We have been lied to about "the youth problem" facing North Carolina (and the rest of America) today. Too many adults have demonized the next generation and have come to fear or loathe them. Consequently, it is politically popular to treat youth harshly or to stand by while thousands upon thousands have been turned into "throw away" kids.
A wild exaggeration? Consider the following facts. Last year, more than 100,000 cases of child abuse and neglect were reported across our state. Nearly 40,000 children in the state were proven to be victims of abuse, a 12 percent increase in just one year.
North Carolina schools suspend or expel 80,000 students a year. Unreported hundreds of thousands more may feel pressured in one way or another to leave school because they have "behavior" problems or because it is assumed they will pull down their schools' all important standardized test scores.
These statistics should encourage us to rethink the three Big Lies about Tarheel children and youth: 1. That they are the ones causing the harm, instead of the ones being harmed 2. That by the time they reach school age, misbehaving youths are past the point at which their lives can be turned around and 3. Troubled youth ¾ or youth in trouble ¾ just need to be punished.
Yet, every once in a while, there is a magic moment when the truth shines forth and exposes all these lies as misguided and mean-spirited. Such a moment of amazing grace occurred recently during a high-level state meeting on juvenile justice and delinquency prevention.
The meeting included the perspective of a marvelous educator who runs an alternative middle and high school in western North Carolina. The educator, who spoke on the condition of confidentiality to protect her students, brought her students to tell their stories. With simple honesty, courage and remarkable confidence, these "bad kids," "young thugs" and "hopeless cases" revealed themselves to be stunningly undeserving of these negative labels. We heard their heartfelt testimonials about how they have blossomed, both personally and academically. They said the keys were intensive adult nurturing, mutual respect, a healthy family-like atmosphere and no-nonsense care.
Every one of them was an innocent victim of adult brutality and an abusive childhood at home and at school. And yet, each has been inspired and assisted to break the cycle of moving from victim to perpetrator. The students' grades and test scores improved dramatically. At least as important, however, is the degree to which these kids -- who could very easily lash out in destructive ways -- instead are fighting hard and successfully to become responsible people of good character.
At least three lessons were burned indelibly into the hearts and minds of everyone who heard the testimony of these youth. The first is that these kids absolutely do not need to be punished any further by anyone. They have been punished often, harshly and wrongly throughout their young lives. Getting tough with them would be as foolish as fire departments throwing gasoline on buildings already torched by arsonists.
The second lesson is that we have deeply-ingrained adult and system problems throughout our state. These adult failures are what end up mislabeled as "the youth problem." The alternative education needed by troubled kids is not routinely or adequately provided across the state. For example, it's not unusual for schools systems to pocket the state and federal money intended to pay for educating students who already have been booted out. To meet the needs of our youth, educational funding should automatically follow the child into effective alternative education public school programs like the one in western North Carolina.
Some policymakers advocate building new "Training Schools," a euphemism for juvenile prisons. These institutions should be reserved only for violent youth offenders. However, approximately 40 percent of the current population is comprised of non-violent youth that have committed misdemeanors. Training Schools, especially when compared with alternative education and other community-based programs, are very expensive to build and operate. In addition, new state sentencing laws forbid non-violent youth convicted of misdemeanors from being sent to these training schools. Spending scarce state resources on new Training Schools ¾ instead of on prevention and intervention services ¾ is wrong-headed and wasteful. North Carolina needs to support locally based programs for non-violent youth, programs with proven track records, but they are underfunded or simply unavailable in many North Carolina counties.
The third lesson these youths taught the assembled adults is that one of the greatest blessings bestowed upon human beings is resilience in the fact of adversity. As their teacher noted, these youth need three simple things: something to do, someone to love and something to hope for.
Let's stop the Big Lies about our young people. Instead, let's be guided, personally and politically, by the truth that what we need even more desperately than an improved juvenile justice system is a society that seeks and safeguards justice for ALL juveniles.
Sher is president of the NC Child Advocacy Institute.
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