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Youth in the NewsVolume 3, Number 5, March 1-15, 2008 Contents
STATE WATCH
ARTICLES NATIONAL Thomas Mahoney came out of a seizure last December surrounded by paramedics ready to take him to the hospital by ambulance. Mindful of the cost, he asked his mom and girlfriend to drive him instead, slipping in and out of consciousness along the way. Maybe it wasn't the smartest option for a patient with epilepsy, but for a 21-year-old without health insurance, it was prudent. Mahoney, of Dublin, Ga., lost his insurance when he turned 19, no longer eligible for coverage under his father's policy because he wasn't a full-time student. Almost all states, when regulating insurance plans for small- and medium-sized employers, set a maximum age for coverage of dependent children. The limit is usually 19 for non-students and 23 for full-time college students. Mahoney is just one of more than 13 million people between the ages of 19 to 29 without health coverage. Many are just starting out in their careers and have never had a serious health problem. Some refer to the group as "the invincibles" because so many take that good health for granted. States are now looking at this group of young people as they seek to reduce the number of uninsured. In the past two years, 17 states have passed laws that let young adults stay on the family policy until their mid-20s. New age limits range from 24 in Delaware, Indiana and South Dakota, to 30 in New Jersey. Eleven states, including Maine, settled on age 25, according to the Commonwealth Fund, which conducts health research. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama also has picked up on the trend. Part of his health platform would let young people up to age 25 continue coverage through their parents' plans. Mahoney said he explored continuing his coverage under his father's policy, but it would have cost about $1,500 a month — two-thirds of his income. Other policies would not cover his pre-existing condition. His father "would by all means do whatever he could to get me covered and keep me covered," he said. "My mother is the same way." The Commonwealth Fund projects that 1.4 million people would gain health insurance if every state extended dependent coverage to at least 23. State lawmakers who specialize in insurance regulation, the National Conference of Insurance Legislators, will vote on a policy recommendation in two weeks that supports increasing the availability of dependent benefits up to age 25. The endorsement would be important because legislators around the country look to the organization for guidance on insurance issues. "This is one way states can address a specific age group and not have to expend a lot of state resources to extend health coverage," said Laura Tobler, health program director at the National Conference of State Legislatures. But not everybody agrees that states should take that step. Some refer to the extensions as the "slacker mandate." The insurance industry says the extensions cause insurers to pay for care that consumers previously paid for out of their own pockets. When insurers have to pay more claims, they eventually have to raise premiums to cover those claims. For the most part, employers bear the added cost. Mohit Ghose, a spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans, said it's too soon to know how much insurance costs went up in states that extended eligibility for dependent coverage. When evaluating the additional requirements, he said, each one by itself amounts to a small increase in the cost of a policy, usually adding less than 1 percent. But, eventually, those mandates add up, and they can price health coverage out of range for some employers and their workers, he said. "Sometimes when states jump on a bandwagon, it's not necessarily the right bandwagon for the people they're trying to help," said Susan Laudicina, director of state research and policy at The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. A better solution is to let insurers offer a mix of plans that appeal to young adults, Ghose and Laudicina said. Such plans typically have low monthly premiums but require the patient to pick up a large chunk of initial medical expense. Plans targeting young adults tend to cost less because those age 19-23 generate about $1,500 in medical expenses a year compared with $3,200 for those 30-49 or $6,300 for those 50-64. The Council for Affordable Health Insurance, which tracks mandated benefits, counts the "slacker mandate" as among the 1,961 mandates it's identified in all the states. Some require a small group or individual plan to cover a type of provider, such as a chiropractor. Others require the coverage of a particular illness, say Lyme Disease. J.P. Wieske, the council's director of state affairs, said that staying on a parent's policy could come back to haunt young adults who develop serious health conditions. Once they develop a serious condition, like Thomas Mahoney did with epilepsy, they'll find it almost impossible to get insurance. But if they get their own health insurance before the problem hits, they'll have coverage that cannot be terminated. "The sooner they can get on their own policies, the better off they'll be," Wieske said. "The rates will be cheaper and they're buying something they can keep with them." Tobler said many twentysomethings have other priorities in their life now, and the new state laws simply acknowledge that reality. "They're not thinking about getting sick. They're thinking about buying a car or putting a downpayment on a house or apartment," Tobler said. Wieske is particularly critical of New Jersey's law, which extended dependent coverage in some cases until age 30. But Sara Collins of the Commonwealth Fund said she believes the state's approach made sense. "One of the fastest growing age groups in the uninsured are 19 to 29 year olds. Between 19 and 23, you're somewhat protected by your parents' plans," Collins said, referring primarily to college students. "But, this age group, from 24 to 29, you really are a new entrant in the labor force. When you are a new entrant to the labor force, you're more likely to be employed by companies that don't offer coverage."
NATIONAL As states grapple with spiraling prison costs and reports of abuse in juvenile lock-ups, many are trying to recreate a successful Missouri program that boasts one of the lowest repeat-offender rates in the country. It took a crisis, but the Show-Me State in the early 1980s abandoned its embattled youth corrections facility, which housed 650 juveniles, and switched to smaller regional treatment centers that provide education, job training and 24-hour counseling. Missouri’s approach — originally pioneered in Massachusetts — aimed at creating a safe, non-punitive environment, where counselors help troubled kids turn around their lives. “Everything we did was guided by a central belief: These are kids, even though they’ve committed some very adult-like behaviors. Let’s find out how they got into this, and help them get out of it and lead productive lives,” said Tim Decker, director of Missouri’s Division of Youth Services. The result of a scathing federal government report on the conditions and punishments in its juvenile lock-up, Missouri’s radical new approach was some 20 years ahead of what is becoming a national trend. In the last three years, lawmakers and other officials from at least 30 states have visited the Missouri facilities, and several are taking steps to adopt the system. “States have begun to realize that if they can find effective methods of reforming youth offenders, they will save money, communities will be safer and kids will benefit,” said Miriam Rollin of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, an anti-crime organization made up of attorneys general and other law enforcers. Missouri’s intensive counseling program is not necessarily cheaper than traditional lock-up programs, but with fewer than 8 percent of its graduates returning to the system, the state saves money in the long run, Decker said. “You’re not treating the same kids over and over,” he said. Experts say it’s difficult to compare recidivism rates, because states use different methods to calculate the percentage of repeat offenders. But most states report double-digit rates, and some say more than half of kids who leave traditional facilities return within three years. The success of the so-called Missouri model also can be measured by its participants’ higher-than-average number of job placements and high education levels and the low incidence of violence at the facilities. According to the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives, there were 110 suicides in U.S. juvenile corrections facilities between 1995 and 1999. In Missouri, no suicides have occurred in juvenile treatment centers since their inception more than 25 years ago. Looking to repeat those results are Louisiana, New Mexico, Santa Clara County, Calif., and the District of Columbia, which have been working with the Missouri Youth Services Institute, an organization formed by Mark Steward, the state’s former youth services director. Steward, who led Missouri’s transformation for 18 years, retired three years ago only to be inundated by requests from other states looking for help. “I was hoping for a little rest,” Steward said, “but the phone never stopped ringing.” Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Texas have had initial discussions with the Institute about using the program, but Steward says his small staff can work with only a few states at a time. And he cautions them that a Missouri-style transformation won’t happen overnight. Under Steward’s leadership, the state made slow, steady progress for more than two decades, resulting in a system that now includes 32 residential treatment centers located across Missouri in state parks, cottages, schools and college campuses. Instead of razor wire, jail cells and prison guards, the cozy residential centers feature dorm-style bedrooms, classrooms and activity centers with comfortable couches and games. Most buildings are not locked, no one wears a uniform and staff psychologists, teachers and social workers are unarmed. The program was fully supported at its onset by then-Gov. John Aschroft (R), a tough law enforcer who later became U.S. Attorney General under President George W. Bush, and conservative state Supreme Court Justice Stephen N. Limbaugh, Jr., cousin of prominent right-wing radio commentator Rush Limbaugh. Political opposition and loss of funding killed the program in Massachusetts, which was initially successful in the early 1970s. National experts on juvenile crime urge states to invest in this type of counseling and rehabilitation, instead of confinement and punishment, as a way to stem adult crime and incarcerations. But for the last 20 years, most states have gone in the opposite direction, said Liz Ryan, director of the Campaign for Youth Justice. A series of high-profile youth crimes in the mid-1980s spurred most states to adopt tough juvenile crime laws, which resulted in overcrowded corrections facilities, scandals over abusive and punitive treatment and corrections budgets that often surpassed the cost of public education, Ryan said. Now, many states are loosening their harsh juvenile laws and looking for alternatives to their aging youth corrections facilities. Louisiana — with its scandal-plagued juvenile corrections system — was the first state to launch a Missouri-style program in January 2005. But after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the state’s juvenile corrections facilities in New Orleans, the system was in chaos and the program was put on a hold. The District of Columbia was next to embrace the Missouri model and is now two years into a transition that Vincent Shiraldi, the district’s Division of Youth Rehabilitation Services director, says will take at least another year to complete. Shiraldi, who battled complaints that he was soft on crime and powerful opposition by prison guard labor unions, is starting to see positive results. “We encountered internal resistance in the beginning, but that’s starting to change,” he said. “Now we have tremendous political support, and the community is behind us.” Steward says the D.C. project, located at Oak Hill Youth Detention Center in Laurel, Md., was a challenge. “It was the most neglected system I’d ever seen in my life. The facility stunk, there were holes in the walls and ceilings where kids passed dope. They were just doing time. It was absolutely horrible,” he said. “You’re telling the kids you care about them and want to help them,” he said. “They won’t believe you if they’re scared and uncomfortable.” Carl, 17, who has bi-polar disorder and struggles with anger management, has experienced both the old and the new Oak Hill. Locked up five times since he was 12 years old, he says this time is different. He’s taken high school classes at the facility and hopes to get his graduate equivalency diploma before he leaves. For now, he’s helping out in the program’s administrative office. During his earlier stays at Oak Hill, Carl said he and the other kids mostly hung out with nothing to do. “Before, I just waited to see what would happen. Nothing was organized. I never knew what I was supposed to do to get out,” he said. “Now with them giving me advice, I’ve grown and expanded. They help you understand your strengths and weaknesses,” Carl said. NEW JERSEY At a time when steroid use by professional athletes is under congressional scrutiny, New Jersey lawmakers moved to ensure that student-athletes understand the dangers of using performance-enhancing drugs. Student-athletes as young as 12 could undergo random tests for steroids under a bill advanced by the Senate Education Committee on Thursday. The measure also would require coaches to incorporate steroid deterrence into training and practices and mandate the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association to develop a prevention program for coaches and athletic directors to use. The measure would put the force of law behind a random drug testing policy adopted two years ago by the NJSIAA under an order by then-Gov. Richard J. Codey, a youth basketball coach and sponsor of the current proposal in his present capacity as a state senator. "The public health threat posed by steroid use is not something that can be combated by any one parent, coach or teacher," said Codey, D-Essex. "What we need is a full court press, starting early and targeting many aspects of a student's life -- in the classroom, on the court, in the hallways and at home." Bob Baly, assistant director of the NJSIAA and a member of a panel convened by Codey to look into steroid abuse by students, said 4 to 5 percent of students nationally use steroids. "That alarmed us," he said. "There are 240,000 athletes in New Jersey alone. That is a significant number." The Assembly has yet to consider the proposal. New Jersey became the first to institute a statewide steroid-testing policy for high school athletes in 2006. The NJSIAA, the governing body for state scholastic athletics, randomly tests athletes who qualify for team or individual state championships. Three other states -- Illinois, Florida and Texas -- have since adopted similar policies, Baly said. Athletes who test positive for any of more than 80 banned substances -- a list that includes anabolic steroids, some diuretics and other performance-enhancing drugs -- face a one-year loss of eligibility. The NJSIAA reported in September that only one in 500 high school athletes screened for steroids in the first year of the program tested positive for a performance-enhancing substance. Steroid use by professional baseball players has recently been the focus of highly publicized congressional hearings and a subsequent investigation into conflicting testimony offered by pitching ace Roger Clemens and his former personal trainer over whether Clemens ever used steroids or human growth hormone. "I think we need to have more people talking to our young athletes and, in particular, cautioning them on the abuse of steroids," said Sen. Shirley Turner, a co-sponsor of the legislation. "On the national level, many of the role models as well as national heroes have been found to use steroids or performance-enhancing drugs," she said. "Many of our young people will emulate them if they see no one else is explaining the detriment of that use." 
INDIANA At least 400 people in Evansville are homeless on any given night — and about one-third of them are children. Those were the statistics presented by Kat Isbell, education specialist for Aurora, an agency that provides services for the homeless in Vanderburgh County. Isbell spoke Thursday at the first meeting of the city's Homeless Youth Coalition. The coalition, which was previously the Homeless Youth Council, was formed as a result of recommendations approved by the Commission on Homelessness at its February meeting. Those 14 recommendations outline what the Homeless Youth Coalition hopes to accomplish over the next three to five years. They include plans for a drop-in center — an emergency shelter for youth that also provides outreach services. According to Cynthia Smith, co-chairwoman of the coalition, the center ideally would be a place for the homeless to get housing applications, start checking accounts, receive health care and dental care or even take classes to earn their GEDs. Smith also said Evansville is the only city of significant size in Indiana that doesn't have a drop-in center. All of the projects outlined in the recommendations, drop-in center included, fall into five areas which, according to Isbell, include data, awareness, services, prevention and legislation. Committees will be named to focus on each area. They will be finalized at the group's April meeting. Although the project is still in its beginning stage, Smith said, it has already received a lot of community support. "It's been really incredible. People are e-mailing us saying that they want to help. We already have 130 contacts that want to be a part of it," Smith said. The work of the Homeless Youth Council and the Homeless Youth Coalition already have affected Indiana. "The work that the Homeless Youth Council was doing motivated the state Legislature to look at the issue of homelessness in youth," Smith said. The Legislature recently passed House Bill 1165 that allows certain services to be provided to 16- to 18-year-olds without parental permission. It also deals with expanding services to youth who are aging out of foster care and extending the amount of time a youth can stay in a shelter before parents are contacted. The coalition wants to help those who are homeless, but its main goal is end homelessness altogether, Smith said. "We want to get kids to come into the system, but ultimately we want to get them out," a coalition member said.
RESEARCH Study finds 1 in 4 US teens has a STD March 11, 2008 by Lindsey Tanner, Associated Press
Some doctors said the numbers might be a reflection of both abstinence-only sex education and teens' own sense of invulnerabilty. Because some sexually transmitted infections can cause infertility and cancer, U.S. health officials called for better screening, vaccination and prevention. Only about half of the girls in the study acknowledged having sex. Some teens define sex as only intercourse, yet other types of intimate behavior including oral sex can spread some diseases. Among those who admitted having sex, the rate was even more disturbing — 40 percent had an STD. "This is pretty shocking," said Dr. Elizabeth Alderman, an adolescent medicine specialist at Montefiore Medical Center's Children's Hospital in New York. "To talk about abstinence is not a bad thing," but teen girls — and boys too — need to be informed about how to protect themselves if they do have sex, Alderman said. The overall STD rate among the 838 girls in the study was 26 percent, which translates to more than 3 million girls nationwide, researchers with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. They released the results Tuesday at an STD prevention conference in Chicago. "Those numbers are certainly alarming," said sex education expert Nora Gelperin, who works with a teen-written Web site called sexetc.org. She said they reflect "the sad state of sex education in our country." "Sexuality is still a very taboo subject in our society," she said. "Teens tell us that they can't make decisions in the dark and that adults aren't properly preparing them to make responsible decisions." Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said the study shows that "the national policy of promoting abstinence-only programs is a $1.5 billion failure, and teenage girls are paying the real price." Similar claims were made last year when the government announced the teen birth rate rose between 2005 and 2006, the first increase in 15 years. The new study by CDC researcher Dr. Sara Forhan relied on slightly older data. It is an analysis of nationally representative records on girls ages 14 to 19 who participated in a 2003-04 government health survey. The teens were tested for four infections: human papillomavirus, or HPV, which can cause cervical cancer and affected 18 percent of girls studied; chlamydia, which affected 4 percent; trichomoniasis, 2.5 percent; and genital herpes, 2 percent. Dr. John Douglas, director of the CDC's division of STD prevention, said the results are the first to examine the combined national prevalence of common sexually transmitted diseases among adolescent girls. He said the data, now a few years old, likely reflect current prevalence rates. Disease rates were significantly higher among black girls — nearly half had at least one STD, versus 20 percent among both whites and Mexican-Americans. HPV, the cancer-causing virus, can also cause genital warts but often has no symptoms. A vaccine targeting several HPV strains recently became available, but Douglas said it probably hasn't yet had much impact on HPV prevalence rates in teen girls. The CDC recommends the three-dose HPV vaccine for girls ages 11-12 and catch-up shots for ages 13-26. Chlamydia, which often has no symptoms but can lead to infertility, can be treated with antibiotics. The CDC recommends annual chlamydia screening for all sexually active women under age 25. Trichomoniasis, also treatable with antibiotics, can cause abnormal discharge and painful urination. Genital herpes can cause blisters but often has no symptoms. It's not curable but medicine can help. The CDC's Dr. Kevin Fenton said given the dangers of some STDs, "screening, vaccination and other prevention strategies for sexually active women are among our highest public health priorities." Douglas said screening tests are underused in part because many teens don't think they're at risk, but also, some doctors mistakenly think: "Sexually transmitted diseases don't happen to the kinds of patients I see." Teens need to hear the dual message that STDs can be prevented by abstinence and condoms, said Dr. Ellen Kruger, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans. "You've got to hammer at them," with appropriate information at each stage of teen development to make sure it sinks in, she said. She said there are a lot of myths out there, too — many sexually active teens think the withdrawal method will protect them, or that douching with Coca-Cola will kill STD germs. Dr. Margaret Blythe, an adolescent medicine specialist at Indiana University School of Medicine, said some doctors hesitate to discuss STDs with teen patients or offer screening because of confidentiality concerns, knowing parents would have to be told of the results. Blythe, who heads an American Academy of Pediatrics committee on adolescence, noted that the academy supports confidential teen screening.
ILLINOIS But once Childres was found guilty of murder, none of the evidence of his abuse that he presented at trial could be considered in his sentencing. Under Illinois law, he had to be given life without parole. He is now one of 102 Illinois men and one woman serving life sentences for murders they committed as minors. Illinois's mandatory life sentence law, with its tough provision for people whose role in a crime may have been small, was passed in the late 1970s at a time of concern over rising youth crime rates. Now, however, it is now being challenged. A coalition of human rights groups, defense lawyers and lawmakers is backing legislation to do away with mandatory life sentences for juveniles and to reconsider the cases of those who were sentenced as juveniles and are serving now. Childres's cousin Julie Neilson, a Peoria area restaurant owner, is all for it, even though his mother was also her relative. "These young men and women deserve a chance to have their stories looked at," Neilson said. "If we were to dig deeper in many of these cases, we'd probably find extreme child abuse. We can't just put them away and throw away the key." But other victims' relatives and the Cook County State's Attorney's Office in Chicago are outraged about the parole proposal, saying these detainees include the perpetrators of horrific crimes, almost half committed by 17-year-olds. State's attorney spokesman John Gorman said a youth would have to be convicted of multiple murder, the murder of a police officer or the murder of a child to receive life without parole. "These are not routine killings," said Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins, whose pregnant sister was murdered by a 16-year-old in 1990 as she begged him to spare her child's life. "We're talking about the worst of the worst. We have as a society admitted there are some who have lost the right to walk among us. If someone is a sociopath, there is no medicine or therapy that will make him better." In Illinois as in other states, the combination of mandatory transfers to adult court and mandatory life sentences for certain crimes means a teenager could end up with a life sentence for serving as an unarmed, perhaps unwitting, accomplice -- a lookout or driver -- during a murder. State Rep. Robert Molaro (D-Chicago) has introduced legislation that would end life sentences without parole for juveniles. Colorado banned such sentences in 2006, and similar legislation has been introduced in Nebraska, Florida, Michigan and California. Israel is the only other country that sentences juveniles to life without parole. It has seven in detention, compared with more than 2,300 in the United States, according to a report by a coalition led by Northwestern University Law School's Children and Family Justice Center and the John Howard Association. The juvenile justice system, which was founded in Chicago in 1899, is predicated on the idea that young people should not be held to the same standard of accountability as adults, and that they are more capable of changing their behavior. "Neuroscience is indicating what most parents of teenagers already know, which is that the brain is still developing and can't deal with issues of impulsivity and peer pressure in the same way an adult would," said Randolph Stone, a professor at the University of Chicago's Edwin F. Mandel Legal Aid Clinic. But many of the 103 then-juvenile offenders now imprisoned in Illinois committed inarguably heinous crimes. One raped a 5-year-old girl and threw her out a 13th-story window; another forced an engaged couple to kiss before shooting them along a highway. "[The researchers] tried to do a very honorable job, but they didn't at all find out what they had hoped to find out," said Bishop-Jenkins, who is known for her opposition to the death penalty and is a board member of Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights. "They were hoping for sympathetic cases and miscarriages of justice. What they found was a lot of very bad guys." Simmie Baer, supervisor of the Children and Family Justice Center, said the group is not recommending parole hearings for every offender. "Every one of those individuals is different," she said. "We're not saying the floodgates should be opened and everyone should go free. But some people we actually felt were wrongfully convicted, and some were not the principal offender but were convicted as if they were."
IOWA Doing something about the dangers created by teen drivers. Iowa's lawmakers are concerned, and the numbers bear them out. Each year more than 5,000 American teenagers are killed in traffic crashes. Last year, a study suggested that Iowa ranks 3rd in the nation for traffic deaths among young drivers. It has lawmakers talking about tougher rules. It's a right of passage for almost every American teenager; a driver’s license turns a car into a freedom machine. "Honestly the first thing I wanted to do when I got my license is just drive, cause you couldn't before," said Mason City High School student Nathan Mock. For one teen we talked to, the only thing better than driving, is cruising with your buddies. "Driving around is cool, but driving around with your friends is a lot more fun cause its more freedom, go where ever you want in town you know," said Skylar Brown. But Iowa's Department of Public Safety says teens that drive with friends are a greater risk to themselves and other drivers. Studies show teens are four times more likely to crash than adults. Now Iowa lawmakers are trying to curb that risk. "This will restrict passengers from being in the vehicle at least for the first 6 months so the person can get use d to driving alone without distractions," said Sgt. Mark Schumacher of the Iowa State Patrol. Schumacher helped the Department of Public Safety write the bill. He says any driver can get distracted with radios and cell phones, but it’s far more dangerous for new drivers. "Distracted driving is a bigger problem than intoxicated driving is for teenagers and that's just a combination of experience of youth and having passengers in the car," he said. Even though the drivers we talked to don't like the proposed restrictions, they are wary of hopping into a car with some of their friends. "There are a few friends they go a little fast, drive a little crazily," said Mock. "I could see where the people that are making this are coming from, like safety hazards not talking on the cell phone and stuff," added Brown. The “no passengers” restriction isn’t the only bill in the state legislature meant for teen drivers. Other bills would ban talking and text messaging on cell phones while driving, and teens riding in cars would be forced to buckle up no matter the age of the driver. The legislation has just passed the senate and now it's the house's turn. Minnesota has no restrictions on young drivers and passengers, but state law does ban cell phone use, and it requires seat belts for passengers driven by teens with a provisional license.
MARYLAND Child’s death provides impetus for bullying bills March 6, 2008 by Natalie McGill, Gazette.net Prince George’s County officials and a family member are shedding some light on the 8-year-old Fairmount Heights boy who allegedly hanged himself because of bullying at school, while state lawmakers continue to push legislation addressing the problem in schools. The boy, a third-grader at Robert R. Gray Elementary School in Capitol Heights, was found in a Fairmount Heights home Feb. 18. He died later at an undisclosed hospital. The case came to light when a high-ranking police official mentioned it at a community meeting. Catina Perkins-Gibson, who said the boy’s mother is her sister’s sister-in-law, said the 8-year-old attended a cousin’s birthday party the day before his death. Upon arrival, he began to cry and when asked why, he said some boys were going to ‘‘jump him” after school, Perkins-Gibson said. Perkins-Gibson said the boy’s mother was going to take time off work to go to the school to find out what was going on, but never got the chance. John White, a Prince George’s County school spokesman, said school officials found no evidence that the boy was being bullied. Once the principal learned of the boy’s death, officials spoke with the boy’s teacher and counselor and looked through his personal belongings at the school, including his school journal. A family member also came to the school, White said. He did not know how long the investigation took. While White said the school system would cooperate with police if they investigate the matter further, school officials do not believe the boy was bullied. Robert R. Gray Principal Prentice Christian declined to comment on the issue. The boy’s mother could not be reached for comment. Bullying is defined as when a student is exposed repeatedly ‘‘to intentional negative actions on the part of one or more students, and whose ability to participate in and benefit from the school’s education programs or activities is adversely affected,” according to the state school board. Prince George’s County, which has the second largest school system in Maryland with 130,000 students, reported 52 incidents of bullying in the 2005-06 school year, the most recent statistics available. The county had the 10th fewest reports of 24 jurisdictions in the state, tying St. Mary’s County, a school system with 21,000 students. The Frederick County school system, which has 40,000 students, led the state with 250 bullying reports. Montgomery County, the largest school system in the state with 137,000 students, reported 152 bullying incidents. Perkins-Gibson described the 8-year-old as a happy little boy who excelled in school, especially in science, loved to ‘‘give his mommy kisses” and wanted to be a minister like his grandfather. ‘‘He loved church,” Perkins-Gibson said. ‘‘He really believed that there was good in all people. His strength was friends, he loved his friends. And even at the wake, looking at the lives that he touched, and I’m not just talking about parents of kids, I’m talking about grown-ups. He just brightens up the room.” Several bills related to school bullying have been introduced in the General Assembly, such as House Bill 199, which would require the state Board of Education to write policy on how to handle school bullies and school districts to create their own local policy mirroring the state’s. The legislation was drafted before the boy’s death. White said the county Board of Education voted to oppose that bill not because of its merits, but because it intrudes into the board’s curriculum responsibilities and that the board can handle the problem without legislation. He said the board voted to oppose all other similar legislation in the General Assembly for the same reason. One of the sponsors, Del. Jolene Ivey (D-Dist. 47) of Cheverly, said bullying often happens during the school hours but the real issue is how much the parents know about their child’s behavior. ‘‘I was bullied when I was a kid,” Ivey said. ‘‘A lot of kids go through it. What really needs to happen is parents need to be more aware of what their children are doing. ‘‘Are their children bullied? Are their children picking on some poor kid? If that’s the case, they need to handle their children and teach them how to treat people with respect.” Ivey said nothing has been voted on yet, and the bill still has to clear the education subcommittee chaired by Del. Anne Kaiser (D-Dist. 14) of Burtonsville. Ivey expects discussion on the bill to resume this month. She said if the education subcommittee approves the bill, it must next be voted on in the Ways and Means Committee before it goes to the House floor, and then to the Senate. Del. Joanne C. Benson (D-Dist. 24) of Landover said it saddens her when she gets phone calls and e-mails from parents in her constituency who say their children are uncomfortable attending school because of constant harassment. ‘‘The most disheartening thing is that the school system does not have the necessary mechanisms in place to deal with this critical problem,” Benson said. ‘‘I am convinced without a shadow of doubt that children should be able to come to school in an atmosphere that is safe, orderly [and] conducive to both teaching and learning. And in a number of cases and instances, that is not occurring.” But White said the school system has several programs in place to encourage positive behavior, prevent violence and address issues children may be facing. There is also a program in place to help teachers develop plans to keep classrooms safe and encourage a positive environment. Benson recalled a situation where she and Del. Gerron Levi (D-Dist. 23) of Woodmore were contacted by a mother whose daughter was facing verbal abuse while attending Bowie’s Samuel Ogle Middle School. The abuse escalated to the point where both mother and daughter were receiving phone threats. Benson said she questions a child’s ability to perform well in school if he or she is afraid to even attend. ‘‘We need to bring these parents in and lay the law down,” Benson said. ‘‘If you’re not accountable for your children’s behavior, something’s going to happen to you.” Ramon Korionoff, a spokesman for Glenn F. Ivey, the state’s attorney for Prince George’s County, said his office supports legislation put forth in the General Assembly, but also has its own employee on staff who deals with youth. It is important, he said, to address bullying and violent behavior in youth at the onset, with the hopes of curbing it. ‘‘We are supportive of the delegates and senators with regards to the bill. ... We think early intervention is a key step to preventing violent behavior. We believe the Department of Juvenile Services can best address the concerns of both school and legislative personnel at the early onset of this behavior and we hope these children can be rehabilitated before they reach the criminal justice system,” Korionoff said. Perkins-Gibson said she hopes schools start talking to children as early as elementary school about the consequences of bullying because children do not understand the damage they can inflict. ‘‘No child should have to go through this,” Perkins-Gibson said. ‘‘It’s a hidden epidemic that no one wants to talk about. The community as a whole, they don’t want to talk about this. They see this as a part of growing up and it’s not. No one should be bullied.”
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