIRV leaders frame their argument this way: Cincinnati has the highest homicide rate of any major city in Ohio. Citizens are demanding action to bring that rate down. The Kennedy approach has made a difference elsewhere, and it can work here. It will be a crucial discussion in the coming days - one that area residents cannot afford to ignore.
INDIANA Mayor Bart Peterson announced this morning that Indianapolis will host a national summit on media violence and its impact on children on April 17. Peterson made media violence a top agenda item in his role as president of the National League of Cities. He said the goal is to educate parents and find new cooperative approaches to addressing media violence because regulation has not been effective. Several years ago, Peterson pushed a ban on violent video games in Indianapolis that was later overturned in the courts. Today, the press conference concluded with a video of popular games, including one where a player scores points by shooting a police officer. He said that while regulation is often considered a state or federal issue, he was inviting municipal leaders because the effect of youth violence on families and communities. "We simply can’t ignore the connection between violent media and the tragic behavior of some our young people, especially when we have mounds of medical evidence, startling real life examples and rising crime rates," Peterson said in a press release.
ILLINOIS First Lady Laura Bush praised the work of the Chicago-based violence prevention program CeaseFire Thursday, telling national business leaders gathered here that they have a moral responsibility to support groups that make life better for America's youth. CeaseFire officials want to take their unorthodox but successful method for curbing street violence, which relies largely on the street-level work of former gang members, to the national level. To do that, they say, will require the financial support of corporate America. At a CeaseFire leadership summit at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the first lady encouraged business leaders to use their ingenuity to fight what she called the country's violence epidemic. "Working together, each of you can help young people in cities across the country lift themselves out of violence," Mrs. Bush said during a brief but impassioned speech before about 100 people, who greeted her with a standing ovation. She said CeaseFire has revolutionized the way cities can approach the problem of inner-city violence. Started in 2000 by epidemiologist Gary Slutkin, the program employs longtime residents of high-crime neighborhoods, often ex-convicts, as outreach workers. They canvass neighborhoods, resolve potentially violent conflicts and encourage people to accept alternatives to violence. In creating CeaseFire, Slutkin drew on his experiences leading public health programs that fought tuberculosis in San Francisco, AIDS in Uganda and cholera in Somalia. He views violence as an infectious disease and combines the work of his outreach workers with aggressive public awareness campaigns—from church meetings to peace marches—aimed at teaching people that violent behavior should not be viewed as normal or acceptable. Though unconventional, using former gang members to mediate gang conflicts has proven effective. "It's a public health technology to use people from the affected group to speak to the people in the group," Slutkin said. "Who else is going to be respected and have the trust?" CeaseFire has reduced shootings in city neighborhoods and has been praised by the Chicago Police Department for helping to lower the homicide rate. The group is funded by local, state and federal funds as well as contributions from foundations and corporations. Slutkin said the next step in taking the program national is to get backing from the business community. "We feel like we've developed an excellent relationship with the communities and with clergy," Slutkin said. "Now we feel like we need partnerships with the corporate community." Robert Mendonsa, regional president of Aetna Inc. and a CeaseFire board member, spoke at the summit and gave fellow business leaders examples of why, aside from the moral imperative, they should care about halting violence in neighborhoods here and across the country. Who, Mendonsa asked, ends up paying the medical bills of an uninsured youth shot in a gang fight? "You do," he said. "What I do is pass it on to you in the form of premiums. So there are plenty of very compelling reasons, from a sheer cost standpoint, to be very supportive of CeaseFire." This was the second time Mrs. Bush has visited Chicago in support of CeaseFire. She first stopped here in 2005 and has since included Slutkin and the program in her national Helping America's Youth initiative.
CALIFORNIA A pilot truancy program in south Sacramento has emerged as a surprisingly strong preventative weapon in the city's battle against gangs and rising youth violence. Of the 250 truant students who have passed through the attendance center of Luther Burbank High School since October, 91 percent are back in class, according to the Sacramento Unified School District. Without kids aimlessly out on the streets, the Sacramento Police Department said grand theft in the area has plunged 31 percent. Vandalism is down 16 percent. Yet the program -- hailed in a recent legislative hearing as a model for the state -- is in jeopardy; its funding uncertain. "Our biggest hurdle is money," said Sacramento police Capt. Daniel Hahn, who oversees youth violence prevention programs, school resource officers and gang investigations. As a test program, the center has no guaranteed funding stream. The center's troubling financial situation was outlined at a recent meeting of representatives from the city, county, Sacramento City Unified and nonprofit organizations. Participation from nonprofit groups that provide the center with crucial counseling, mentoring and other services has been rapidly dwindling because of funding constraints. "Unless there is direct funding from a government institution, the center won't last long," said Neng Vang, an organizer for Sacramento Area Congregations Together. "That's something we made quite clear." Civic leaders also are looking to expand the program within the school district, and acknowledge that money needs to be located, somewhere. The idea for the center was born last year after a group of Hmong parents approached ACT, asking for help to keep their children in school. The families recognized -- and the police agreed -- that keeping their children off the streets would help deter them from gangs and crime. They then approached Councilman Rob Fong, a former Sacramento City Unified trustee, to help. Soon representatives from the Police Department, local nonprofit groups, school district and county met to discuss solutions. Out of those talks, a radically different approach was born. Instead of simply making a call to parents if a youngster skipped school, truants instead would be taken to the center where the absence would be addressed immediately. Students and their parents would be able to meet with a full-time county social worker or workers from local nonprofit groups that could provide them with counseling, mentoring, drug and alcohol programs, and other help. The office is open from 8:30 a.m. to noon every weekday. Joan Polster, associate superintendent, said Sacramento City Unified knew it couldn't do such a program on its own. "The issues children and families are facing don't just deal with education, but so many other social, economic and mental health barriers that keep them from getting to school," Polster said. "The district doesn't have the resources or the expertise in all those areas." Typically, it would take weeks or months before school officials and habitually truant students spoke face-to-face, said Dalila De Lancey, who directs the center. "This is immediate awareness," De Lancey said. "We look for the root causes." The approach was immediately successful. On some days, Burbank had no truant students. Historically, Polster said, "those days are pretty rare." When crime and attendance statistics started to be collected, Fong said he was "bowled over." The program has provided a bright spot for a city reeling from shootings and killings involving youngsters. Police Chief Albert Nájera has urged the city to adopt more preventative measures, saying law enforcement can only do so much to stem the problem. On a recent morning outside the attendance center, a patrol officer delivered a teen who had been hanging out in a Freeport Boulevard market when he should have been in class. Hahn stopped to talk to the boy, 14, a student at California Middle School. The boy said he was up late the night before and not feeling well. "I had a sore throat," the boy said, "later, I felt better and decided to go to the store."
NORTH CAROLINA Consolidating Asheville and Buncombe County governments would benefit residents of both municipalities, according to North Buncombe High School senior Jill Lunsford. “It would provide additional services for people outside the city,” Lunsford said, as well as a broader tax base and more powerful representation in Raleigh for the combined jurisdiction. The proposal was one of about 23 legislative initiatives considered Saturday at the seventh annual American Youth Congress, which gave about 180 middle and high school students from 16 Western North Carolina schools a taste of the legislative process. “Any way we can encourage students to engage in civic debate, that’s a big advance in preparing them to be citizens,” said Gordon Mercer, director of the Public Policy Institute at Western Carolina University, which organizes the event. Before convening in the banquet hall at the Asheville Civic Center, student groups prepared proposals on local, state or federal issues ranging from adding a waterslide to Asheville’s Recreation Park to revisions of the national No Child Left Behind law. A group from Hendersonville Middle School crafted a proposal calling for a national identification card. “We’ll have a better grip on who’s illegal,” said team member and eighth-grader Nakiesha Lawrence, whose group also suggested a screening process in Henderson County. At the event, students met in committees in the morning before holding a lobbying session where they could seek support for their proposals, which were then presented to the congress and voted on by all students. In the plenary voting sessions, the Asheville and Buncombe County merger and identification card proposals did not pass, while legislation calling for a more accessible walkway to the Montford Park amphitheater and a phasing-out of incandescent light bulbs by 2012 was approved. To maximize the impact of the proposals, a summary of the student legislation will be sent to Congress and the N.C. General Assembly, Mercer said, and groups will send their work to local governments. Prior youth congress initiatives addressed a state lottery, healthier foods in school vending machines and the density of residences in trailer parks before actual legislation on these topics was passed, he said. The program helps young people overcome the perception that their views don’t matter to politicians, said WCU senior Genevieve Johnson, a staff member at the Public Policy Institute. “It gives them a voice,” she said. List of proposed legislation, voting results and awards The Junaluska Leadership Council opened the plenary sessions with a presentation outlining their purpose to develop leadership skills, understanding of government powers and workings, and building civic engagement skills Their presentation encourages other young people to create leadership groups that helps identify needs of young people in the area and create proposed legislation or suggestions and bring them to local and state government attention. North Buncombe High School LBJ Job Corps Madison High School State Legislation: Fair Acceptance Act for Colleges and Universities Macon Middle School Swain Middle School Enka High School Orton Academy Local Legislation: Walkway in Montford Park Tuscola High School Federal Legislation: A Color Blind Nation Act of 2007 Swain Middle School State Legislation: Random Drug Testing of Students and Teachers Hendersonville Middle School Local Legislation: Creating a National Identification Card State Legislation: Global Warming Awareness Federal Legislation: “Clean Air Act” Federal Legislation: National Health Insurance Federal Legislation: Demilitarization of Iraq TC Roberson High School Owen High School Enka High School
VERMONT The Vermont Department of Health is launching its "Butts of Hollywood" campaign with two primary goals: to educate youth about tobacco use in the movies, and to inspire teens to think critically and start talking about what they are seeing onscreen. The youth smoking rate in Vermont is currently 16 percent, close to the Vermont Department of Health's goal of bringing the rate down to 15 percent by 2010. Exposing the influence of tobacco use in the movies could help reduce this number even further. "The numbers are startling," said Sharon Moffatt, RN, MSN, acting commissioner at the Vermont Department of Health. "Nearly 4 out of 5 of all American movies, including those targeted to youth, contain scenes with tobacco use. And studies show that youth who see smoking in the movies are almost three times more likely to try cigarettes." In an effort to reduce smoking among teens, the Department of Health funds Our Voices Xposed (OVX) – a youth-led organization dedicated to informing Vermont teens about big tobacco's marketing practices. Among other features, the OVX website (www.ovx.org) will be host to an interactive experience called OVX Studios. At OVX Studios, teens can get an interactive look at movie making, including casting, directing and product placement, by making their own animated film. The finished product is played for an animated "audience" who rates the movie based on its content and logic – and also gives feedback to help the moviemaker understand what the impact would be if they put a product like cigarettes into their film. "After surveying hundreds of teens at the Governor's Youth Leadership Conference we worked with Burlington High School students and OVX members on this campaign, and they helped us gain insight into their tech-savvy generation," said Sheri Lynn, tobacco control chief. "These efforts reinforced the importance of connecting with teens where they spend their free time – and that is often going to the movies, watching TV or on the Internet." For students involved in the campaign, the opportunity to provide input and guide the creative process was unique. Their feedback was pivotal to the development of all campaign materials and the teens often expressed excitement at seeing their opinions brought to life. To kick off the "Butts of Hollywood" campaign, the Department of Health launched a new series of animated TV spots that illustrate how big tobacco companies have historically inserted their products in the world of movies. They also question why tobacco product placement is still happening today when the big tobacco manufacturers are now banned from paying for placement of their products in movies. The spots will air during TV shows and movies that are popular with teens. The Department of Health is also getting the message out by showing OVX cinema slides prior to feature films on half of all the movie screens in Vermont, as well as displaying OVX movie posters in Vermont theaters and video stores. Community tobacco coalitions, OVX groups and school-based educators from around the state have also teamed up with the Department of Health to organize a range of local events, including mock "Oscars" awards, a talent and costume show, a debate on issues like applying "R" rating to movies that show actors smoking, classroom activities, and movie night discussions.
CALIFORNIA An emergency curfew adopted by the Antioch City Council will help curb the kind of violence that took the life of a 16-year-old boy at a movie-theater parking lot in a shopping center that has long been the source of complaints, city officials said Wednesday. Under an emergency ordinance adopted Tuesday night, the city closed a loophole that allowed minors to be on the streets past 11 p.m. if they were leaving a theater. Antioch has long had a curfew barring unaccompanied minors from being out past 11 p.m., unless they were involved in a group meeting, dance, church activity, school function or youth-club event. Theaters also were excepted until now. The council, which will revisit the issue in 45 days, removed the theater exception after the Friday night killing of Louis Straiten of Brentwood, who was shot and killed at about 10:30 p.m. during an argument outside the Regal Cinemas in the Deer Valley Plaza at 4200 Lone Tree Way. Now, youths won't be able to see movies that let out after 11 p.m. at the shopping center, which is a popular place for teenagers. Merchants there have frequently complained about rowdy youths loitering in the area and intimidating customers. On March 7, numerous officers from the region were called to restore order as Antioch police arrested several teenagers who were allegedly blocking traffic nearby. The revised curfew also removes an exception that allowed youths to be in public establishments such as restaurants and cafes past 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Though a curfew violation is a misdemeanor, those who are cited typically are ordered to undergo counseling or enter a diversionary program. "In light of the surge in violence we've had in Antioch and the number of youth victims of this violence, it was time to be proactive and aggressive and take the first steps to attempt to address this issue," said Antioch City Councilman Brian Kalinowski, who introduced the emergency ordinance. Kalinowski, who is also a Contra Costa County sheriff's sergeant, acknowledged that it might be a challenge for Antioch police officers to enforce the curfew, but "it's a clear direction to city staff about the importance the council has placed on this issue, so the expectation is it will be done." Antioch City Councilman Arne Simonsen agreed, saying, "It's time that adults be adults and act like parents and take control of their kids. If parents aren't going to be setting their own curfew, like my mom and dad had on me, then the city has to unfortunately be the parents." Antioch police Capt. Stephen McConnell said the amended curfew "will be an effective tool to deal with juveniles who are out after hours." Some people, including Councilman Reggie Moore, have voiced concerns about the curfew, saying it infringes on the rights of teens to socialize. Moore was one of the organizers of a forum on youth violence Saturday that was scheduled before Straiten was killed. But Simonsen countered, "They don't have the right to create a mob mentality -- they don't have those rights." No arrests have been made in Straiten's slaying, Antioch police Detective Tony Morefield said Wednesday. Straiten attended Bridgeway, an alternative program in the Liberty Union High School District in Brentwood and had earlier attended La Paloma High, a continuation school, said Superintendent Dan Smith. "It's certainly a tragedy," Smith said Wednesday. "We feel terrible for the family, and our thoughts and prayers are with them."
VIRGINIA Most middle and high school students in Loudoun County are making good decisions about their health and how to spend their time, although there are signs of an increase in youth violence, according to a study released last week. The report commissioned by the Loudoun Youth Initiative, a county government agency, paints a relatively positive picture of Loudoun's young people, describing them as showing respect for others and searching for safe, affordable places to hang out with friends. The study also praises local social-service officials for creating programs and recreational opportunities for teenagers. The study is based on data compiled last year by two professors and several graduate students at George Mason University. Over a five-month period, they conducted a telephone survey of more than 600 homes in Loudoun, held focus groups with more than 100 students at five high schools and interviewed nine county leaders in business, government, the nonprofit sector and schools. Most of the data corroborated findings from a 2004 Loudoun Youth Initiative study in which county staff and volunteers questioned nearly 500 young people, said Tim Chesnutt, Youth Initiative's director. That survey determined that a majority of young people wanted more teen centers and programs to address issues such as drugs and bullying. One section of the new study indicated an increase in gangs and youth violence, citing interviews with adults and students. The report quoted a high school student who said that gun violence had become more common in his neighborhood. The authors also cited Loudoun County public schools surveys that found that from 2004 to 2006, the percentage who reported carrying a handgun increased from 3 percent to 4 percent among eighth-graders, and from 3 percent to 6 percent among 10th-graders. "That sort of worries me," Chesnutt said. "There are things we can try to do as far as education, but a lot of the first step has to be at home and the schools." Overall, the study concluded that drug, cigarette and alcohol use was down among middle and high school students. "Comparisons with national data show usage rates that, generally, are lower among Loudoun County youth," the report said. The study also explored teenagers' age-old problem of "nowhere to go and nothing to do." Loudoun places a high value on providing resources for young people, but often those programs are overlooked, the report said. When young people were asked in the telephone survey if they had heard of various youth resources, only one program -- the annual Loudoun Youth Fest -- was recognized by a majority of the respondents. Chesnutt said that is a sign of poor advertising rather than unpopular programs. "We have some good things going on out there that we just need to promote," he said, referring to after-school programs at the Purcellville Teen Center and the Cascades Library in Sterling. The study also found that middle and high school students want more affordable, accessible places to spend time with their friends. Chesnutt said that the social-service community is committed to creating such places. "There needs to be a network of teen services built. Adolescence is all about trying to become independent. A safe place, emotionally and physically, is where they can learn some of these independence skills," he said. Chesnutt said that community leaders will use the data in coming months as they decide how to improve services for Loudoun County youth. "This gives us a road map. Not that we'll ever reach perfection, but it has us moving in the right direction," he said.
NATURE VS. NURTURE Environmental factors are important in determining whether teens experiment with alcohol or other drugs, but genetics plays a greater role in whether users become addicted, Science Daily reported March 19. Researcher Marianne van den Bree of the Cardiff University School of Medicine and colleagues drew their conclusions from a study of twins. They found that while starting smoking cigarettes or using marijuana was associated with progression to harder drug use, there was not as strong an association involving alcohol use. "It makes sense that environmental factors such as family and peer influences, cost and availability play a more important part in whether a teenager experiments with these substances," said van den Bree. "However, biological processes in the brain and body may be more important in the progress towards addiction." "The strong link between starting smoking and going on to heavier use suggests that public health strategies should concentrate on stopping teenagers from experimenting with cigarettes in the first place," she added. "By contrast, given the large numbers who try alcohol without developing a problem habit, it may be that drink strategies should focus on those at risk of heavy use." The research was published in the March 2007 issue of the journal Addiction. Reference: Fowler, T., et al. (2007) Exploring the relationship between genetic and environmental influences on initiation and progression of substance use. Addiction, 102(3): 413–422; doi: 10.1111/j.1360-0443.2006.01694.x.
SAMHSA Use of inhalants by young girls appears to be increasing even though "huffing" by adolescent boys seems to be remaining static, according to a new report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). SAMHSA reported that about 5 percent of girls ages 12-17 reported using inhalants in 2005, up from 4.1 percent in 2002. About 4.2 percent of boys reported using inhalants, a figure basically unchanged during the study period. "When it comes to huffing at the youngest ages, more girls than boys are misusing common household products to get a fast, inexpensive, temporary 'high,'" said Harvey Weiss, executive director of the National Inhalant Prevention Coalition. "Among new inhalant initiates, girls start huffing at a much earlier age than boys. This means that parents, health care professionals and educators must start talking with preteen girls about the dangers of inhalants before it is too late." Researchers estimated that 1.1 million U.S. youths inhaled household products to get high in 2005. Overall numbers of first-time young inhalant users remained steady, according to the report, Patterns and Trends in Inhalant Use by Adolescent Males and Females: 2002-2005. The study also found that while use of nitrous oxide and "whippets" seemed to be declining, aerosol sprays seem to be getting more popular among inhalant users.
MASSACHUSETTS City leaders plead for help in gang fight March 30, 2007 By David Kibbe, Southcoasttoday.com New Bedford Police Chief Ronald Teachman joined the city's religious and outreach workers at the Statehouse yesterday to call for the state Legislature to continue a statewide grant program aimed at preventing youth violence. United Interfaith Action, New Bedford Street Workers, the Hope Collaborative, and William Burns, the chief of staff to New Bedford Mayor Scott W. Lang, appeared at the Statehouse with a statewide coalition to praise the performance of the grant program. Police, community organizations and street workers called for it to be reauthorized in next year's budget, and be increased from $11 million to $30 million. New Bedford got $1 million in grants for a variety of programs, on everything from outreach to at-risk youth to job training to substance abuse prevention. New Bedford was third in the state in funding, behind only Boston and Springfield. But the grant, which was sponsored last year by Rep. Stephen R. Canessa, D-New Bedford, and Sen. Jarrett Barrios, D-Cambridge, was only authorized for one year. The grant program was meant to complement the creation of a witness protection program and tough new laws on witness intimidation and gun violence. "I can't tell you how valuable this program is," Chief Teachman said at a packed press conference in a Statehouse hearing room. "It is such a sound investment that we make to try to get our kids to stay away from the attraction of gangs. We are trying to save lives." New Bedford Street Outreach Workers, a component of the newly formed HOPE Collaborative, said they have met with 3,000 young people in the city. The New Bedford Police Department got $150,000 for Operation Cease Fire, which supports gang prevention and suppression work. New Bedford street outreach worker Justin Carmo told state legislators that the grant program is "something powerful." Formerly embroiled in the street culture, he now reaches out to at-risk youth, and finds that they respond to him. "They saw a lot of things that I did," Mr. Carmo said. "They saw that I changed my life and I am trying to do something positive with my life. All they really want to be is to be loved and have someone care about them." Rep. Canessa is urging grassroots organizations to lobby hard to get permanent grant money in the budget. He said cities that benefit from the grants would back the money, but support was needed from the entire state. The Legislature has until July 1 to pass a state budget for the next fiscal year. Gov. Deval Patrick did not include the grant program in his budget proposal, but it could be added by either the House or the Senate. "It's a wise investment," Canessa said. "It protects our communities. It protects the state. It makes this state a better place to live."
TEXAS The remaining Texas Youth Commission board members unanimously approved a rehabilitation plan and then resigned en masse Friday, turning all authority over to acting executive director Ed Owens. The resignations were choreographed by Gov. Rick Perry after the Senate's unanimous vote Wednesday to fire the board for failing to prevent the inmate-abuse crisis that erupted in February. Mr. Owens’ seven-page plan to right the TYC ship outlines the agency’s deep problems and gives about 20 reform recommendations. They range from a new organizational structure that is more tightly controlled from Austin and new hiring policies that allow less discretion for local managers. The rehab plan comes a day after the Justice Department said Thursday that conditions at a South Texas juvenile prison violate inmates' constitutional rights because an undermanned staff wields unnecessary force, allows youths to fight each other and ignores their grievances, among other problems. While the federal report was specific to the all-male, 240-bed Evins Regional Juvenile Center in Edinburg, state officials acknowledged that the unconstitutional conditions fit the pattern they have found in many TYC facilities: an overwhelmed and out-of-control staff abusing youthful offenders without recourse. "It can be applied across the system," said Jim Hurley, a spokesman for the TYC. "This verifies a lot of the things we're finding. We're right in step with it." In a letter to Gov. Rick Perry, U.S. Assistant Attorney General Wan Kim writes that officials at the Evins facility failed "to adequately protect the youths in its care from youth and staff violence." The report "reiterates a lot of the same problems we're seeing across TYC: poor staffing, guards who aren't trained, a grievance system that doesn't work," said Ted Royer, a spokesman for Mr. Perry. Mr. Kim said investigators with the Justice Department's civil rights division visited the Evins facility in September after an October 2004 riot there. Inmates threw computers and equipment at staff members and flooded a dormitory. Four staff members were fired for infractions in the weeks following the riot, including one who held an inmate's head down with his knee while he kicked him in the ribs. 'Unnecessary restraint' During their visit, federal investigators found a disturbingly high number of employees using "unnecessary physical restraint and excessive force" to control the inmates under their watch, according to the Justice Department memo. Also, according to the memo, the Evins facility has:
If the problems weren't addressed, Mr. Kim wrote, the U.S. attorney general's office could file a lawsuit. But Mr. Owens’ rehabilitation plan was expected to address the concerns.
PENNSYLVANIA Mayor Street inspected the troops at the 12th Police District roll call for the cameras yesterday afternoon and announced a plan to flood the streets of violence-plagued Southwest Philadelphia with officers and social services. What Street did not mention, until asked by a reporter, was the recent rash of violence inside city schools. "We are going to be very aggressive. . . . When you make things better in the community, you have an impact on children and violence," he said in response. Before yesterday, Street had made few, if any, public comments about school mayhem since a pair of students broke a teacher's neck at Germantown High School nearly three weeks ago. This week, students assaulted at least four teachers in district schools, and there were seven attacks at West Philadelphia High alone over the last 10 school days. The issue has dominated nightly newscasts and appeared on newspaper front pages. The mayor's relative silence on the issue of battered teachers stands in stark contrast to the badgering he gave schools chief Paul Vallas late last year over the district's $73.3 million budget deficit. Then, Street spent nearly 14 hours over four days sitting in the front row during public hearings on the fiscal problems, interjecting his criticisms. He also testified before City Council on the issue. In some ways, aides say, the disparity arises from Street's leadership style: He's no Rudolph Giuliani-style tub-thumper, preferring to tinker with the machinery of government rather than exhort the public - and grab headlines - through the mass media. The Street administration has launched a $3 million program to hire more truancy officers and also is establishing 12 curfew centers that will give youths safe havens from the streets. Education Secretary Jacqueline Barnett also participated in a March 6 meeting with Vallas and Police Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson that spelled out a tough new security policy for schools. "The mayor takes a systems approach," Barnett said. "For him it's how do you get at the root of the chronic social issues we have. He's absolutely passionate about it." But some continue to wish Street displayed that fervor more often in public. "The mayor can use that bully pulpit for folks to rally around," said State Rep. Dwight Evans, a candidate in the Democratic mayoral primary, who has developed programs in Harrisburg to combat youth violence. "Neither the school district nor the city government can do it by themselves," Evans said, adding that Street deserves credit for some of his policies. "In my view, the mayor can speak to the issue, to say we've all got to be responsible for the schools." Street has often clashed with Vallas since Harrisburg took over the school district in a 2001 deal that brought more state funding. State control constrains the mayor's ability to act, but there could be better coordination, some say. "I've been on six committees, urging more collaboration between schools and the city," said Shelly Yanoff, executive director of Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth. "Everybody talks the talk, but it's hard. We need to get the resources there and really do require the coordination, the city and the schools really coordinating their resources and implementing plans that make sense." Evans said "better relationships" among the mayor, the police commissioner, and the schools chief would help, adding that a mayor with a big-picture perspective could highlight the need for more parental responsibility and help support that. And Ellen Green-Ceisler, the consultant who produced a study finding disarray in the school discipline system, said that the mayor could have a huge impact by ruthlessly assessing the multiple contracts the city has with nonprofits to provide social services in the schools. "Who's monitoring these contracts - are they any good?" Green-Ceisler said. "I didn't see enough evaluation of that. . . . With the limited resources, we absolutely can't afford to have these contracts going to programs that are not working." One point of contention between the school leadership and Street is unlikely to change. Vallas has said he would like to put armed Philadelphia police officers at district high schools, but Street has rebuffed the idea. Currently, only school district police are stationed in school buildings. The officers have arrest powers but no guns. Even in the wake of a rash of violence in city public schools, Barnett, Street's secretary of education, said revisiting the issue was a nonstarter. "The administration will not consider armed officers in schools," Barnett said. Street's position has been that guns are not an appropriate deterrent, and that parents do not want armed officers around their children. Johnson has agreed, saying he does not want to make school buildings "armed penitentiaries." Some large districts, including Chicago, Los Angeles and New York, have armed officers in schools. And some smaller ones - especially those that have faced violence - make the same decision. Locally, Camden and Chester are examples. Barnett said the issue also needs to be examined in context of the students' complex home lives. "It is never acceptable to strike or attempt to harm a teacher, but we need to be mindful of some of the emotional baggage students are coming to school with," she said.
HAWAII The YMCA of Honolulu's 58th Hawai'i State Youth Legislature will meet tomorrow with Gov. Linda Lingle and Lt. Gov. James R. "Duke" Aiona at the State Capitol to discuss the administration's legislative initiatives, youth participation in the legislative process and community affairs, and various issues facing the state. Tiana Maruyama, a Kalani High School senior and "Youth Governor" and will present Lingle and Aiona with an overview of the bills written, debated and submitted for legislation by members of the state Youth Legislature. These bills cover a broad range of topics, ranging from the teen pregnancy and mass transit funding to low income housing and gun licensing. This event will conclude the 58th annual YMCA Youth Legislative Session for the 88 Hawai'i middle and high-school students who participated in the seven-month program. The YMCA Youth Legislature is an annual program designed to offer high school and middle school student's hands-on experience with state government. Program participants can serve as governor, senators or representatives and even members of the press corps. They engage in mock legislative sessions exploring critical issues affecting the Hawai'i community. Participants write their own bills and resolutions and take them through the legislative process. The event gives youth from 6th-12th grade a better understanding of government and a chance to improve their skills in public speaking, organizational management and constituency-building. Tomorrow's event is not open to the public.
CALIFORNIA James Fischer relishes visits every weekend inside a youth prison near Stockton, when he and his wife speak in hushed tones about his life behind bars and their dreams for the future. His wife, Racheal Fischer, said staff at N.A. Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility encourage her to visit, even helping put her two children on the visiting list so they can get to know their future stepfather. Joseph Maldonado could have used such visits, too, said his sister Renee Núñez. But she wasn’t allowed to see him after he transferred from a youth prison in Ione and didn’t learn about the misery he endured until reading reports of his suicide two years ago. Family, staff and studies agree that inmates’ access to families helps wards of California’s youth prisons cope with the life behind bars, focusing them on their future outside and reduces recidivism rates. “It’s the easiest thing the youth prisons can do to reduce recidivism” said Books Not Bars’ spokesman Jakada Imani. The Oakland-based civil rights group pushed a legislator to sponsor the so-called Family Ties bill. “It’s not expensive and it’s totally easy.” Under the legislation by state Rep. Curren Price, D-Inglewood, wards would be housed at a prison near home when possible. They would have access to stamps and phone calls much cheaper than dialing collect. A ward’s list of approved visitors, under the new law, would trail him as he’s moved to a new prison. According to current practice, a new list has be a created, leaving wards without visits for up to two months. For the full report by staff writer Scott Smith, pick up Saturday’s Record.
IOWA While the latest increase on tobacco taxes for Iowa was created with good intentions, it is still being met with broad skepticism. On March 16, Governor Chet Culver signed a bill increasing the tax on a pack of cigarettes from 36 cents to $1.36. With the passage of this bill, Iowa becomes one of only 23 states with a cigarette tax of one dollar or more. This is the first tobacco tax increase for Iowa in 16 years. The bill was fervently promoted by the American Cancer Society, American Lung Association, the Iowa Medical Society and many other health advocacy groups. The bill has many supposed advantages. According to the Iowa Department of Public Health, the state will see long-term, state-wide health care savings of $867 million, due to decreased tobacco consumption. The estimated $127 million in new state revenue will be placed in a health care trust fund used to support, among many things, substance abuse, tobacco prevention and control. According to Mary Jones, interim director for the Iowa department of public health, the tax increase will reduce youth smoking by 19 percent, will prevent 6,350 smoking effected births over five years and will entice 20,000 Iowa smokers to quit. While it may take time to ascertain all the long-term effects of the bill, the increase is already having an impact on many people and businesses. Calls to Quit Line Iowa, a support line for people who want to quit smoking, have nearly tripled since the bill took effect. “We’ve already noticed a huge change in our cigarette sales,” said Cheryl Wheeler, manager of Casey’s in Cedar Falls. “It’s hard to know how much, but I would guess at least 30 percent.” Others have noticed customer complaints. “There are a couple of people that have come in that say ‘it’s about time to quit,’” said Jeff Doughty, manager of a Conoco station in Cedar Falls. Some feel that the tax increase is excessive. “Over one dollar per pack is too much,” said Rabbani Wahidy, manager of a tobacco outlet in Cedar falls. “It’s inevitable that we will lose money.” Students at the University of Northern Iowa have a variety of opinions. “I think the tax is misplaced” said Allyn Bauer, a computer science major. “It seems the Iowa government has found a group of people that isn’t big enough to say much about it.” Bauer maintained that smoking is a freedom of choice issue. “If I want to smoke on my own time, that’s really no one else’s business,” he said. Jacob Davis, a UNI sophomore and music education major, began rolling his own cigarettes as a way to save money. “I could either roll my own or I could quit.” he said. I thought ‘yeah I still want to smoke.’” Even as a smoker himself, Davis acknowledges the reasoning behind the bill. “Smoking is probably the worst thing you can do to yourself health-wise,” he said. “They couldn’t have done something like this in the 1950’s or Sixties. But now everyone knows how bad smoking is for you.” Many people regard the goals of the bill with skepticism. “I think this will affect people with low incomes,” said Wheeler. “We are talking about addiction here, and people may not give it up too easy.” Some even doubt that the bill will prevent kids from smoking. “They forget that kids have a large amount of disposable income,” said Doughty. “As long as they can find somebody to con, they’ll get what they need.” Though the tax increase may achieve many of its goals, it is still being viewed with disdain among many smokers. “This is proof some people just aren’t open minded enough,” said Bauer. “Plus the only way to get kids to stop smoking is to just ban cigarettes all together. You’d get stabbed if you tried something like that.”
NORTH CAROLINA A rigid law that requires North Carolina criminal courts to treat 16- and 17-year-olds as adults is doing more harm than good - requiring harsh punishment for juvenile mistakes and shutting teens off from treatment that could help them turn their lives around, lawmakers and youth advocates said Wednesday. North Carolina is one of three states that automatically treats 16- and 17-year-olds as adults when they are accused of any crime. Bills in the House and Senate would raise that age to 18 and establish a task force to examine how best to treat older teens within the juvenile justice system. Rep. Alice Bordsen, sponsor of the House measure, said changing the law passed in 1919 wouldn't take away prosecutors' ability to try teenagers as adults in the gravest cases. State law allows someone as young as 13 to be tried as an adult on a felony charge, if a judge agrees. "They are considered juveniles in every aspect of state life until they commit a crime," she said. "We would like the presumption to be that you are a juvenile until and unless someone says you are not." The proposals stem from recommendations made in December by a legislative study commission that found older teens sent to adult prisons had a higher rate of repeat offenses, committed sooner after release, and were prone to commit more violent crimes. "They come out as graduates in criminology, in committing crimes," said Judge Fred G. Morrison Jr., a commission member. The panel found that about 5.5 percent of the 28,734 felons convicted during the 12 months ending June 30, 2005, were 16 or 17 at the time of their crimes. Forty-six percent of offenders who entered adult prison or were placed on probation at age 16 or 17 in 1999 were re-arrested within three years, compared with 38 percent for all offenders. Morrison said support for the recommendation was driven by a better understanding of how young minds develop since the law was written, as well as his own experience. "There's no doubt in my mind that I made some stupid decisions when as a young person," he said. "There was alcohol. And there are other little things you do because others are doing it - peer pressure." Also Wednesday, a national advocacy group released a study of seven states - including North Carolina - that concluded young offenders end up in adult jails too often, increasing the odds they will be repeat offenders and move on to more serious crimes. The report issued by the Campaign for Youth Justice, a group pushing for additional protections for teens, said some researchers have estimated that as many as 200,000 people under the age of 18 are prosecuted in adult courts each year nationwide. Supporters of the legislation said automatically funneling young people directly to the adult courts and prisons keeps them from receiving counseling or other services available at juvenile facilities. "Adult prison is not a good place to be a child and is certainly not a good place to make the transition to adulthood," said Sorien Schmidt, senior vice president of Action for Children in North Carolina. She said that while it's more expensive for a teen to be sent to a juvenile facility, that price has benefits for society and the youth. "While a child is in the juvenile system, they're receiving much more supervision, much more intervention not only for them but with their family, and much more support to move them toward rehabilitation and recovery and changing their life decisions," Schmidt said.
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