How can violence against kids and by kids be stopped?
“Do something about the drug dealers on every corner,” said Charnell H., 15, a student from Crane High School on Chicago’s West Side. “The police … just drive by the real action.” Last Tuesday, Charnell and several classmates (all honor students) attended a public hearing called “Juvenile Crime: Breaking the Cycles of Violence.” Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois, who held the meeting in downtown Chicago, listened to experts on juvenile crime and abuse suggest possible solutions. She will take their suggestions back to Congress.
The Crane students just listened at the meeting. But before it, we got their ideas on how to prevent juvenile violence:
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“Parents need to pay more attention to their kids,” said Delphina A., 16. “Some parents don’t talk to their kids.” Mario L., 18, said kids need more positive role models like Sen. Moseley-Braun, who he was thrilled to see in person.
Ry’shonda F., 16, said kids need “more centers to be built where kids can belong without being hassled (by gangs or drug dealers). Kids need to feel there are places they can be safe.”
A speaker at the hearing, Dr. Carl Bell of the Chicago Community Mental Health Center, had a similar idea. He said kids become troubled when they have no place to go to escape violence. In a recent survey of freshmen at one city high school, he said, 45 percent said they’d seen somebody killed; 47 percent said they’d been shot at. Bell said, “Kids who witness or experience violence begin to wonder if they have a future.”