The report recommends more gang prevention programs and more money for them. It also suggests that such programs intervene earlier in the lives of kids, and that former and current gang members be allowed to participate in prevention efforts when willing.

Gabriel Morales, a local gang expert, said the report is a good start, but data on gang activity in the region are still limited.

Even people working with at-risk youths don't always have the best information, he said.

"They get most of their information from kids who often get it wrong, either exaggerating their own war stories or what they've heard," Morales said. "There's not very good data out there."

For the portion that included the viewpoint of youths in the Seattle area, just 66 teens were surveyed; each was given a $20 gift card to a sporting goods store. All were King County residents, 51 of them from Seattle, with almost half either black or Latino.

Eric Anderson, the youth development manager at Human Services, said it was important to get the viewpoint of local youths in the report, no matter how limited.

"I think we learned some things," Anderson said. "It was not meant to be an exhaustive look at things."

Despite recent state anti-gang legislation that defines a gang as a group of three or more people who commit crimes and share a common name or sign, the report suggests that there is still disagreement on what makes a gang or a gang member.

"It's one of the problems we've had for years, and we're still not there yet," said King County Sheriff's Sgt. John Urquhart. "When does juvenile attire become gang attire?"

Some of those interviewed for the report worry that the word "gang" is already a problem, too often associated with negative stereotypes of some ethnic groups.

"The NAACP holds the position that the term 'gang' is now irretrievably linked to children of color, particularly African-American and Latino and Asian children," said James Bible, president of the Seattle-King County NAACP chapter.

Bible said that rather than focus on defining gangs, the recent state anti-gang bill should have focused on addressing underlying issues of violence.

As originally proposed, the anti-gang bill would have provided $10 million for gang prevention programs, but that money was cut. What remained were tough new laws cracking down on gang graffiti and recruitment.

Many believed it was a short-sighted move by legislators.

"We're still gonna pay, now or five years from now," Morales said.

"These problems are still going to be there."

NATIONWIDE
States Move Toward Uniform Graduation Rate Reporting
June 16, 2008
By Donna Gordon Blankinship, The Seattle Times

Comparing graduation rates from state to state, or even school to school, can be difficult because all kinds of methods are used to determine them.

Federal officials have a solution that could make that process easier - and more accurate - within the next five years.

U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings in April proposed new rules requiring states to assign students a unique ID number to track the individual from ninth grade through graduation, or until that student drops out.

The proposal, which mirrors an agreement states made with the National Governors Association, would provide every district with a more scientific graduation rate.

Washington state assigned a unique ID to every student four years ago. The class of 2008 will be the first with a graduation rate based on the method Spellings wants mandated for all states.

State officials don't know if the new method will help or hurt Washington's steady 70 percent on-time graduation rate, said Joe Willhoft, director of assessment for the Washington Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

But the point is to come up with a true number, Willhoft said.

The federal government has offered grants to state education departments to improve their data systems, and the money may be used to pay for a system to track students by unique IDs, said U.S. Education Department spokesman Chad Colby. The government gave a total of $62.2 million to 13 states in 2007 for data systems.

New York is in the process of adopting the new approach. State officials expect the more accurate numbers will be significantly lower in some cases, because many schools used an index that didn't account for students who dropped out in ninth and 10th grades.

Under No Child Left Behind, states may use their own methods of calculating graduation rates and set their own goals for improving them. Spellings' proposal would tighten up a loophole of the federal law.

According to Data Quality Campaign, a national organization encouraging state policymakers to collect and share education data, only a handful of states haven't begun the switch to a more accountable graduation rate system.

In 2005, all 50 states signed the National Governors Association's "graduation rate compact," pledging to adopt accurate and consistent graduation measurement.

Lawmakers in Idaho recently approved the money to pay for a new system, which will take up to four years to put into place, said Melissa McGrath, spokeswoman for the Idaho Department of Education.

Until then, the state will continue to base its graduation rates on a formula that focuses on dropout statistics, which McGrath said is "as accurate as it can be."

It's one of the most commonly used formulas for estimating graduation rates, but it does not account for transfers. It may be skewed because some schools automatically count students as transfers if they don't announce their intentions to drop out.

Spellings' proposal mandates calculating graduation rates by following each ninth grader for four years in every state by the 2013-14 school year.

Some states want the federal government to recognize the students who take longer to complete their diploma.

"If they graduate, does it really matter if it's four years or five years?" said Keric Ashley, director of data management for the California Department of Education. "If they're taking longer, there's probably a reason. Districts ought to get credit for getting the hardest ones through school."

The National Association of Secondary School Principals would like to see the new rules change the goal to graduation within five years, give equal weight to a GED high-school equivalency diploma and allow special-needs students until age 21 to graduate on time.

NATIONWIDE
Funding Cuts Hurt Antismoking Programs
June 27, 2008
By Alyssa Abkowitz, The Wall Street Journal

Public-health officials' efforts to reduce teen smoking are running aground amid cutbacks in state funding for antitobacco programs, a federal report suggests. 

The percentage of high-school students who smoked at least one day within the past month remained largely unchanged from 2003 to 2007, in the range of 20% to 23% of students surveyed, following sharp declines in the previous half-decade, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Thursday.

The stalled progress comes as states have drastically cut funding for tobacco-prevention and -cessation programs since 2002, said Terry Pechacek, associate director for science at the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health. On average, state funding for tobacco-prevention and -cessation programs fell by 28% between 2002 and 2005, according to the American Legacy Foundation, a national organization created in 1999 out of a master tobacco-settlement agreement between the tobacco industry and 51 states and territories to develop antitobacco programs.

Many states diverted funds won from the 1998 tobacco settlement to fill budget gaps, in some cases virtually eliminating funding for antismoking programs, Dr. Pechacek said. Those states include some that originally initiated aggressive antitobacco campaigns, he said. "If you get too good you can lose your money, which is perverse," he said.

The CDC recommends levels of tobacco-prevention spending for each state, but only three states -- Delaware, Maine and Colorado -- fund their programs at CDC-recommended levels, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

At the same time, the American Legacy Foundation now derives the majority of its funding from its own endowment, after receiving about $300 million a year in tobacco-settlement money for five years.

The percentage of teens enrolled in high school who ever tried a cigarette decreased to 50.3% in 2007 from 70.4% in 1999, the CDC said. The Atlanta agency also found the percentage of frequent smokers to have declined, with 8% of students saying they smoked 20 or more cigarettes in the past month, compared with about 17% in 1999.

But the trends are of little comfort to health officials, who say that even occasional smoking can lead to addiction. In addition, the stalled decline in current smokers will make it difficult to achieve a national goal of reducing the prevalence of current cigarette use among high school students to 16% or less by 2010, Dr. Pechacek said.

In Minnesota, 8% of $6.1 billion in tobacco-settlement money was originally set aside in an endowment for youth tobacco prevention, said John Stieger, spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Health. But only the interest from the endowment was dedicated to preventing tobacco use and other risky behaviors, he said. In 2003, the money was reallocated to help lower the state's projected $4.5 billion budget deficit.

ARIZONA
Ariz. Courts Trying Alternative Juvenile Justice
June 30, 2008
The Arizona Daily Star

If you had visited the juvenile lockup in Pima County a decade ago - at the height of the adult-time-for-adult-crime campaign - you'd have seen young people sleeping in the cafeteria because of crowding.

If you'd visited five years ago, you'd have seen nearly 200 juveniles held each day.

If you visited a week ago, you would have counted 78.

There were almost 3,500 youths detained in Pima County in 2003, a number that plummeted to 2,583 last year and is still dropping.

In year four of a wide-scale transformation of Pima County's juvenile-justice system, troubled kids are being diverted into other alternatives.

"We're responding to national research which negates some commonly held beliefs that you can scare them straight," said presiding Juvenile Court Judge Patricia Escher. "More frequently, when you detain young people inappropriately, what you do is send them on a path of criminality."

Lower-risk youths might be influenced by higher-risk ones they meet in detention.

And then there's the power of the self-fulfilling prophecy, Escher said.

"If you have youths wondering, 'Am I a good person or a bad person?' and you put those young people in detention, you're confirming this is who they are and this is who we expect them to be," she said.

How states treat their kids, including those in the juvenile-justice system, got attention this month with the annual release of the Kids Count report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore, a private charitable organization "dedicated to helping build better futures for disadvantaged children in the United States."

The latest Kids Count report says Arizona still has too many young people getting pregnant and dropping out of school.

There are too many children going without health insurance and performing pretty abysmally on test scores, it says.

On the other hand, Arizona's juvenile-crime-arrest rate is lower than the national average.

Arizona's minority youths are in the juvenile-justice system at twice the rate of White youths, but that's still better than the nationwide rate.

Abraham Richards, 18, was one young offender here who got another chance.

He said he'd done every bad thing a stereotypical juvenile delinquent does: guns, drugs, robberies.

He was first busted in eighth grade on a marijuana charge. His parents were furious. He was kicked out of his school. But it didn't stop him. His freshman year in high school, he was arrested on armed-robbery and grand-theft charges. Charges were dropped, followed by more arrests. And a stint in rehab.

He remembers a Juvenile Court judge crying when she sentenced him to a boot-camp program for four months.

"She said she saw something special in me and she said she knew what I could be capable of," he recalled. "I felt like crying, too."

It was at the boot camp, where he met military-style discipline and hard physical work, that something started switching over in his head.

That was followed up with a program offering an alternative to detention, run by the Tucson Urban League, and that's when he finished his journey.

"I wasn't all the way straight," he recalled. "I was still slipping up, still not handling my anger the right way, still not talking to my mom the way I should." His mentor there gave him the skills he needed to address problems maturely and walk away from trouble.

Richards said college wasn't in his long-term plan, since he thought he'd be dead or in prison by the time he was an adult. Now he plans to attend college next year to work toward a degree in finance.

He impressed his mentor so much that he's now working full time at the Urban League, helping steer youths who are in the same place he was a few years ago.

"I tell them I lost three years to the system, and it's not worth it," he said.

The courts are also working with partners in the community to try to clamp down on the pipeline that sends kids to them in the first place, with a big focus on the schools.

Jim Fish, a principals supervisor for the Tucson Unified School District in charge of student-equity issues, said he's made some efforts to train principals on ways to cut down on suspensions. There's a strong correlation between juvenile referrals and school disciplinary problems.

He said he's had principals call police on elementary-school children.

"It's not appropriate in my eyes to have kids committed to Juvenile who could have been handled in the school system," he said - especially since it's his instinct that police are more often called if the child causing problems has more melanin in his skin.

Black youths made up 10 percent of Pima County's juvenile detainees, although Blacks are about 3 percent of the overall population.

Hispanic youths make up 45 percent of the youth population but 53 percent of detainees.

White youths make up about 30 percent of detainees, although they are 44 percent of the overall population.

Black youths also are detained longer than those from other races.

The courts have been tweaking assessments to make them as race- and gender-neutral as possible while making sure that public safety remains paramount, Escher said.

There has been no increase in youth crime even though fewer juveniles are locked up, the judge said. Back in 2003, less than 3 percent of the juvenile population was in for violent crimes against other people. That was still true in 2007.

Some offenders are just going home to wait for trial. Others, on intensive or standard probation or arrested for misdemeanor domestic violence offenses, go to evening programs that provide not only tutoring, life skills and dinner, but perhaps as importantly, a structure that keeps them off the streets.

"What we're seeing is that supervised treatment for kids in their own communities is really effective and a better use of tax dollars than just incarcerating kids," said Dana Wolfe Naimark of the non-profit Children's Action Alliance.

RESEARCH
Using Incentives to Increase Participation in Out-of-School Time Programs
June 2008
By Ashleigh Collins, Jacinta Bronte-Tinkew, Ph.D., and Mary Burkhauser, Child Trends

Research suggests that regular participation in out-of-school time programs can benefit children and youth in many ways.  This Child Trends brief discusses the usefulness of out-of-school time program incentives and provides key strategies for implementing a successful incentive program.  Click here to view the brief.

RESEARCH
Youth Governance: How and Why It Can Help Out-of-School Time Programs Involve At-Risk Youth
June 2008
By Lillian Bowie and Jacinta Bronte-Tinkew, Ph.D, Child Trends

Children and youth who are the most "at risk" are also the least likely to participate in out-of-school time programs.  This Child Trends brief discusses the benefits of involving at-risk youth in out-of-school time program governance.  Click here to view the brief.

RESEARCH
Arresting Children: Examining Recent Trends in Preteen Crime
June 2008
By Jeffrey A. Butts and Howard N. Snyder, Chapin Hill Center for Children at the University of Chicago

Are juvenile offenders getting younger? This report explores this question by examining data collected by law enforcement agencies across the country.  It tracks juvenile crime patterns from 1980 through 2006 and finds that the age profile of juvenile offenders has not changed substantially in 25 years.  Click here to view the report.

RESEARCH
Study: Many Teens Get Alcohol from Adults
June 26, 2008
By the Associated Press, The New York Times

Many of the nation's estimated 10.8 million underage drinkers are turning to their parents or other adults for free alcohol.

A government survey of teens from 2002 to 2006 said slightly more than half had engaged in underage drinking.

Asked about the source of alcohol, 40 percent they got it from an adult for free over the past month, the survey said. Of those, about one in four said they got it from an unrelated adult, one in 16 got it from a parent or guardian and one in 12 got it from another adult family member.

Roughly 4 percent reported taking the alcohol from their own home.

''In far too many instances parents directly enable their children's underage drinking -- in essence encouraging them to risk their health and well-being,'' said acting Surgeon General Steven K. Galson. ''Proper parental guidance alone may not be the complete solution to this devastating public health problem -- but it is a critical part.''

The nationwide study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, being released Thursday, tracks the social contexts involved in underage drinking, a problem leading to thousands of alcohol-related traffic deaths and injuries each year.

About one out of five of those aged 12 to 20 -- or roughly 7.2 million people -- said they had taken part in binge drinking, defined as consuming five or more drinks on at least one occasion in the past month, the survey said. Rates were significantly higher if they lived with a parent who engaged in binge drinking.

The study, which uses data from the National Surveys on Drug Use and Health, is based on a scientific random sample of 158,000 people aged 12 to 20 in the United States. Among the other findings:

--Over half of current underage alcohol users were at someone else's home when they had their last drink, while 30.3 percent were in their own home. About 9.4 percent were at a restaurant, bar or club.

--About 3.5 million teens aged 12 to 20 each year meet the diagnostic criteria for having an alcohol use disorder, such as dependence or abuse.

--Among younger teens, slightly more girls reported drinking than boys did. In the middle teens, they drank at roughly the same rate. Among 18 to 20-year-olds, boys outpaced the girls.

--Rates of underage drinking and binge drinking were slightly higher at the opposite ends of the economic spectrum.

--Rates of current and binge alcohol use among 12 to 20 year olds were higher in the Northeast and Midwest than in the South or West.

--Rates of alcohol use disorder among those aged 12 to 20 was higher for American Indians or Alaska Natives (14.9 percent) than for whites (10.9 percent), blacks (4.6 percent), Hispanics (8.7 percent) and Asians (4.9 percent).

''This report provides unprecedented insight into the social context of this public health problem and shows that it cuts across many different parts of our community,'' said Terry Cline, administrator of SAMHSA. ''Its findings strongly indicate that parents and other adults can play an important role in helping influence -- for better or for worse -- young people's behavior with regard to underage drinking.''

RESEARCH
Youth Exposure to Alcohol Advertising on Television, 2001 to 2007
June 2008
The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University

Researchers from the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University (CAMY) and Virtual Media Resources of Natick, Massachusetts analyzed the
placements of 2,033,931 alcohol product advertisements that aired on television between 2001 and 2007, placed at a cost of $6.6 billion.  Findings include that youth exposure to alcohol advertising on television has risen by 38 percent since CAMY began monitoring this exposure in 2001.  Click here to view the report.

LOUISIANA
Jindal Signs Legislation that will Affect La. Hunters
June 26, 2008
From staff reports, theadvertiser.com

The Louisiana Legislature passed and Gov. Bobby Jindal has signed two hunting-related bills into law during the 2008 session that authorize the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission to change several guidelines in the upcoming seasonal hunting regulations.

Act 22 changes the age requirements for all youth hunts to reflect 17 years of age and younger, which is a two-year increase from the previous 15 years of age and younger rule. Act 51 allows the use of crossbows during archery season for all licensed hunters and changes the wording from muzzleloader season to primitive firearms season in the hunting regulations. Both of these acts were already pre-approved by the commission and their provisions will be added to the 2008-09 hunting regulations.

"The department and commission are always looking for ways to make hunting more accessible for the state's youth and adults to keep the Louisiana hunting heritage alive," said Jimmy Anthony, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries assistant secretary. "Act 22 allows two more years for the youth of this state to hunt during our many special youth hunt weekends. Act 51 gives the hunter more options on how they would like to hunt. We would like to say thank you to the Legislature and the governor for getting these two acts signed into law."

The new 17 or younger age requirement will go into effect this upcoming hunting season and will include all special youth deer, duck, squirrel and dove hunts and other approved youth hunts. This does not apply, however, to the special early season youth waterfowl hunt allowed by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service prior to the regular season opening in each zone.

Each youth must be accompanied by one adult, 18 years of age or older, for all youth hunts. Youths 16 years of age and older must possess a hunter safety certification or proof of completion of a hunter safety course, and a valid hunting license.

For hunters 15 years of age and younger, the accompanying adult must have hunter safety certification, a valid hunting license or proof of completion of a hunter safety course. Adults may not possess a firearm, and youths may possess only one firearm while hunting. The supervising adult shall maintain visual and voice contact with the youth at all times and may supervise only one youth during the youth hunt.

The regulations for bow and arrow regulations will now read: Longbow, compound bow and crossbow or any bow drawn, held or released by mechanical means will be a legal means of take for all properly licensed hunters.

Legal primitive firearms for primitive firearm season include rifles or pistols with a .44 caliber minimum, or 10-gauge or smaller shotguns, all of which must load exclusively from the muzzle or cap and ball cylinder, use black powder or approved substitute only, take ball or bullet projectiles only, including saboted bullets, and muzzleloaders known as "inline" muzzleloaders.

Single shot breech loading rifles that are .38 caliber or larger manufactured prior to 1900 and replicas, reproductions or reintroductions having an exposed hammer that uses metallic cartridges loaded either with black powder or modern smokeless powder are also classified as primitive firearms. All approved primitive firearms may be fitted with magnified scopes.

In addition to the required Basic and Big Game hunting licenses, a Bow license is required for the taking of deer during the archery season with a longbow, compound bow or crossbow. A Primitive Firearm license, formerly sold as a Muzzleloader license, is required for the taking of deer during the primitive firearm season in addition to the required Basic and Big Game hunting licenses. During the still hunt and with-or-without dogs segments of the (conventional firearms) deer season, the Primitive Firearm license is not required.

NATIONWIDE
Senate Launches Probe of Juvenile Justice
June 27, 2008
By Patrick Boyle, Youthtoday.org

A U.S. Senate committee today joined the investigation into whether the federal juvenile justice office awarded competitive grants based on political favoritism and personal connections.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, asked the Justice Department to provide a wide array of records from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), including the scores of all competitive grant bids over a two-year period and all communications about grant applicants by OJJDP Administrator J. Robert Flores.

The letter, signed by four other senators, cites reports in Youth Today that said Flores awarded grants to organizations that scored lower than dozens of applicants that he rejected, and reports in The Washington Post about investigations of Flores by the Justice Department's inspector general.

The action comes a little more than a week after the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a public hearing about the controversy, during which the committee reported that several organizations got help from Flores in applying for and winning their grants. Flores testified that he acted within his discretion in awarding the grants and that the organizations deserve to be funded.

The June 27 letter by Leahy to U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey asks for:

* All communications to or from OJJDP Administrator J. Robert Flores relating to any grant proposals or organizations considered for awards in fiscal 2007 and 2008.

* All correspondence between OJJDP and organizations that bid unsuccessfully for discretionary grant awards for fiscal 2007 and 2008 discussing the rejection of their grant proposals.

* A list of applicants for discretionary grants awarded by OJJDP for fiscal 2007 and 2008, including the requested funding amount, the process by which the application was reviewed, whether there was any external peer review, the applicant's technical evaluation scores, and the amounts awarded to grant winners.

* All documents relating to the technical review of applicants for discretionary grants awarded by OJJDP for fiscal 2007 and 2008, including all records and notes from the technical evaluation, the official decision memoranda, and any other communications relating to the evaluation or decision-making process used to award the grants.

* A summary of all investigations or non-routine audits concerning Flores or other OJJDP officials who participated in the grant evaluation and decision-making process.

* All OJJDP policies and procedures governing the evaluation of grant applications and the awarding of grants.

The letter is signed by Sens. Leahy, Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

It says OJJDP "lacks sufficient transparency," and that news reports and the House hearing "have raised further questions about OJJDP's exercise of its grant-making authority."

The letter says that reports in Youth Today "have noted that the bids of some youth service organizations with long records of success have recently been rejected in favor of organizations with far shorter track records." It cites The World Golf Foundation and the Best Friends Foundation, two politically connected organizations that won controversial National Juvenile Justice Program grants last year.

NEW HAMPSHIRE
Teen Pregnancy Concerns Grow
June 29, 2008
By Victoria Guay, Citizen.com

A bill that was recently passed by the House and Senate and is awaiting approval by the governor seeks to expand the state's minimum requirement to teach HIV prevention to include education on all Sexually Transmitted Diseases and pregnancy prevention, said Mary Bubnis, health and HIV/AIDS education consultant for the New Hampshire Department of Education.

This comes at a time when the national teen birth rate is on the rise again after more than decade of decline.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, an arm of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Ga., the teen birth rates in the United States rose for the first time in 2006 — the latest year for which statistics are available — for the first time since 1991.

The 2006 statistics were contained in a CDC report "Births: Preliminary Data for 2006," released by the CDC in December 2007. The next such report will not be released until December 2008.

The report revealed that between 2005 and 2006, the birth rate for teenagers age 15 to 19 rose three percent, from 40.5 to 41.9 live births per 1,000 females aged 15-19. The increase ends a 15-year decline, during which the teen birth rate fell by 34 percent from an all-time high of 61.8 births per 1,000 females aged 15-19 in 1991. In 2006, a total of 435,427 infants were born to mothers aged 15 to 19 years.

New Hampshire continues to have the lowest teen birthrate in the nation at 18 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19. Maine has a teen birth rate of 24 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19.

The states that have the highest teen birth rate are Texas and New Mexico, which have rates of 62 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 29. The District of Columbia has a teen birth rate of 63 births per 1,000 women age 15 to 19.

Currently the New Hampshire Department of Education only requires public schools to include HIV prevention in their health curriculums. The present law creates a minimum standard for teaching about HIV, but schools can teach what they want in terms of other STDs and pregnancy prevention, Bubnis said.

How or if they teach these other things is up to the individual school districts, school boards and schools, Bubnis said.

It's up to the individual district or school whether they want to teach pregnancy prevention, Bubnis said.

As far as the state minimum for HIV prevention, they promote an abstinence-based program, which means abstinence is the primary but not the only component, Bubnis said.

Bubnis said the legislation arose partly because there has been an increase in Chlamydia in the state.

Bubnis also said there are no penalties for schools that do not teach HIV prevention, but the Department keeps track and notes that 100 percent of senior high schools are teaching HIV prevention and many already include information about other STDs.

According to the New Hampshire Department of Education, 100 percent of senior high schools, 85 percent of middle schools and 93 percent of junior/senior high schools teach HIV and other STD prevention. The percentage of schools teaching HIV, STD and pregnancy prevention is 77 percent for senior high school, 24 percent for middle school and 65 percent of junior/senior high schools.

State Senator Kathleen Sgambati (D-Tilton) co-sponsored the bill because she feels there is a need for a more comprehensive health education program in schools, a program that includes more emphasis on the prevention of all unhealthy behaviors, including substance abuse, unsafe sex, physical and emotional violence and suicide.

Under the new legislation, districts can opt out of birth control education but the Department of Education worked with the Department of Health to develop a health education policy.

The new law also includes a way for students to opt out of parts of comprehensive education if they have a religious or moral objection.

Alice Rogers-Farris, principal of Franklin High School, said the school teaches an abstinence-based sex education curriculum.

Rogers Farris said contraceptives are not available through the nurses office, though information in the form of posters and pamphlets are accessible to teens seeking information on what to do or where to find help.

Vicki Senter, the nurse at Franklin High School, said she does provide condoms or contraceptives to students but the nurse's office does not provide pregnancy counseling.

Senter said if a student expressed a concern that she might be pregnant, she would encourage the teen to speak to her parents and doctor.

Senter said she knows there are at least a few pregnancies every year at the school and a few more incidents where a student may think she is pregnant but turns out not be.

Tina Jackson has been the health teacher at Franklin High School for the past two years and has been able to develop her own curriculum.

"I felt there was a need for birth control education in addition to HIV and STD prevention," Jackson said.

Jackson said that while there are one or two known pregnancies a year at the high school, she estimates that more than half (60 percent) the students in the school are sexually active by their sophomore year.

She said she teaches a section on abstinence and also has representatives from the family planning clinic in Franklin — funded by the Community Action Program of Belknap and Merrimack Counties — to talk about contraceptive protection and the health resources for teens that they provide.

The New Hampshire Family Planning Program funds and supports 11 agencies and 27 sites that offer reproductive health care and contraceptive services to teens and adults. The program and its sites are partially funded with state funds and federal Title X grants. Fees in these clinics are based on a person's ability to pay and many services to teens are provided for free.

Jackson said she follows the visit by teaching students about the advantages and risks of the different forms of STD protection and birth control available.

Patty Thibeault, health teacher at Laconia High School, said teaching students about HIV prevention and birth control is difficult because students coming into her ninth grade health class come from disparate backgrounds. While some students are already sexually active, others are not. While some have been exposed to media violence and sexuality, others aren't allowed to watch television.

"I really want to be sensitive to the needs of all the children," Thibeault said, adding that she has an anonymous question box in the classroom when covering sex education so students can pose questions they might be afraid to ask out loud. Thibeault said the next day she will address questions left in the box.

Thibeault said her health curriculum at LHS includes information on the prevalence and prevention of all STDs, information on the effectiveness and types of birth control, gender issues, the human reproduction system and healthy versus unhealthy relationships.

Thibeault thinks more prevention of at-risk behaviors — not just sexual activity — should be taught much earlier in a student's life.

"They need to be educated before the fact," Thibeault said. "The problems arrive before high school."

Thibeault said teachers and counselors should start working with students in the third or fourth grades and with girls especially on issues such as self esteem and peer pressure.

Thibeault said a common message promoted in the mass media is that girls have to be fully sexual in order to be attractive and popular.

"It's not like in my day when we might have had one or two (high school) seniors who fell in love and the girl got pregnant," Thibeault said. "There's a lot more pressure to experiment with sexuality. We need programs to counter those messages, programs that will teach girls to be stronger, to accept themselves and be sure of their own decisions."

According to the New Hampshire Department of Education, the 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Survey estimated incidence rates of risky behaviors, such as substance abuse and sexual activity, based on the anonymous answers given by 1,638 teens in grades nine through 12. Of those surveyed, 819 were females and 815 were males. The survey is done every two years.

When asked about their sexual activity, 44.7 percent of all students surveyed responded that they have had sexual intercourse. By grade, 26.6 percent of ninth graders, 41.7 percent of 10th graders, 48.2 of 11th graders surveyed and 64.3 percent of 12th graders surveyed said they have had sex.

Of all students surveyed, 4.2 percent responded that they had sexual intercourse before age 13. By sex, 5.6 percent of males as opposed to 2.6 of females said they had sex before age 13.

CALIFORNIA
Governor Schwarzenegger Signs Legislation to Strengthen California Anti-Gang Efforts
June 25, 2008
By Imperial Valley News

Furthering his commitment to fight gang violence in California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today signed SB 1126 by Senator Gilbert Cedillo (D-Los Angeles), which makes it easier to hold gang members personally liable for harm to the community caused by their gang.

“We are taking a comprehensive and coordinated approach to combat the influence of gangs in our communities and make our streets safer. This legislation strengthens our statewide anti-gang efforts by giving prosecutors more tools to fight gang activity at the local level,” Governor Schwarzenegger said.

The Governor introduced the California Gang Reduction, Intervention and Prevention Program (CalGRIP) initiative in May of 2007 to confront the dramatic increase in gangs across the state and their proliferation in suburban and rural areas. Gangs are responsible for crimes including murder, witness intimidation, money laundering, extortion, narcotic production and sales, prostitution, human trafficking, assassinations for hire, theft and counterfeiting. In spite of an overall decrease in crime in most California cities since the 1990s, rates of gang-related violent crime remain steady.

The CalGRIP strategy targets more than $31 million in state and federal funding toward local anti-gang efforts, including intervention, suppression and prevention. This includes $7 million to enhance CHP’s support of local law enforcement, and a doubling of funding for witness protection to a total of $6 million.

Earlier this year, the Governor announced the award of $9.2 million in competitive grants to 19 cities and 13 community-based organizations for gang prevention, intervention and enforcement; and $7.3 million in grants to 19 agencies to provide job training and education programs targeting youth at risk of joining gangs or seeking to leave them. The grants are from the State Restitution Fund and the job training and education grants are federal workforce development monies.

The Governor’s enacted 2007-08 budget invests a total of $547 million in after-school programs and another $208 million in school counselors to give at-risk kids alternatives to gang life.

Last year, Governor Schwarzenegger signed SB 271 to give prosecutors more tools in the fight against gangs, AB 104 to give city attorneys the tools they need to pursue gang injunctions and two other anti-gang measures to assist cities in curbing the source of income that funds gang activity, SB 706 and AB 924.

MISSOURI
Missouri Outlaws Cyberbullying after MySpace Suicide
June 30, 2008
By the Associated Press, CNN.com

Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt signed a bill Monday outlawing cyberbullying, just miles from where a 13-year-old girl committed suicide nearly two years ago after being harassed on the Internet.

The bill updates state laws against harassment by removing the requirement that the communication be written or over the telephone.

Supporters say the bill now covers harassment from computers, text messages and other electronic devices.

"Social networking sites and technology have opened a new door for criminals and bullies to prey on their victims, especially children," Blunt said. "This new law will ensure that we have the protections and penalties needed to safeguard Missourians from Internet harassment."

Megan Meier killed herself in October 2006, shortly after receiving mean-spirited messages over the Internet. Her suicide prompted the bill.

The teenager's mother, wearing a picture of her daughter in a pin on her dress, stood over the governor's shoulder as he signed the bill at a St. Charles County library.

Tina Meier said she was grateful, but said much more needs to be done to make sure children are kept safe.

"This is certainly not the end," she said. "Bullying and cyberbullying is something that takes place every day. This is not just one case with Megan."

The news of the circumstances surrounding the teen's death surfaced after a local newspaper ran an article last fall. Since then, several Missouri towns have adopted new ordinances aimed at stopping cyberharassment. U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof, R-Mo., has introduced a bill that would impose federal penalties for cyberbullying.

The Missouri measure also requires school officials to tell police about harassment and stalking on school grounds and expands state laws against stalking to cover "credible threats" not only against the victim, but also family and household members and animals. It also creates stronger penalties for stalking.

Megan had long suffered from depression and attention deficit disorder. In 2006, she began corresponding with "Josh" through MySpace pages. At first, the messages were positive.

But after several weeks, they turned mean. One told Megan "Josh" no longer wanted to be friends.

Shortly thereafter, Megan hanged herself in her bedroom. She died the next day.

There was no boy named Josh. Authorities said a neighbor, Lori Drew, her teenage daughter and an 18-year-old employee of Drew created a fake profile of an attractive teenage boy to see what Megan was saying about the daughter online.

Drew, 49, has pleaded not guilty in California, where MySpace is headquartered, to conspiracy and accessing computers without authorization.

Meier has become a strong advocate of stopping Internet harassment. She often speaks to schools and other groups. It doesn't erase the pain, she said.

"For me, Megan is still my baby," Meier said. "It's still hard. It touches my heart immensely to know the state of Missouri has worked so hard to honor my daughter and other families.