Youth in the News
Volume 3, Number 7, April 1-15, 2008
Contents
State Watch
Legal
Research
Government
STATE WATCH
- In Massachusetts, groups rally at the Statehouse to support a proposal to increase funding for anti-violence programs for youth.
- Teens from Minnesota advocate for increased sex education in schools.
- Youth in Ohio campaign to prevent and reduce underage drinking.
- In California, the Amador County Youth Coalition participated in "Kick Butts Day" to educate others about the dangers of tobacco use.
- Sex abuse and violence alleged at teen jails across the country.
LEGAL
- A settlement in a lawsuit in Ohio over juvenile jails ends legal challenges that began in 2004.
RESEARCH
- A new study shows that only half of teens report discussing contraception or STDs with their partners before having sex for the first time.
- A report indicates that about half of the students served by public schools in the nation's largest cities graduate from high school.
- A Canadian study suggests that positive school experiences and good family relationships exert an important influence on most aspects of youth's health.
GOVERNMENT
- Seven states debate lowering the drinking age.
- A new Indiana law addresses issues faced by young runaways and homeless youth.
- In Maryland, a bill aimed at curbing cyberbullying awaits action by the Governor.
- An Assembly Committee in California passed a bill requiring the state to establish safeguards in the court approval process for prescribing psychotropic drugs to foster youth.
ARTICLES
MASSACHUSETTS
Reaching Deep into the State's Pockets to End Violence
April 8, 2008
By Lindsay Berrigan, Weeklydig.com
Administrators, legislators, law enforcement officials and young people gathered at a jam-packed Statehouse rally to support Gov. Deval Patrick's proposed $22 million increase in funding for anti-violence, anti-gang and youth job programs.
If the spending passes, $5 million would go to Department of Public Health Youth Violence Prevention grants. The Senator Charles E. Shannon Community Safety Initiative, or Shannon Grant, which provided anti-gang grants to 34 Massachusetts communities last year, would receive $4 million.
The rally was meant to convey the urgency of youth violence to legislators, who face a $1.3 billion deficit when they balance next year's budget. Speakers included the governor, Attorney General Martha Coakley and Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis, but it was the young success stories that received the most applause.
Nicole DaRosa, 24, tearfully described her New Bedford childhood with an alcoholic mother. DaRosa spent a year in jail for selling crack, but connected with Healthy Opportunities for Peaceful Engagement, a New Bedford organization funded by the Shannon Grant, after her release. She now works as an outreach worker.
Former gang member Jesus Carrasquillo, 18, said such street outreach works. "They taught me that I had way more opportunities than the one I thought I had."
Gov. Patrick urged attendees to talk to members of the legislature. "Tell them stories," he said. "Don't make this just about statistics. Tell them what you've seen, what you've heard ... these are good human beings trying to make choices with too little money." 
MINNESOTA
Teens Talk Sex at the Capitol
April 8, 2008
By Jenna Healy, KARE 11
Teens from all over the state gathered at the State Capitol Tuesday to rally for increased sex education in schools.
They were there to support the Responsible Family Life and Sexuality Education bill, a piece of legislation that would teach 7-12 graders about abstinence and safe sex practices.
Representative Neva Walker, DFL-Minneapolis, a co-author of the bill, said many adults are out of touch when it comes to teens and sex.
"Things are going on with our young people whether we want to acknowledge it or not", said Rep. Walker.
"We are here as policy makers to make sure we have good standard policies for all young people, not just the young people in our life who are choosing to abstain".
"As a teen parent I want all of you to abstain, but if you choose to have sex I want you to have adequate information", said Rep. Walker.
That information comes in the form of the Responsible Family Life and Sexuality Education bill, which calls to educate 7-12 graders about abstinence and safe sex.
Something Senator John Marty, DFL - Roseville, said is greatly needed in the state.
"Minnesota leads the way in many areas, but we are backwards when it comes to sex education", said Sen. Marty.
"There are many places in the state that don't even have clinics or anywhere for teens to go to get counsel or help".
The Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center just released a survey that shows Minnesota parents overwhelmingly support medically accurate sex education in schools, including both reproductive health and pregnancy prevention topics.
According to the study, 89% of parents surveyed believe sex education in schools should include information about pregnancy prevention, reproductive health and sexually transmitted infection prevention, as well as encourage students not to have sex.
Last year lawmakers removed a sex education provision from the K-12 education omnibus bill after Governor Pawlenty threatened a veto if it was included.
Senator Marty expressed his shock over what he characterized as a lack of urgency over the issue.
"If two high school students die from the flu, a lot is made about it. However not much is made of the fact that one in every four teenage girls is said to have a sexually transmitted disease, and that needs to change", said Sen. Marty.
"Ignorance is not bliss, and we will be paying for it down the road in unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted disease if we don't start educating our youth".
OHIO
Youth Implement Campaign to Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking
April 11, 2008
By the Associated Press, Cincinnati.com
On Tuesday, April 1, 20 members of the Northeast Community Challenge Youth Coalition conducted a Student Leadership Exchange to educate 40 student delegates from Moeller High School, Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy, Sycamore Community Schools and Ursuline Academy about a national award-winning peer-to-peer marketing campaign.
The campaign, which received the national PRIDE Youth Programs Prevention Group of the Year Award, increases awareness of the health, legal and social consequences of underage drinking. The campaign is designed to increase peers' perception of harm and influence social norms around underage drinking among students at the four area high schools.
During the exchange, students from each school broke into groups with other students from their respective schools to create strategic plans for implementing the campaign. Their goal is to influence the social climate before prom and summer break.
Phase one of the campaign consisted of developing a fact card to educate teens about the underage drinking laws, as well as the legal, social and health consequences of underage drinking.
Phase two consisted of the development of multiple posters to display messages about underage drinking. The Underage Drinking: Is it Worth the Risk? poster messages are:
Rejected: Effects of Alcohol on College & Careers
Impacted: Effects of Alcohol on You
Busted: Underage Drinking Laws
Benched: Alcohol & Athletics
The Exchange was conducted at the University of Cincinnati Education Wing Annex of Blue Ash Elementary, 9541 Plainfield Road, Blue Ash.
Workshops included:
* highlighting a social marketing campaign as an effective public health awareness strategy;
* how data was used to identify the problem for the peer-to peer social marketing campaign;
* examining the development of the peer-to peer social marketing campaign, "is it worth the risk?; and
* implementing the "Is It Worth the Risk?" campaign at their respective schools.
NECC's mission is to mobilize and coordinate all community sectors in identifying and implementing programs that promote healthy communities and healthy youth.
CALIFORNIA
"Kick butts"- Youth Coalition Fights Tobacco Use.
April 4, 2008
By Bethany Monk, Ledger-Dispatch.com
At least one Amador County resident dies each week from a tobacco-related disease, according statistics from the county's health department.
This grim statistic, and a slew of other not-so-pleasant facts related to tobacco use, has ignited the Amador County Youth Coalition into action. These youths, ages 13 to 16, and thousands of other coalition members throughout the United States, participated in "Kick Butts Day" Wednesday in efforts to educate others about the dangers of using tobacco.
Local youth coalition members - from Ione and Jackson junior high and Amador and Argonaut high schools - gathered on the grass in front of the fence that lines Highway 49 near Jackson Ford Mercury April 2 to showcase their display of 1,200 pairs of shoes, representing the 1,200 tobacco-related deaths each day in the United States. Throughout the year, the coalition, sponsored by the Amador County Health Department, participates in several activities to promote healthy living, develop policies that help reduce tobacco use and exposure to second-hand smoke, and educate their peers about deceptive advertising, according to a county health department release.
"They have two goals (today)," said Diana Evensen, coalition advisor and county health department employee. Evensen and Gina Cook, also of the health department, joined coalition members Wednesday afternoon. "They want to raise awareness about how dangerous tobacco use is," Evensen said, and also inspire tobacco companies to stop targeting kids.
Each day, about 4,000 youths try their first cigarette, Evensen said, adding that about 1,000 of these young people become addicted.
Tobacco companies continually target teens, said coalition member Zack Marshall, an Ione eighth grader. There are several images of people smoking in kids' movies and commercials, he said.
"Kids are a powerful part of the solution to reducing youth tobacco use," Dr. Bob Hartmann, Amador County Health Officer, said in the release. "Our local kids are willing to speak up in a way to visually show each car passing by that tobacco will be responsible for more preventable deaths than drunk driving, violent crime, drug use and HIV/Aids combined.
Being a coalition member "gets our voices out there," said Ashlan Fry, an eighth grader at Ione Junior High. During the junior high years, she said, is when some ninth and tenth graders "come up and ask us if we want to start" smoking.
"I've met people who have tried it," said Ione eighth grader Lucas Stephens. "It gets you addicted and ruins your lungs," he said, adding that smoking is a "waste."
"I think it's nasty," said Cody Bennett, an eighth grader at Ione Junior High. "It smells hecka bad."
"It has really bad side effects," said Colton Cook, a freshman at Argonaut High School. "It can ruin your looks. It can ruin your life."
There are other ways to deal with stress, he said, noting that people can listen to music, sit in a hot tub "or just go some place and relax."
"There are tons of things to do," instead of smoking, Stephens said. "You just have to have the creativity to find it."
"It's a good thing to raise awareness," Marshall said, when asked why he decided to participate in Kick Butts Day. "I hope that people learn that we're doing this because we care."
Several local agencies and businesses donated the 1,200 pairs of shoes used in Wednesday's display, Evensen said. Many county businesses - such as New York Fitness, Sutter Amador Hospital, Hospice of Amador Thrift Store, On a Mission Thrift, the Amador County Unified School District and the Soroptomist Club - served as collection sites for the shoes, which will be donated to local thrift stores and Nike's recycle program.
Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States and kills more than 400,000 people every year, according to county health department statistics.
Kick Butts Day is a nation-wide event spearheaded by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
NATIONWIDE
Sex Abuse, Violence Alleged at Teen Jails Across U.S.
April 4, 2008
By Ashley Fantz, CNN
Girls as young as 13 say they were shackled for weeks at a time in Mississippi.
A Texas teen was allegedly offered birthday cake in exchange for sex.
A guard drove his knee into the neck of a frail suicidal Ohio boy after the youth was wrestled to the ground and held down by other guards who stripped him and covered his face with a smock, a state report said.
More than two dozen girls at an Indiana lock-up describe "networking" -- their term for sneaking into each other's cells to have sex, with no interference from guards.
This is a glimpse into what America's juvenile jails look like, according to lawsuits, criminal cases and experts who have spent years delving into what they call a broken system.
"It's a nationwide crisis that has been going on for years, one the public has never been told the extent of," said psychiatric social worker Jerome Miller, the co-founder of the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives, who has evaluated and helped reform juvenile jails for more than three decades.
This summer, Mississippi plans to close Columbia Training School, a juvenile facility that houses mostly minor offenders. They are often runaways from abusive homes.
Erica was 16 when she was sentenced to Columbia after running away, a probation violation of an earlier marijuana conviction.
She admits she was a girl quick to sass her parents, full of anger about the death of a relative that happened around the same time Katrina wrecked her family's Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, home.
Nervously touching a sparkly barrette in her red hair, she cries as she describes how guards forced her legs into tight metal shackles. She said she was cuffed and chained when she ate and used the bathroom -- and was even forced to play soccer that way against other girls.
Guards called her "Chain Gang," she said.
"I will always remember them things around my ankles, the way they cut into me," she said, pulling up her pant leg to show slash-mark scars on her ankles and heels. "They made you feel like you were nothing."
Represented by attorneys with the Southern Poverty Law Center, Erica and nine other girls housed at Columbia are suing the state, claiming they endured a range of sexual and physical abuse, including shackling. Don Desper, a licensed therapist and former employee at Columbia who opposed the practice, told CNN it was used to prevent the teens from escaping.
In a handwritten affidavit, a 15-year-old girl described a male guard molesting her. She wrote: "He came inside my cell half way half of his body and he started touching me and he tryed (sic) to kiss me and then he left he came back with my snack in his hand and he opened my cell again and he started grabbing me around my waist and he tryed (sic) to stick his hands in my pants and I started crying."
When the lawsuit was filed in 2007, a U.S. Justice Department monitor was making periodic inspections at Columbia as part of a 2005 settlement with Mississippi in a previous case. The Justice investigation that led to that settlement found Columbia youths were hog-tied, forced to strip and eat their own vomit and were held in isolation in what was called the "Dark Room," a windowless room with a hole in the floor used as a toilet.
Hundreds of youths have allegedly suffered similar abuse at juvenile detention centers across the United States, according to experts interviewed by CNN and court records checked for this story.
The U.S. Justice Department has sued nine states and two territories alleging abuse, inadequate mental and medical care and potentially dangerous methods like the use of restraints. The department doesn't have the power to shut down facilities -- states do -- but through litigation it can force a state to improve its detention centers and protect the civil rights of jailed youths.
Another facility under Justice scrutiny is Oakley Training School near Jackson, Mississippi, which was sued by the department at the same time as Columbia. Gov. Haley Barbour recently announced Columbia's inmates would be transferred this summer to Oakley when Columbia is closed.
But the Justice Department said Oakley has satisfied barely a fraction of requirements the department set for it years ago. According to a March 2008 Justice report, there is an "enormous amount of work" needed to make Oakley a safe and productive place to rehabilitate troubled teens.
Barbour would not respond to questions for this report. The Mississippi Department of Human Services, which runs Columbia and Oakley, refused to answer most of a CNN public records request citing pending litigation and also declined to be interviewed.
The U.S. Justice Department could not talk specifically about ongoing cases, but Lisa Krigsten, civil rights division principal deputy assistant attorney general, noted the department is going after double the number of juvenile jails for civil rights violations during the Bush administration than in any previous administration.
"We take this seriously and are committed to protecting the vulnerable children who are in these places," she said.
A CNN check of other juvenile facilities shows that, despite years of court wrangling, serious problems persist.
In Ohio, a dozen employees at the Scioto Juvenile Correctional Facility have been indicted since 2003 on charges relating to physical and sexual abuse of youth, according to a May 2007 Justice report. Five were convicted of various charges, including sexual battery and assault; six cases were dismissed and a jury found one employee not guilty.
In January, a state-hired consultant blamed a "culture of violence" in Ohio's juvenile jails for numerous abuses. The expert's report details examples of "egregious use of force" by guards and included a video he viewed of a 2007 incident in which a "frail" boy who was threatening to harm himself was restrained by guards.
The boy was wrestled to the ground, cuffed and stripped, with one guard seen putting his full body weight on the boy's back while driving his knee into the boy's neck.
A so-called "Suicide Smock" was placed "over his airways," the report said. "The youth actually screams that he can't breathe."
In response to the report, the Ohio Department of Youth Services, which oversees detention facilities, has installed more surveillance cameras and beefed up its mental health care staff, spokeswoman Andrea Kruse said.
"We're doing everything we can to improve," she said.
On Thursday, Ohio announced settlement of a suit brought by Children's Law Center of Kentucky. It will add up to $30 million annually to its juvenile justice budget and hire more guards, psychologists and teachers for its system.
Accusations similar to those made in Ohio were made at a Florida boot camp in 2006. Martin Lee Anderson, 14, was seen on surveillance tape being beaten and restrained by guards. Anderson later died. Seven guards and a nurse were acquitted of manslaughter in October.
Since then, the NAACP's Florida chapter has called for an investigation of the state's teen jails, noting at least seven youths have died at lock-ups since 2000, including 17-year-old Omar Paisley, who died at a Miami detention center of a ruptured appendix after begging for help during three days that he was in pain.
A grand jury found that two nurses repeatedly failed to help Paisley. They are charged with third degree murder and manslaughter, have pleaded not guilty and are scheduled for trial in July.
Florida issued a report in January asking for more than 50 changes to its system and a partnership with the Department of Education to attack problems before kids drop out of school. Overall, the report calls for treating troubled kids with therapy as an alternative to jail.
Texas is grappling with the fallout from reports of long-term sexual abuse at its facilities, where, since 2000, more than 90 Texas Youth Commission employees -- roughly one a month -- have been sanctioned or fired for sexual misconduct with adolescents, commission spokesman Jim Hurley told CNN.
Texas granted early release in February to a 16-year-old girl who attempted suicide after she was allegedly molested repeatedly by a male guard. The guard was indicted in December on four counts of molesting the girl. He was previously charged with raping four other female inmates, but those charges were dropped, said Hurley, after witnesses retracted their accounts.
This spring, two administrators at a west Texas youth facility are scheduled to stand trial on charges they were having sex with juvenile inmates, one allegedly enticing a teen to perform sex acts for birthday cake. The men resigned in 2005, Hurley said.
Texas recently has added hundreds more surveillance cameras and personnel to its facilities to avoid more problems, he said.
"Girls are sexually abused in these institutions more often than the public would believe," said Paul DeMuro, a delinquency expert who in 2002 inspected Columbia for the Justice Department and is now a consultant for the Southern Poverty Law Center. Nationwide, the Justice Department has said 2,821 allegations of sex abuse were made in 2004, the most recent data on the topic available.
An Indiana juvenile judge said there's another dimension of sexual misconduct happening at Indianapolis Juvenile Correctional Facility -- inmate on inmate sex.
State Judge Peter Nemeth is refusing to send female offenders to the lock-up after a team of delinquency experts interviewed a total of 31 girls at the facility. The girls described "networking," or sneaking into each other's cells for sex. Members of the team told CNN that locks on cells were not working, allowing the young women to leave and enter their cells whenever they wish.
One girl interviewed said a guard had participated in the sex.
"It's a dangerous place," said Nemeth, who is sending youths to two other facilities at more than twice the cost to taxpayers. "It seems like chaos to me, very little discipline. The girls say they are running the place."
In March, the Indiana Department of Correction said it is transferring boys at the facility to another lock-up, which Nemeth hopes will allow more staffers to oversee the girls section. "It may be a step in the right direction," he said, but won't necessarily solve the problem of girls frequently having sex with other girls.
Before March, the judge detailed his concerns in two letters to Gov. Mitch Daniels, whose office referred all questions for this story to Indiana Department of Correction spokesman Doug Garrison.
"We disagree with the judge's characterization," Garrison said, adding that no investigation at the facility has substantiated the girls' claims.
When Erica was held at Columbia, she said she didn't think anyone would believe her accounts of abuse. It's taken months of therapy, including some counseling at a YMCA, which she found in her small Mississippi hometown.
Erica talks about wanting to be an attorney. It's the first time in her life she is considering her future. She tries not to think about Columbia, but smiles when she talks about the facility closing.
"I'm happy, real happy," said Erica. "That means nobody is going to get hurt there again."
OHIO
Ohio Settles Suit Over Juvenile Jails
April 4, 2008
By the Associated Press, CNN
The state of Ohio plans to pour money and resources into its juvenile detention system after settling a lawsuit alleging serious violations.
The state is promising $30 million in additional annual spending and the hiring of more than 100 extra guards. It also will hire additional psychologists, nurses, social workers and teachers, improve its off-hours programs for children and revamp its program for sex offenders.
A report released late last year found Ohio's youth prisons are overcrowded and understaffed and fail to educate children behind bars or keep them safe. It also found cases of excessive use of force.
The settlement ends legal challenges that began in 2004 with allegations of excessive force being used against girls at the Scioto Juvenile Correctional Facility.
A judge must still approve the settlement filed Thursday in federal court in Columbus.
The state is satisfied the agreement will bring much-needed change to the juvenile justice system, said Tom Stickrath, director of the Youth Services Department. He said the extra funding is a strain during tight budget times but eventually could lead to lower costs as the system improves.
The annual budget for the Ohio system, which serves about 1,700 children, is about $260 million. "It's certainly a long-term investment in doing the right thing for the youth in our system, for the juvenile courts across the state and ultimately for the citizens," Stickrath said in an interview.
"It's a difficult time to be looking at any extra resources but I think it's a needed investment in our future," he said.
A veteran civil rights attorney who helped coordinate the lawsuit commended the state for settling.
"The plan safeguards public safety while working toward more youth being served in smaller, more appropriate, community-based facilities," said Cincinnati attorney Alphonse Gerhardstein.
The system has a troubled history.
In 2004, lawyers with the Children's Law Center of Kentucky sued the state over allegations of excessive force being used against girls at the Scioto Juvenile Correctional Facility. Around the same time, the Department of Justice launched an investigation over the same allegations.
Twelve employees at the Scioto facility were eventually charged with abusing and endangering inmates and in early 2005 the agency's director was forced to resign.
A year ago, the Children's Law Center and other groups updated the 2004 suit to include the entire agency, saying the state had made inadequate progress on its promises to address their concerns.
In addition to overcrowding and excessive force, a report found that guards regularly place children in solitary confinement for inappropriately long periods of time, a practice that "is unconstitutional on its face" and should cease immediately.
RESEARCH
Discussions About Contraception or STDs Prior to Sex
April 2008
By Emily Holcombe, Suzanne Ryan and Jennifer Manlove, Child Trends
Since decisions about sexual behavior are made by couples, communication between sexual partners is essential for preventing risky sexual behavior. In particular, teens who discuss contraception and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) with their partners before they engage in sex are more likely to use contraception when they do have sex, which can reduce their risk of unintended pregnancy and STDs. However, little research has looked at the characteristics of teens and their relationships that influence whether or not teens have such discussions. A greater understanding of the factors that influence teens’ abilities to talk about contraception and STDs can aid prevention programs in their efforts to help teens improve their communication skills and learn how to negotiate sexual activity and contraceptive use. Using data from high school students, this Fact Sheet finds that only half of teens report discussing contraception or STDs with a partner prior to having sexual intercourse for the first time. Males, whites, and Hispanics are less likely to have these discussions, whereas teens who report higher levels of communication with their parents and engage in more dating activities with their partners are more likely to discuss contraception or STDs.
FINDINGS
Half of Teens Reported Discussing Contraception or STDs With Their Partners Before Having Sex For The First Time.
Given the link between discussing contraception and actual contraceptive use, teens who did not have such conversations face a heightened risk of having an unintended pregnancy or contracting an STD.
Male Teens Were Somewhat Less Likely Than Were Female Teens To Report Discussing Contraception or STDs With Their First Sexual Partner.
* Forty-five percent of males and 53 percent of females reported that they discussed contraception or STDs with their first sexual partner.
* This finding supports evidence from small-scale research studies suggesting that many males feel uncomfortable discussing contraception.
* Consequently, male teens may be at a higher risk of having unprotected sex than are their female counterparts. Thus, male teens especially may benefit from participating in pregnancy and STD prevention programs that help them become comfortable communicating about contraceptive use and STDs with their partners.
Black Teens Were More Likely Than Were White and Hispanic Teens to Discuss Contraception or STDs With Their Partners.
* White and Hispanic teens, therefore, represent key target groups for pregnancy and STD prevention programs that emphasize helping teens improve communication around sex and contraception issues.
* While many interventions focus on minority teens, this research shows that white teens are in need of interventions, too, especially when it comes to increasing their level of comfort in discussing contraception before engaging in sex.
Teens Who Reported Higher Levels of Communication With Their Parents Were More Likely To Discuss Contraception or STDs With Their Partners.
* Thus, parents should be encouraged to talk to their children about a range of issues; conversations do not have to be explicitly about sex to help promote teens’ abilities to communicate with partners about contraception or STDs.
Teens Who Discussed Contraception or STDs With Their Partners Engaged in More Dating Activities Before Having Sex For The First Time.
* More dating interactions between teens and their sexual partners (such as going out together alone or in a group, and meeting each other’s parents) likely improves their level of comfort with each other and, therefore, their willingness to talk about topics such as contraception and STDs.
Teens Who Think They Know More About Condoms Were More Likely to Discuss Contraception or STDs.
* The more knowledge teens think they have about condoms, the more likely they were to report discussing contraception or STDs with their partners before having sex for the first time.
* Thus, teaching teens more about contraceptive methods may help to improve their willingness to discuss contraception or STDs.
Teens Who Perceived That They Were at High Risk For Contracting an STD Were Less Likely to Discuss Contraception or STDs.
* It is possible that teens who perceive their disease risk to be high do not engage in discussions about contraception and STDs with their partners because they may think that contracting an STD is inevitable.
* Thus, these teens may be an especially vulnerable group in need of interventions to improve their knowledge of reproductive health issues and risks, and to help them prevent risky sexual behaviors that may lead to STDs.
Teens Who Were Able to Make More Rational Decisions Were More Likely to Discuss Contraception or STDs.
* Rational decision making was measured by creating a scale that combined teens’ reports of their decision-making habits (such as whether they get as many facts as possible about a problem and think of different ways to approach a problem when attempting to find a solution).
* This finding complements other research showing that teens with better problem-solving skills are more likely to postpone sex and to use contraception when they do become sexually active.
* Thus, programs that help provide teens with systematic approaches to negotiating decisions about sex and contraception in relationships may spur more discussions between partners about contraception and STDs.
TIPS FOR PARENTS AND PROGRAMS
Parents and programs can play instrumental roles in encouraging teens to engage in safer sexual behavior. Our findings suggest a number of ways that parents and programs can increase the likelihood that teens will discuss contraception or STDs with their partners before having sex for the first time and, consequently, help sexually experienced teens avoid pregnancy and STDs. These include:
- Discouraging sexual relationships at an early age, especially with someone teens do not know very well;
- Helping male and female teens become more comfortable communicating about pregnancy and STD prevention with their partners; one proven effective strategy for
doing so is by engaging teens in role-playing exercises;
- Encouraging parent-teen communication, not only about sex but also about a range of everyday issues;
- Helping teens who do choose to have sex become more knowledgeable about condoms and more confident about using them;
- Targeting efforts to teens who perceive their risk of STDs to be high; and
- Assisting teens in the development of systematic, rational problem-solving skills and teaching teens to apply these skills to their sexual decision making.
RESEARCH
Report: Many Big City Graduation Rates Below 50%
April 1, 2008
By the Associated Press, CNN
Seventeen of the nation's 50 largest cities had graduation rates lower than 50 percent, with the lowest graduation rates reported in Detroit, Michigan; Indianapolis, Indiana and Cleveland, Ohio, according to a report released Tuesday.
The report, issued by America's Promise Alliance, found that about half of the students served by public school systems in the nation's largest cities receive diplomas.
Students in suburban and rural public high schools were more likely to graduate than their counterparts in urban public high schools, the researchers said.
Nationally, about 70 percent of U.S. students graduate on time with a regular diploma and about 1.2 million students drop out annually.
"When more than 1 million students a year drop out of high school, it's more than a problem, it's a catastrophe," said former Secretary of State Colin Powell, founding chair of the alliance.
His wife, Alma Powell, the chair of the alliance, said students need to graduate with skills that will help them in higher education and beyond. "We must invest in the whole child, and that means finding solutions that involve the family, the school and the community." The Powell's organization was beginning a national campaign to cut high school dropout rates.
The group, joining Education Secretary Margaret Spellings at a Tuesday news conference, was announcing plans to hold summits in every state during the next two years on ways to better prepare students for college and the work force.
The report found troubling data on the prospects of urban public high school students getting to college. In Detroit's public schools, 24.9 percent of the students graduated from high school, while 30.5 percent graduated in Indianapolis Public Schools and 34.1 percent received diplomas in the Cleveland Municipal City School District.
Researchers analyzed school district data from 2003-2004 collected by the U.S. Department of Education. To calculate graduation rates, the report estimated the likelihood that a 9th-grader would complete high school on time with a regular diploma. Researchers used school enrollment and diploma data, but did not use data on dropouts as part of its calculation.
Many metropolitan areas also showed a considerable gap in the graduation rates between their inner-city schools and the surrounding suburbs. Researchers found, for example, that 81.5 percent of the public school students in Baltimore's suburbs graduate, compared with 34.6 percent in the city schools.
In Ohio, nearly 83 percent of public high school students in suburban Columbus graduate while 78.1 percent in suburban Cleveland earn their diplomas, well above their local city schools.
Ohio Department of Education spokesman Scott Blake said the state delays its estimates by a few months so it can include summer graduates in its calculations. Based on the state's methodology, he said Columbus graduated 60.6 percent of its students in 2003-2004, rather than the 40.9 percent the study calculated.
By Ohio's reckoning, Columbus has improved each year since the 2001-2002 school year, with 72.9 percent of students graduating in 2005-2006, Columbus Public Schools spokesman Jeff Warner said.
Warner said the gains were partly because of after-school and weekend tutoring, coordinated literacy programs in the district's elementary schools and bolstered English-as-a-second-language programs.
Cleveland's current graduation rates are also higher than the statistics cited in the new report, school district spokesman Ben Holbert said.
Spellings has called for requiring states to provide graduation data in a more uniform way under the renewal of the No Child Left Behind education law pending in Congress.
Under the 2002 law, schools that miss progress goals face increasing sanctions, including forced use of federal money for private tutoring, easing student transfers, and restructuring of school staff.
States calculate their graduation rates using all sorts of methods, many of which critics say are based on unreliable information about school dropouts. Under No Child Left Behind, states may use their own methods of calculating graduation rates and set their own goals for improving them.
The research was conducted by Editorial Projects in Education, a Bethesda, Maryland, nonprofit organization, with support from America's Promise Alliance and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The alliance is based on a joint effort of nonprofit groups, corporations, community leaders, charities, faith-based organizations and individuals to improve children's lives.
RESEARCH
National Study Tracks Trends in Youth Health Behavior
April 1, 2008
Newswise
Positive school experiences and good family relationships exert an important influence on almost all aspects of young people’s health, a new Queen’s University-led national study shows.
On the other hand, family wealth and peer relationships have both positive and negative influences on youth health.
These are just a few of the findings from the new youth behaviour report released today in Ottawa by the Public Health Agency of Canada. The report examines smoking, alcohol and drug use, physical activity and body image, eating patterns, emotional health and injuries in children aged 11 to 15. More than 9,500 students from Grades 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 participated in 2006.
The Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey has been carried out in Canada every four years since 1990 by the Social Program Evaluation Group (SPEG) at Queen’s, in partnership with the Public Health Agency of Canada. The study is supported by the World Health Organization and involves research teams from 41 countries in North America and Europe. The new report examines the health settings and contexts of young people in relation to their health attitudes and behaviours.
Among key findings from the study (comparing 2006 to 2002):
• Daily smoking among both boys and girls has declined significantly, especially in Grade 10, with a drop from 15% down to 4% of boys, and a drop from 11% down to 6% for girls. The proportion of students getting “really drunk” twice or more has also declined slightly among Grade 10 students. In 2006, the proportion of boys in Grade 10 who report ever trying cannabis dropped to 38% from 50% in 2002, whereas, the proportions for girls were similar across the two years, at about two-fifths.
• Almost half of students are physically inactive. Fewer than half report daily consumption of fruits or vegetables, and only half report daily consumption of low-fat/skim milk. The problems of inactivity, obesity and poor nutrition are particularly apparent in youngsters from homes with the lowest levels of family wealth.
• Health-risk behaviours such as smoking, drinking and marijuana use are strongly associated with lower academic achievement, a less positive attitude towards school, not living with both parents and having poorer parental trust and communication. Also, those who report that they find it easier to talk with friends have higher rates of substance use.
• Most forms of bullying have decreased in the past four years. However, more than one-third of students have still been victims of bullying. More students – about 40% – from higher-income families acknowledge they have bullied others.
• From 31 to 48 % of boys and girls in Grades 6 to 10 report one or more medically-treated injuries in a 12-month period. School factors – particularly, higher academic achievement levels – are associated with lower occurrences of serious injury.
• While emotional health is similar for both boys and girls in Grade 6, by Grade 10 girls experience poorer emotional health than boys. Higher levels of parental trust and communication are much more important to young people’s emotional health than living with both parents, or to family wealth.
• Positive attitudes of one’s friends towards others have a protective influence on emotional health and well-being.
“Improving school and family strengths may indicate the best opportunity for success of youth health interventions,” says SPEG director Dr. William Boyce, who edited and contributed to the report. “At the same time, the greatest need for interventions appears to be within the peer context and in social income policy. Further research is needed to investigate how these protective factors combine with risk factors and lead to health improvement or to poor health in young people.”
NATIONWIDE
21's a Bust? Seven States Debate Lowering Drinking Age
April 3, 2008
By Janelle Jolley, ABC News
Is 21 a bust when it comes to drinking?
Lawmakers in seven states are actively considering legislation that would lower the legal drinking age.
State pols in Kentucky, Wisconsin and South Carolina have introduced legislation that would lower the drinking age only for military personnel, while Missouri, South Dakota, Vermont and Minnesota are considering more expansive measures that would lower the drinking age for the general population.
"These people set themselves apart," said Rep. David Floyd of Kentucky, who supports the state lowering the drinking age to 18, and believes the responsibility that enlistees assume with military service demonstrates their ability to make mature decisions when it comes to alcohol.
Floyd looks at his efforts to lower Kentucky's drinking age as more of a military bill than a drinking bill, and would be opposed to expanding the bill to include nonmilitary personnel.
Legislators, like Floyd, who are proponents of legally lowering the drinking age, are putting their state's highway funds at risk.
Each state contemplating lowering the drinking age could stand to lose up to 10 percent of its federal road money.
In 1984, Congress passed the Uniform Drinking Age Act, which was designed to reduce car accident deaths among young people by setting the minimum drinking age at 21 and threatening states with the loss of federal highway funds if they did not comply.
Since the '80s, groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving and why21.org have cited research for their continued support of 21 as the legal drinking age.
According to the National Institutes of Health, alcohol-related traffic deaths have decreased across the board with the greatest proportional declines among people 16 to 20 years old.
NIH studies also revealed that teenagers who began drinking before age 15 are four times more likely to develop alcohol dependence during their lifetimes than those who started drinking at age 21 or later.
Despite the research, some still disagree with the federal government's role in raising states' drinking age.
"Our own law makes it clear that the drinking age was raised 'solely under the duress of a funding sanction imposed by the United States Department of Transportation.' In short, we passed this law not because it reflected our values, desires and customs as a state but because we wanted the extra money," said N. Bob Pesall.
Pesall, a lawyer in Flandreau, S.D., drafted a proposal that would make consuming low alcohol beer legal at age 19 instead of the current 21 for all alcoholic drinks.
"I support the idea of lowering the drinking age in South Dakota for several reasons, but it all boils down to respect. In South Dakota, when a person turns 18, he or she can enter into contracts, pay taxes, do business, get married, bear arms and fight overseas to protect our national interests. It is simply disrespectful to tell that same person that they can't handle a cold beer when they come home," said Pesall.
A planned ballot initiative in Missouri would allow everyone 18 and older to become drinking age adults. A Minnesota bill would allow anyone who is 18 and older to buy alcohol in bars and restaurants but not in liquor stores until they're 21.
"In short, based upon research, the current drinking laws are counterproductive. This is why I recommend lowering the drinking age in controlled environments such as restaurants and campus pubs or anytime with parents, in addition, to not allowing young adults to buy alcohol in retail stores to take home to get drink as that is not responsible drinking behavior," said Ruth Engs, professor emeritus in Applied Health Science at Indiana University.
John McCardell, the former president of Middlebury College in Vermont, also supports states that are trying to lower their drinking age. McCardell founded Choose Responsibility, an advocacy group that is opposed to age 21 being the legal drinking age.
"We need to support public policies that reflect reality, not our illusion of what reality is," said McCardell about proposed legislation. "We can either try to change the reality -- that is called Prohibition, which has historically failed -- or we can create the safest possible environment for the reality. Legal age 21 creates the least safe, most life-threatening environment, and thus it neither reflects nor represents reality."
McCardell argues that the current drinking age negatively affects youth behavior, and aids in binge drinking.
"Binge drinking, however you may define it, is not behavior that takes place in public. The law has banished alcohol consumption from public places and public view. The only place binge drinking can occur, then, is where the law has banished it, in clandestine locations," said McCardell. "How can one argue that the drinking age is not responsible for this?"
INDIANA
Indiana Law Designed to Help Youth Among First in Nation
April 14, 2008
Evansville Courier & Press
A new Indiana law, inspired by a task force in Evansville, tries to address some issues faced by young runaways and homeless youth.
The bill's author, Rep. Dennis Avery, D-Evansville, said the legislation is a good starting place to help children in those situations.
Indiana is one of a handful of states that recently passed a comprehensive law for homeless youth. Among the provisions of the Indiana bill:
- Food pantries and homeless shelters can provide services to runaway and homeless youth ages 16 to 18, even without permission from a parent.
- The Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority will be required to aid homeless children in accessing local resources and services.
- Data will be collected to determine the number of homeless youth in the state.
- The Indiana Department of Workforce Development will establish an office of Coordinator for Education of Homeless Children.
- Youth shelters will be required to notify parents of the location of their child within 72 hours, instead of the current 24 hours. Advocates say this gives shelter officials more time to determine whether there is potential abuse at home.
The legislation was proposed in part by the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Homeless Youth Coalition, co-chaired by Cynthia Smith and Patty Avery, who is Dennis Avery's wife.
MARYLAND
Maryland Legislators Approve Bill Aimed at Curbing Cyberbullying
April 9, 2008
By Kathleen Fitzgerald, Student Press Law Center
A bill that will require public schools to develop a policy prohibiting cyber-bullying and other forms of intimidation has passed both houses of the state legislature as of April
3 and now awaits action by the governor.
Alex Grudger, a legislative aide for HB199 sponsor Del. Craig L. Rice, said the bill is a step toward making schools safer. And while public schools agreed that bullying is a
problem, "to have one more thing on their plate was hard to digest," Grudger said.
The bill requires the state board of education to develop a model policy prohibiting bullying in schools, and it requires each county board to adopt its own policy by July 1,
2009 based on the model.
Unlike some other cyber-bullying laws, Maryland's bill says even if the harassment takes place off school grounds, as long as it "substantially disrupts the orderly operation
of a school," administrators can report the incident.
The bill defines "bullying, harassment, or intimidation" as anything that is "threatening or seriously intimidating" and creates a hostile educational environment by
interfering with a student's education, or their physical or psychological well-being. Unlawful bullying includes harassment "motivated by an actual or a perceived personal
characteristic," such as race, sex, religion or disability.
The prohibition against bullying covers "intentional conduct including verbal, physical, or written conduct, or an intentional electronic communication."
Grudger said the attorney general's office testified in favor of the bill, saying if the effects are manifested on school grounds, then it should not matter if cyber-bullying
takes place at home or elsewhere.
But David L. Hudson Jr. of the First Amendment Center said the school's power extending off-campus creates a "bit of tension in the First Amendment arena as to just how
far school jurisdiction extends."
"There's no doubt that [the bill] is well-intentioned, but the question is whether it's going to sweep too much speech within its reach," Hudson said.
And while schools have a duty to provide a safe learning environment, administrators will have to distinguish between actual bullying and content that others simply find to
be hostile.
Bill Reinhard, a spokesman for the Maryland State Department of Education, said the department supports the bill and is working to create a policy.
If signed into law, the bill will make Maryland one of 14 states with laws against cyber-bullying. Six other states have bills pending. Gov. Martin O'Malley has until July to
sign the bill, according to Grudger.
"We don't know how far this is going to go in terms of how the schools are going to be able to do it, but it's a beginning," Grudger said. "Many people that did testify as
people who had been bullied felt that the schools had not taken their issues seriously."
CALIFORNIA
Committee Clears Evans Bill to Protect Foster Youth
April 3, 2008
California Political Desk, The California Chronicle
The Assembly Human Services Committee has passed a bill authored by Assemblymember Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa) that will require the state to establish additional safeguards in the court approval process for prescribing psychotropic drugs to foster youth.
Assembly Bill (AB) 2117 passed with a 7-0 vote and awaits further review in the Assembly Judiciary Committee.
"Children in state care have a lot of unmet mental health needs," said Evans. "I have heard horror stories about foster youth routinely being given meds without counseling. This reckless track record must stop."
Sponsored by the Children´s Law Center of Los Angeles, AB 2117:
-Requires health professionals requesting court authorization to administer psychotropic medications to a foster child to conduct an examination of the child and to document the child's medical history;
-Requires juvenile court judges before authorizing the administration of meds to make findings that (1) a child and his/her 's caregiver has been informed in an age and developmentally appropriate manner, about the recommended medications, anticipated benefits, possible side effects and any other recommended treatment, and (2) that the child has been informed of his or her right to request a hearing on the issue;
-Requires that the child be present in court for a hearing on the request to administer psychotropic medications, unless the child waives the right after consulting with counsel.
-Requires the court to ensure that a child who receives psychotropic medications also receives concurrent therapy, behavioral intervention or other recommended treatment, and that the effects of the medication are monitored.
-Requires the child welfare agency to report in all subsequent reports to the juvenile court on the effectiveness, any side effects and the child's statements about the medication, as well as recommendations by the health provider and the child's progress in treatment and therapy.
"Youth are being prescribed multiple medications at the same time, and having their medications changed frequently and abruptly each time they are moved to a new placement or new mental health care provider," added Evans. "We have little to show that this is helping kids."
In testimony provided before the Blue Ribbon Commission on Foster Care (June 2006) and the Select Committee on Foster Care (September 2006), some youth reported being put on medications when they were as young as 4 or 5 years old and remained on various medications for their entire childhoods. Youth reported experiencing serious side effects – drowsiness, weight gain, insomnia, drooling, facial tics, etc. – and receiving little or no monitoring of the effectiveness of their medications, nor efforts to mitigate side effects. Other foster youth on medication indicated that they did not receive effective therapy and/or behavioral interventions that could have reduced or eliminated the need for medication. Youth also complained that they were not given information about the purpose or potential side effects of their medications, and had no opportunity to participate in decisions regarding their medication and other mental health treatment.
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