Doesn't Anyone Care About the Children?

Excerpts from essays submitted to the Harry Singer Foundation by students across the nation

Foreword

Why Weren't We Told?

"But we were," will be my answer to the thousands of people, maybe millions who will be asking that question by the year 2000.

At the end of this century, the disgraceful and precarious fiscal situation this country is in will be too obvious for any congress or administration to ignore or cover up. It is then we'll hear the above question. Too few are asking it now!

We are told that 26 percent of government's income goes to pay interest on the national debt; not paying off the gigantic principal, just the interest. The principal is what we're leaving to our children and grandchildren.

"Why weren't we told?" will be the question of the next decade.

I may not be around at age 84, so I want to answer it now! And in just three words... "but we were!"

Told, that is, by those concerned and willing to speak out. Men, and one woman I know of, trying their best to alert us to the situation we were getting into and the changes it represented. Paul Reveres is what Gary Bauer, former Under Secretary of Education and later a policy advisor to President Reagan, called these people trying to warn us. The Paul Reveres of today. One might have been enough in 1776, but now it takes a number of them to alert us to the dangers and call us to action. Unfortunately, no action of any note has taken place.

The ones I have been listening to might not have a horse among them, but they have been sounding a similar clarion call of danger approaching.

First, for me there was William Simon, one time Secretary of the Treasury. His two books, A Time for Truth (1978) and later, A Time for Action (1980), galloped off the pages and into my consciousness. Simon was writing about deficits and the dangers of the growing government debt more than 15 years ago. Was it because he didn't shout it from horseback that not enough people paid serious attention to what Bill Simon was saying in his books and speeches well over 15 years ago?

Peter G. Peterson, former Secretary of Commerce wrote and talked about the danger. His first book, Social Security: The Looming Crash, inspired five former U.S.Treasury Secretaries to join forces. Wiliam Simon, John Connaly, Douglas Dillon and Henry Fowler showed us, and Congress, what financial irresponsibility was doing to the future of our children and grandchildren.

Still nothing happened.

In a second book, On Borrowed Time, written with Neil Howe, Pete Peterson tried once again to warn us. Its subtitle, How the Growth in Government Spending Threatens America's Future, should have roused the nation. After he got through no one could legitimately ask, "Why weren't we told?"

In 1988 I reviewed The Coming Revolution in Social Security, written by Haeworth Robertson, another insider. Robertson, as a former chief actuary of our Social Security system, was not someone who had looked critically at a distant department. It was his department's own inside projections which he viewed with alarm. He didn't need a horse or a clarion cry. He got our attention by letting us know if Social Security is not changed significantly, it will eventually cost more than taxpayers will be willing to pay. He warned that 13 percent of payroll in 1980 would become 40 to 50 percent during the working lives of the students whose words you'll read here. We were told, but did not act.

About this time, the very articulate Governor of Colorado and now head of the Center for Public Policy at the University of Denver, burst on the national scene saying things about the future which nobody wanted to hear. His book, Megatraumas...In the Year Two Thousand bellowed warnings about where we were headed and pleaded for tough decisions. Too few listened... but we were told.

Finally, a courageous woman! Helen P. Rogers, a fourth generation Californian stopped counting on politicians to solve the problems and decided to take matters into her own hands. She ran for the U.S. Senate and wrote an insightful book titled "Alternatives." It was her campaign platform and proved that there were intelligent and logical alternatives to the government policies that were leading to a disappointing future for her five children--and ours too!

But with no real power behind her, the Senate was not to benefit from this brilliant woman's solutions to some of the problems this country was facing. Those were problems my generation had created by sending so many undisciplined financial spendthrifts to Washington.

Paul Volker, Chairman of the Federal Reserve added his voice and said, "We are in a real sense living on borrowed money and borrowed time."

Martin L. Gross took a different approach. He followed his New York Times best seller,The Government Racket: Washington from A-Z with a Ballantine best seller, A Call for Revolution.

Oh yes, you who in ten years or less, will be asking, "Why weren't we told?" must now admit that we were told. We just weren't listening.

Maybe the tellers weren't shouting from horseback, but they deserved a far greater and more concerned audience than they received. Tell that to the children.

Loren Dunton San Francisco
August 9,1994

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Preface

There is a way to reinvigorate the United States of America; this once great nation that so many people now believe is in an advanced state of decay. We must revive the concept of responsibility. We must practice inner discipline.

The young people you will hear from on these pages know this. Do the adults? And if so, why, these kids want to know, are the adults not doing more about the problems?

In the foreword, Loren Dunton tells us about prescient adults, the Paul Reveres who have been trying for years to mobilize their neighbors. Mr. Dunton is himself a respected member of this group of animated prophets. Twenty-five years ago he became concerned and to encourage long-range planning, Loren Dunton founded the financial planning profession. Today Mr. Dunton heads the ten year-old non-profit National Center for Financial Education.

Kids that lie, cheat, kill and run in packs are part of our future whether we like it or not. Along with the dysfunctional thugs are the thoughtful young people who will have to implement solutions to the problems we adults have eschewed. It's important that we listen to this generation and give the best and brightest of them the help they are so desperately seeking-help just to survive.

Kids who see their friends and families murdered, beaten, raped and on drugs are calling out to us. They suspect the criminal justice system is totally impotent. They sense contradictions throughout society, in education, on the street and in their homes. Many of them feel desperate and afraid; others are full of hope. All are begging for our attention.

These are the voices of the neglected generation. Here is what they think of the media, of the courts, of their teachers. In these pages some of them reveal their fears while others unveil their hopes and dreams. It's time to not only to listen to what they are telling us, it's time to hear what they are saying. It's time to give this generation the benefit of our experience and the wisdom we have cultivated and kept hidden in an effort to remain humble and tolerant. We can no longer afford to look good, to feel good. The 'touchy-feely' days are over. It is time for all of us, young and old alike, to join forces, roll up our sleeves and get to work.

We ignored the Paul Reveres. Are we now going to ignore the children?

Doesn't anyone care about the children?

Margaret Bohannon-Kaplan
Co-Founder, The Harry Singer Foundation
Carmel, California
August 15,1994

Reality

In 1990, a commission of educational, political, medical and business leaders issued a report known as Code Blue which said, "Never before has one generation of American teenagers been less healthy less cared for, or less prepared for life than their parents were at the same age. "

In California homicide is the leading cause of death among those in the 20-24 age group and homicide is the second-leading cause of death for teens. In the U.S. the arrest rate for homicides for suspects 17 years-old rose 121 percent in the six years between 1985 and 1991. Violence is epidemic. Drugs are a fixture. Adults may not like it; may deny it; but this is thereality many of our young people live with every day:

"My brother drinks at least twice a week and sometimes everyday. He drinksto get high or when he is really upset. My father taught him how to do this. A friend of mine has a cousin who got arrested when he was eighteen for drunk driving. Unlike my brother, he killed someone. He was sentenced to ten years in prison. Laws do not kill an addiction." Student in Wisconsin

"One example of irresponsible behavior involves a classmate of mine. He began drinking about a half year ago. It began as a way to social- ize and fit in with the others. His drinking gradually grew into a larger problem. He began drinking more and more often. One night he came home and passed out on the floor. His mother and father found him, and they were very disappointed in his actions. He is a very intelligent guy---he was just irresponsible getting drunk all the time.It finally caught up with him. He has stopped being responsible. He has become an alcoholic."
Kimber Linn, Bondurant-Farrar High School, Bondurant, Iowa

"A few years ago a friend of mine's mom was killed in a deadly car accident. Accidents do happen, but this accident was one that could have been prevented if the other driver would have just taken some responsibil- ity for his drinking problem. You see, he had been an alcoholic for many years and was driving drunk that night when he killed her.If he just would have taken the responsibility of calling someone for a ride home or even walked, instead of getting behind the wheel, this accident would not have even happened." Justin Hron, Deer River High School, Deer River, Minnesota

"At the school I go to there are many students who go out on Friday and Saturday night to get drunk. Many of these kids drive around in their own cars while they are drinking. I know at least twenty-five people in my class who have driven while intoxicated at least once in their life."
Mark Hegbloom, Blue Ridge High School, Blue Ridge, Texas

"The number of kids who use drugs in my school is increasing, while the number of kids on the honor roll is decreasing. This is just the basic problem of not taking the education offered to them on drugs seriously."
Kelly Davidson, Ramsey High School, Ramsey, Illinois

"Alcohol can kill anyone. It doesn't matter if you are smart or popular, you can still die."
Charity Persson, Lincoln County High School, Eureka, Montana

"Just this winter, there were two people on snowmobiles leaving two different bars. They collided head on at the top of the hill and died instantly. One of them was going the wrong way on a one-way trail. If drinking wasn't involved, this may have never happened." Jessica Moen, DeForest High School, DeForest, Wisconsin

Responsible students ponder the irrationality of it all:
"Driving while intoxicated is very irresponsible, as well as dangerous. It takes responsibility to know when a person has had enough to drink. Driving drunk displays a lack of good judgment and character. Drunk drivers should ask themselves why they drive drunk. Do they drive drunk because they think it is cool, grown up, smart or fun?"
Jeff Garner, Blue Ridge High School, Blue Ridge, Texas

A new law (AB4138) was proposed in California in the spring of 1994 which requires any unlicensed driver to surrender the vehicle he/she is driving to the state. A study by the state Department of Motor Vehicles found that 75 percent of DUI [driving under the influence] convicts continue to drive without a license and 15 percent of all car accidents in the state involve this group.

We think Jamie (below) is on the right track:
"Drugs do something to the brain, to the mind, to the soul, from which many people cannot recover. If drug addiction were something a person could take a shot for, or a couple of aspirins and be okay, it would not be the calamity it is. Right now the government and the police have the responsibility. In Los Angeles County, the police make more than twelve thousand arrests in an attempt to disrupt the activities of an estimated 70,000 drug gang members. They are spending billions of dollars on trying to stop the problem, but it isn't working. The responsibility has to be shifted to the individual."
Jamie Dorman, Concordia High School, Concordia, Kansas

Violence

Should we believe rehashed stories that assure us that crime is on the decline or newly released statistics? In a report issued by Princeton University and the Brookings Institution in the summer of 1994, property and violent crimes per 100,000 people amounted to 190 in 1960, 400 in 1970 and so far in the 1990s about 600. What we have here is another "decrease in the increase." Thirty years ago people were three times less likely to be robbed, raped or murdered. The report went on to state that 90 percent of all criminal cases are plea-bargained and that most convicted criminals are not sent to prison. Probation and parole are a joke.

Personal knowledge of a victim always makes the crime more outrageous:

"Just last year, 1993, I myself lost a family member to a gun shot wound inflicted by a teenager. My 15 year old cousin from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, was shot and killed by a 16 year old boy."
Jay Salen, Marion High School, Marion, South Dakota

"I know someone that is getting abused in my family and she has finally left her spouse, because it got to the point that he almost killed her by hanging her from her ankles out a two story building. He abused her so much that their three kids would take it out on each other. One time he came home drunk and started to abuse her again. When he passed out the kids took all the money out of his wallet and took it to school and handed it out. The kids were mad at him because of what he had done to their mother. So they just decided to take the money. Finally, she told him to leave and now everything is much better."
Janine Bailey, LaCrosse High School, LaCrosse, Washington

"Two years ago my sister was on her daily walk just before breakfast. She had taken her usual route up Placer Creek Road and all was going fine. Out of nowhere a man emerged from behind some brush. He was wearing a ski mask and holding a rifle. In a muffled voice he told her to start climbing a steep mountain next to the road. They slowly made their way up to a little camp site the man had set up. Upon reaching the camp the man tied her to a tree and left saying he'd be back in a little bit. Thankfully my sister was able to free herself and race back home before the man returned. My sister was lucky to get away with only rope burns. Previous similar incidents weren't as positive."
John Fleming, Wallace High School, Wallace, Idaho

Children are the victims and children commit the crimes: "A twelve-year-old boy shot a stock broker on a street in Corpus Christi, Texas. As the victim watched, the boy blow the smoke from the gun barrel John Wayne style, then rode off on his bicycle." Shane Morris, Camden High School, Camden, Tennessee

In the summer of 1994 a 14 year-old boy killed two men; for food money. In August 1993, a 13 year-old New Yorker was charged with murdering a 4 year-old. Early in 1993 2 year-old James Bulger was beaten, killed and left on train tracks by two 10 year-old boys. This crime shocked England whose murder rate--1.3 per 100,000 people--contrasts to the American rate of 10 per 100,000.

"Arrests for murders for adults rose eleven percent from 1982 to 1991, while juveniles arrested rose ninety-three percent. Ten to seventeen year-olds who used firearms to commit murder during the 1980's increased seventy-nine percent."
Carly Brant, Big Spring High School, Newville, Pennsylvania

Monterey County, California has 84 inmates in juvenile hall---14 are awaiting trial for murder or attempted murder. To our north, Santa Cruz has 40 percent of its 29 juveniles facing murder or attempted murder charges. Most are gang-related crimes. But is it any wonder? Children learn what they live. ( See page 138.)

"Ten percent of the children visiting the Boston City Hospital last year had witnessed a shooting or stabbing by the age of six." Shannon Harrah, Meadow Bridge High, Meadow Bridge, West Virginia

On June 28,1994 in Salinas, California, a 10 year old girl testified in court to seeing her father fatally stab her mother. Can any of us begin t imagine the trauma that child went through?

Steve Yeoman has a chilling hypotheses:
"Part of the reason children of today are acting foolishly and recklessly may be because today's young people look at violence in a completely dif- ferent way than that of a former generation. Whether or not violence in today's society should be blamed on the on-screen violence will probably always be an issue that can never be agreed upon. One thing, however, has already been agreed upon. The world's values and its sense of decency have somehow declined. Both groups have agreed that it is time to change some- thing. Whether it be content of programming or the actions of parents, something has to be done. If the problem isn't solved soon, up and coming generations will be running the world with a completely different outlook on violence, and it won't necessarily be good."
Steve Yeoman, Seaman High School, Topeka, Kansas

Other students offer evidence to support Steve's contention:
"Children have a value system of their own. They are becoming rebels against a society that does not give them a chance. One peculiar value is demonstrated by a teen-ager who prowls Manhattan's Upper East Side in search of eyes to gouge. To date, he has made known attempts on a bus driver, a journalist, Egyptian tourist, the son of former Manhattan Democratic Party Leader Edward Costikyan and others. We are facing a society where standards have been lowered and blurred. The traditional and constraining institutions of family, church and school have lost much of their authority."
Jodie Lewis, Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

"Juvenile criminals don't believe they have anything to lose. These kids think that their lives are worth nothing, and they can only gain by com- mitting a violent crime. They can gain a little time on TV and in the papers, and maybe a stay in jail or prison, where they usually have friends already waiting."
Sarah Mandler, Marion High School, Marion, South Dakota

"Many gang members don't want to live the life they live, but the simple fact is, they feel they have no place to turn; they don't know of any other lifestyle. Many of the gangsters are in gangs because all they know is violence. They don't go out and get jobs, because they were not taught the value of a job. Their outlook on life is totally different from others."
Nicole Schepp, Barnesville High School, Barnesville, Minnesota

"The youth of America have begun looking towards gangs as ways to make drug money and to be part of a fellowship that believes it doesn't matter who is killed or hurt, only that their gang stays alive."
Brenner Farr, Broken Arrow High School, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma

"Kids commit crimes for the thrill. It gets the adrenaline flowing when they are in the middle of a crime. It is like a high for them once they get going. It's like a drug; once they get the high from doing it, they keep coming back for more."
Jo Haun, Kensington High School, Kensington, Kansas

"A group of California guys, known as the Spur Posse, view sex with girls as a contest. For every girl they sleep with, they obtain a point. A mother of one Spur Posse member offered the explanation that it was all just a 'testosterone thing.' Parents should not condone or excuse this kind of disgusting behavior. By justifying her son's behavior, she [the mother] is part of the problem; not the solution."
Carrie Patterson, Meadow Bridge High School, Meadow Bridge, West Virginia

Is the "testosterone thing" similar to the old justification for irresponsible behavior, "boys will be boys?" If you think so, then how would you classify a recent "prank" which took place at the end of the 1993-94 school year in Northern California?

Male students packed 65 pounds of a powdered chemical into a concrete drinking fountain and ignited it. The resultant flames spewed 30 feet onto a crowded school yard, injuring several students.

A gymnast from Beijing sent her 7 month-old daughter to her mother back in China in June 1994 because one of the two men accused of attacking her and her husband jumped bail. The attack was in retaliation for reporting graffiti taggers.

The majority of Americans are still reluctant to think of spray-painting private property as a crime. On July 25, 1994 when a large group of teen-taggers surrounded a San Francisco municipal bus in broad daylight and managed to inflict damages totaling $5,000 in a matter of minutes, the media treated the episode lightly. Others believe society's tolerance of cheating and vandalism may inadvertently encourage an escalation to terrorism and killing. They are the less tolerant Americans who applauded the caning of American teenager Michael Fay by the government of Singapore in the spring of 1994. His offense was vandalism.

"Another area of youth delinquency is vandalism. I chose this because it just recently happened in our high school. Youths broke into the high school, and spray painted walls, broke glass, wrote obscene gestures on chalk boards, and simply tore up classrooms. It is suspected that this was done by teenagers who attended the school. Why anyone would want to break into their own school, or any school as far as that goes, is beyond me, but this is just another problem with our society today."
Ben Tenpenny, Seaman High School, Topeka, Kansas

*Many people would like officials to crack-down on minor offenses like thoughtless pranks and cheating. Their feelings are expressed accurately in Colleen's excerpt: "Children who are not disciplined become rebellious adolescents."
Colleen Hofer, James Valley Christian, Huron, South Dakota

The hope is that by taking irresponsibility seriously, it will not develop into more serious crime: "These types of irresponsible behavior are also present in common, everyday places, like school. One such instance was described to me by a teacher. He had a student who consistently came to him after receiving her graded test to point out an error in which he marked problems wrong that were in fact correct. After three or four times, the teacher began to suspect the student of changing her answers after getting her tests back. To see if his assumption was correct, the teacher made a photocopy of her test before giving it back to her. Sure enough, he found a mistake. This time, however, the teacher pulled out his photocopy and found that she had indeed changed her answer. The student was not embarrassed, as one might suspect. She was upset, saying that the teacher did not trust her. This may seem ironic to us, but she felt that her cheating, or getting caught cheating, was the teacher's fault."
Ellen Walles, Eureka High School, Eureka, Illinois

Shane (below) shows where tolerating cheating has led:
"The first study done in 1941 [found] that twenty-three percent of college students cheated. [A 1992] study [found that] sixty percent of college students cheated." Shane Andrus, LaCrosse High School, LaCrosse, Washington

Every year the Harry Singer Foundation receives well over a thousand papers and every year the identical paragraph is found in several papers, sometimes with quotation marks and a citation and sometimes without.The latter are automatically disqualified for cash awards. We urge students to pay attention to what Amy says in the next excerpt.:
"I believe that the cheating in schools and colleges has gotten extremely out of hand. It has become way too easy to slip through a class the dishonest way. One of the most common ways of cheating is plagiarism. Students often write down the words from a published book or magazine in the exact order as they were originally written without quoting the author. The teachers grading these papers often do not detect this dishonesty; therefore, not a lot is done to prevent this."
Amy Nelson, Lubbock-Cooper High School, Lubbock, Texas

Judging by the excerpt below, either we should dispatch a fact-finding group to Alaska or some students are pulling-the-wool over Tara's eyes:
"I have done a survey and my results show teens have a lot of responsib- ility when it comes to cheating. I asked if they had ever cheated on a test and many of them said they hadn't and wouldn't even if they knew they could get away with it. The majority of them said that they turn in most, if not all, of their homework."
Tara F. Miller, Hoonah High School, Hoonah, Alaska

The excerpts that follow show that it is not much of a reach from cheating on a school paper to stretching the truth on a tax-return to practicing fraud as a full-fledged criminal:
"People readily admit they cheat on their taxes. IRS figures based on statistical samplings of returns show that employees who have income taxes withheld from their paychecks contribute their due 97 to 98 percent of the time.For people who don't have income taxes withheld from their paychecks, but who aren't self-employed, the rate for truthful reports drops to 84 to 92 percent. Only 60 to 64 percent of self-employed people report truth- fully. These people are irresponsible in not obeying the laws and cheating."
Rebecca M. Watkins, Phoenix High School, Phoenix, Oregon

"There was a man hauling gas for a gas company and after he would make all of his deliveries daily he would take whatever extra gas he had left from his delivery truck and put it in his own tank at his house. That is simply theft; there is nothing else really to say."
Drew Johnson, Salem High School, Salem, Missouri

"A friend of the family had part of the kitchen in their house burn down. The insurance claim was made for a sizable amount of money for property which they did not own. They received what they asked for the damaged goods. They replaced the kitchen, which is much nicer than it was before the fire plus there was enough money to build a large addition to the house. This type of behavior is very profitable, but not very ethical."
Michele Paulick, Garnet Valley High School, Glen Mills, Pennsylvania

"There are many examples of irresponsible behavior in our society. One example is people that fake injuries at their workplace, then take workman's compensation as a supplement because they can't work. This dishonest behavior costs all of us who pay the insurance premiums a lot of money."
Lee Austin, Centerville High School, Centerville, South Dakota

The following is a typical example of what we all hear on news spots every day: Two executives of Diablo Products, a manufacturer of degreasers and oven and grill cleaners, were arrested for dumping chemicals into public waterways.

"Perhaps one of the trickiest scams where people try to abuse the system involved two Russian brothers who took advantage of our health care system. The brothers used over 350 front companies to fabricate insurance billings totaling more than one billion dollars. They used the companies to promise patients care that they didn't receive. The scams started with a phone pitch promising free medical exams. The patients were then sent to expensive mobile clinics. The doctors then charged insurers an average of $8,000 per patient. This was the biggest health care scam in U.S. history. The two have since been caught and are awaiting their sentence in a California court."
Alan Welburn, Phoenix High School, Phoenix, Oregon

"Government employees are using the food stamp system for their own advancement. In Detroit, a social worker submitted Mae Duncan's application into the system and Miss Duncan was sent $26,000 in food stamps. Mae Duncan not only didn't need the money, but she doesn't even exist. The social worker was having Mae's stamps, along with 26 other nonexistent people's stamps, sent to her address.... Other cases similar to this one are reported on a regular basis from all over the country. Over $5 billion of the $24 billion set aside for this program is lost every year due to fraud."
Lisa Wharton, Marion High School, Marion, South Dakota

Unfortunately we too often hear of the crooks that either don't get caught or don't get punished. Crime looks easy and entices those with weak character:
"An owner of a grocery store in East St. Louis paid as little as sixty-five cents on the dollar for food stamps. He later cashed them in for full value. He redeemed $1.3 million in a year and a half. Ten years earlier Coates Market had been disqualified from the food-stamp program for fraud. Six months later it was back on the program. Two social servicecaseworkers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana issued $50,000 in food stamps to nonexistent recipients. Nobody seemed to notice the state clerk in Minnesota who pocketed $180,000 worth of returned food stamps in nine months."
Mike Tallon, Lexington High School, Lexington, Illinois

Criminals make skeptics out of impressionable young people:
"Last week during Sunday School service, people came to the door and asked for money. They said they were from Hayard, Kentucky. They said they had run out of gas and wanted money to get home. The church gave them money, and three days later they were arrested in Ashland, Kentucky for drug trafficking. These people have no responsibility for anything; they respect no one."
Jeremy Hall, Rock Hill Senior High School, Ironton, Ohio

Perhaps we need to lighten up a bit at this point. An excerpt from the paper submitted by Michael Lantz may do the trick:
"Recently a man robbed a bank and the escape car was, well--a cab. The burglar was seen leaving the bank in the cab, making it very easy for the police to apprehend the suspect. It never occurred to the cab driver [to suspect his passenger] despite the [passenger] paying $73 for a $24 ride. How odd for a person to take a cab to go rob a bank. Perhaps he should of just called the cops and asked them for a ride. Did you hear the story about the suspect who was caught red han..uh, footed? This man was a prisoner at a Rockland County state prison. He escaped from this jail and fled into the woods. Good thing for the authorities, but not for the prisoner, he was wearing those sneakers which light when you step down. It was easy to follow him in the dimly lit woods with the red lights flashing. How could one be so, so stupid?"
Michael Lantz, Valhalla High School, Valhalla, New York

Michael's story reminded us of a "dimly lit" robber in Clearfield, Pennsylvania who wore his old army fatigue jacket with his name on it!

Many suggest educators and politicians alike, are shirking their responsibilities:
"I heard about a student-run LSD ring in a school in Virginia with which administrators refused to get involved. Reports claimed that these drug transactions took place outside of the school, but on school property. Administrators claimed that since this went on outside of the school building, it was not a concern of the school administration. They would not monitor the suspected students, and offered no help to police."
Jeremy Wyatt, Camden High School, Camden, Tennessee

"In Omaha, one boy held a gun to the head of a fifth grader. School authorities treated the incident only as a school disciplinary problem, a couple of months later the boy shot a young girl with a .45 automatic...reflection of what goes on in the outside world."
Amanda Hanson, Concordia High School, Concordia, Kansas

"The moral, responsible people in this country should demand that our leaders and legislators place the emphasis back on the values that make a country strong rather than sitting by and letting these values be replaced by behavior that destroys the fabric of our society and makes us weak."
Matthew Grandon, Valley Springs High, Valley Springs, Arkansas

"The idea of getting off and passing the blame must be changed to punishing and learning a lesson."
Julie Irion, Eureka High School, Eureka, Illinois

"Also there is a group of students at my school working on getting a bill passed to increase penalties for youths committing violent crimes. This could be the most important step being taken, because youths are the ones in charge, and the ones that are trying to get this passed. One student said, 'We feel that kids must be taught that the taking of a life is not a trivial matter'."
Ben Tenpenny, Seaman High School, Topeka, Kansas

"The harm this increasing violence causes is far reaching.  The sad thing is these are not the majority of the students causing the increase in violence. Why then, do they have this power; and whose responsibility is it to change things and make schools safe places of learning?... Students do not realize the strength they have in numbers and that positive peer pressure can also have an effect."
Sarah Parrish, New Underwood High , New Underwood, South Dakota

"Many people in this country feel that the institution of education is in severe decline. Schools are deteriorating; good teachers are abandoning the profession; students perceive little value in the subjects they are taught, and officials of other nations openly mock our educational standards and institutions. Our schools have become hotbeds of violence, vandalism, and unethical behavior. And most people feel it is not their problem. Candidates who are running for office are largely ignoring the issue of education reform. When they do mention it, it is stressed largely as a means of restoring our industrial competitiveness. This makes education an aspect of the economy, and not a fundamental institution necessary for the survival of society. Serious education reform cannot be achieved until there is a significant increase in the number of people, political leaders, educators, parents and students agreeing that widespread reform is needed and agreeing on general ways to go about achieving it.  Educators must realize that their work, coupled with the institution of family, is the key factor in shaping a young person's life, and deciding what kind of citizen they will someday be."
Jeremy Wyatt, Camden High School, Camden, Tennessee

In the excerpt that follows, Stephanie makes a point that psychoogists would affirm:
"How can kids take responsibility for their own actions when they are told consistently they are bad, corrupted kids caught in the crossfire of a messed up society? Most of them start to believe it if told enough. They may begin to think,'Hey, society has caused us to be this way so we better start fulfilling this idea.'"
Stephanie Wilson, Colby High School, Colby, Kansas

At this point we would like to suggest that readers obtain a copy of Urban Sanctuaries: Neighborhood Organizations in the Lives and Futures of Inner-City Youth a 1994 book published by Jossey-Bass and written from interviews conducted on the streets by Milbrey McLaughlin, Merita Irby and Janet Langman. (Contact the Foundation if you need help.) Stephanie's excerpt above reminded us of a passage on page 32 in which a 17 year-old gang member tells us something that all of us, but especially teachers, should know about the way kids "in the crossfire" view schools:

Moreover teachers and schools generally are experienced as hostile, uncaring entities that label gang youth as 'lessers' and treat them as if they were 'invisible.' What Tito recalls from his school days is that teachers 'think 'cuz you're in a gang that you're just wasting your time [in school]. But you don't have to get up in the morning if you don't want to. You get up in the morning, you get dressed, you take a bath, and you go there 'cuz you wanna go.' Tito feels teachers are not even going to try to teach gang members. Yet he thinks that 'all gangbangers need is somebody to talk to 'em. Sit'em down and say, 'Hey man, this is the only way you gonna learn, man. If you go around like this, ain't nobody else gonna teach you.' However, he says, '[Teachers] don't do things like that. They won't sit down. They won't come by me and say, 'You know, Tito, you should try to do this work 'cuz if you don't do it' They all let me sit there all day. [They] walk right past me.'

If you can read that passage without being touched then you'd better read it again. You and I and Tito know that feeling sorrow and making "feel- better" promises is not enough. Action is required!

Gangs

"There is no real education about racism and gangs."
Christie Brady, Eureka High School, Eureka, Illinois

Most of the students quoted here have had little first-hand experience with gangs. We have had students from large inner-city schools participate in past HSF programs, but this year's contest demanded more time than those teachers could give. But kids talk, even without first-hand know- ledge. What they have to say may be a bit more authentic than what adult- researchers are reporting:
"A friend of mine in Eatonville, Washington got caught up in a gang forming in Tacoma. After transferring to my school, he had plenty of stories of friends killing or being killed in the de-initiation from his gang. The only way out is getting out of town and when you live in South Central that's no choice at all."
John Fleming, Wallace High School, Wallace, Idaho

"In my personal experience, living in Seattle for two years, you pick up on gang activity quickly. I heard of most violence occurring on weekends. At that time a lot of gangs were coming up from Los Angeles. A friend of mine was involved with a gang. He said to me,'Ya get in the big cities and violence is something that is just there. Ya better kill them before they kill you. It's best to keep your damn mouth shut; silence is your best defense. Ya talk shit and you're gonna die.'Gangs can and will get just about anything they want. If it's guns or drugs they'll find it or get someone who can."
Josh Barnes, Deer River High School, Deer River, Minnesota

"I've been on a few ride along with a police officer and on his radio there were problems with gangs constantly. We responded to one call which reported about gang trouble. The Cambodian gang was arguing with the Sureno gang about race, but an officer broke it up before anyone was injured."
Todd Gordon, Pioneer High School, San Jose, California

"The scary part of all these gang related crimes, is that they are not just one area of the county, but wide spread and growing. The larger, more powerful gangs are swallowing up the smaller ones. They are becoming more violent...once the gangs do make truce they don't know what to do with themselves next."
Nicole Schepp, Barnesville High School, Barnesville, Minnesota

At the end of the 1993-94 school year an honors student with a 3.97 grade point average, who was also president of the student council, was sense- lessly killed as he was leaving a graduation party in San Diego. He was a victim of gang violence.

"Some of these armed citizens are children, and they walk the streets with loaded weapons. Most don't realize the severity of their actions. They feel safe just knowing they hold the potential to protect themselves. But they couldn't be more mistaken. Shawnee County Sheriff Dave Meneley stated in a speech to high school students that an individual carrying a weapon is four times more likely to be injured or killed. Even with these warnings and facts most youth ignore such statistics. Due to their false sense of invincibility they feel as if they are the exception. Many even bring their weapons into schools and other public buildings where the risk of problems greatly increases. Many students complain of not feeling safe in their own school."
Erik Pollom, Seaman High School, Topeka, Kansas

"Students are afraid to pass through certain areas because it its the territory of a gang. If this territory has been invaded you better watch your back for the rest of life."
Chad Lane, Barnesville High School, Barnesville, Minnesota

"Gangs are almost always revolving around sex. In many gangs, guys have to have sex with many females in order to become a member of the particular gang. I also heard of a female gang in which girls have to have sex with a person with the AIDS virus in order to become a member."
Danna Hines, Salem High School, Salem, Missouri

"In Chicago a group of gang members fell upon two teenage girls who were walking home one night. They repeatedly raped them and then strangled them. They made sure they were dead by standing on their necks. During the trial they repeatedly showed signs that they were proud of being in a case as big as that one. Later a member of that gang was seen on a tape saying the words, 'Life means nothing.' Violence on television also teaches other negative things."
Brad Ziegler, Harrisburg High School, Harrisburg, Illinois

"In Wichita about 74 gangs sell drugs, run guns, steal and kill. Members now numbers about 1,200. In 1992 36 gang-related killings occurred...To help in the Wichita gang problem, a violent crime/gangs task force was developed."
Dennis Kregar, Kinsley High School, Kinsley, Kansas

"In the past few years Topeka has gone from being simply the capital of Kansas to being infamous for gang-related violence, youth crime and bigotry."
Erik Pollom, Seaman High School, Topeka, Kansas

"Gangs are just another of the obvious side affects of a warped nation. When kids feel more safe and secure in groups of other kids carrying guns and drugs, and who knows what else, there is something wrong."
Rebecca P. Moore, Aubrey High School, Aubrey, Texas

At the age of 11 a young boy was given a shot gun by a violent sub-group of the South Central Los Angeles Crips and he began a life of violence that earned him the name Monster. From his prison cell in California he wrote a 383 page book full of violence and gore which he insists is nothing more than "reality and life the way it happens every day." In South Central, he claims, everybody belongs to a gang. He joined for power and to stay alive and intends to spend his life outside prison agitating against our current political system.

"As the traditional social supports have disappeared for most teenagers, they begin to learn things from their peers, drug dealers, or other people who engage in criminal conduct. Instead of going to school and working their way up to a good job through education, young people see the fast and easy money drug dealing makes and make their money through gangs and drug dealers."
Beth Civitarese, Antietam High School, Reading, Pennsylvania

"Gangs killing gangs, drive-by shootings, and guns in school are all harmful in more than one way. Younger kids who have older brothers who carry guns and are in a gang will most likely grow up to be just like the person that they looked up to when they were a kid. If kids grow up to be like their role models the U.S. is going to be a very unstable place to live...if we would all try to set new morals for younger kids today, then one hundred years from now kids will look at academic role models with good grades instead of kids today who look for role models in how many people they have killed."
Ronald Scheffler, Barnesville High School, Barnesville, Minnesota

The following is from an interview aired on C-Span Monday September 27, 1993 with Chris Matthews, Washington DC correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle:
"As an American I'm offended when people in Europe can't visit this country, rent a car and drive to the airport in safety. What's wrong with this country? The reason we're the greatest country in the world, the greatest country ever, is because we've succeeded at home. It's not because we've won wars abroad---we've lost a few abroad---but we've tried to build a fair, successful society. We're failing at that now. Whole parts of this country are failures in terms of society. Kids are growing up getting shot at, having to arm themselves to survive. This is a problem.

It's easy to go to Somalia and send the troops. It's like a John Wayne movie. Send those troops to South East Washington to disarm people. We can't do it! The bottom line is that we can't solve our own problems. We have to do it legally and constitutionally. But we have not found a way to make our streets safe. Public safety should be the number one issue in this country domestically and we're afraid [to touch it] Clinton won't touch it. The Republicans won't touch it. All you do is say 'capital punishment' once in awhile. That's not the solution; the solution is law enforcement. Every city has this problem and it's getting into the suburbs and the country. The problem is that we are so good at going overseas and promising to solve people's problems in Beirut, or solving their problems in Grenada or in Panama [but] we can't restore order and public safety in the United States, and that's our problem."re order and public safety in the United States, and that's our problem."

Poor Role Models

Northern California kids attending a youth camp were able to witness five people being arrested by police and equipment used to manufacture drugs being seized on July 27, 1994. The suspects had been dumping cancer- causing chemicals into the creek bordering the kids camp.

Role models are a powerful incentive to good and evil. We like the simple way Joel and Richard put it:
"The way that people act has a great impact on how we feel about our country. Those that do good make us feel proud, and those that do bad make all of us ashamed."
Joel Alajoki, Deer River High School, Deer River, Minnesota

"The children need heroes [to] look up to and say 'that is how I want to be when I grow up!'"
Richard Espinoza , Prairie High School, New Raymer, Colorado

Hao Duong interjects a word of caution from his personal experience with role models:
"I learned early on that role models don't always meet...the expectations we place on them. When I first left elementary school, I didn't know what to expect. In junior high we were exposed to new and exciting things. We heard stories of wild parties, we saw 'real' fist fights and we saw ourselves being the older, popular people with people looking up to us... In this day and age we need and we want good role models. People look up to people who are older, people who have been through the same situations. ...When we are young it seems so unrealistic that we could be adults someday. Adults seemed too old and being a grown-up never even crossed our minds. As we grow older our perspectives on life, our plans for the future and our role models change. As teenagers we begin to plan for the future. We have, for the most part, decided what we plan to be and what kind of people we would like to become. We have made these decisions using the knowledge that we have acquired and the influences that we have been exposed to. We now look to adults to help us grow and mature into the people that we want to become. They don't always behave appropriately... In 1993, River Phoenix, a popular young actor, died outside a bar due to this use of drugs. Mike Tyson, the former Heavyweight Champion of the World in boxing, was stripped of his title and sent to prison because he was convicted of rape."

Hao is wise as well as cautious:
"(But) there are some positive stories in the celebrity world if we are willing to listen...Chris Webber, a rookie star in the NBA and a former All-American on the college and high school level, used his money and fame to start the Time Out Foundation to help under-privileged kids get a better start in life. Role models aren't bad to have, but we must learn to distinguish which we will follow. Who we choose to admire is our decision, but at an early age parents should begin to guide and educate their children so that when the time come they will make the right choice based on what they have learned. When children are older it is much harder to get through and make an impact on their opinions."
Hao Duong, Antietam High School, Reading, Pennsylvania

Others spoke their minds concerning role models:
"I saw a Nike commercial with Charles Barkley where he states,'I'm not a role model.' In the same light, the creator of MTV's Beavis and Butthead can't understand how anyone could watch the show and see the two cartoon teens as role models. Wake up guys!! People believe what they see on TV. Every little kid wants to be a big basketball star, so what message is Charles Barkley sending when he talks trash in games and spits on little girls? He's telling every kid who's watching that it's cool to be rude to others. And what about the little kid who lit a fire, which resulted in burning his three-year-old sister, after watching Beavis and Butthead playing with fire on TV. They aren't role models, huh?"
Sandy Gunther, Deer River High School, Deer River, Minnesota

"All parents want their children to respect them, but they [parents] must first be respectable."
Jo Haun, Kensington High School, Kensington, Kansas

"If parents cannot accept responsibility, then how can we expect our children to accept it?... When parents have difficulty interacting with each other, it can have a serious effect on children. Children adopt their parents' values."
Jeremy Hoffpauir, Walters High School, Walters, Oklahoma

"Children look at their parents as role models so therefore our parents have to show us responsibility before we can learn it."
Angie Gillispie, Rock Hill Senior High School, Ironton, Ohio

"People are at their most impressionable time when they are children. From birth until children are finished their schooling is about the time span where good role models are important."
Leah Wilkerson, Garnet Valley High School, Glen Mills,Pennsylvania

"Parents, teachers, and any other adult can preach until they're blue in the face, but it won't help one bit until adults start living by their own standards."
Heather Stearns, Carbondale High School, Carbondale, Illinois

The following excerpt may show the reason for those nasty lawyer jokes:

"While taking the bar exam, two young would-be attorneys were faced with a situation; one of their fellow law students had a seizure and collapsed. One student, a lifeguard, and the other, an RN, jumped to the victims aid. For 40 minutes they administered CPR until paramedics arrived. All of the other students continued working on the exam, yet when the two rescuers returned to work they were denied any more time because it was against the legal rules. This example shows that it doesn't always pay to help someone in need, yet isn't that a lawyer's responsibility?"
Angie Guthrie, Deer River High School, Deer River, Minnesota

The students did not forget the politicians:
"Representatives promise all they can to ensure being elected, but their promises fall apart when it comes to fulfilling them. They go into office with all kinds of problems facing them, but put them off. They propose many changes that sound good to the public but do nothing when it comes to fixing preexisting problems. They do not take responsibility of their duties and the trust that has been given to them by the American people. Part of the responsibility of their office is to set an example of leadership, wisdom, fairness, and honesty. Officials with this kind of responsibility are becoming extinct."
Jeff Garner, Blue Ridge High, Blue Ridge, Texas

"When House Speaker Tom Foley attended a U.S. British meeting last summer, he decided to take time for a bit of cycling in the English countryside. Fine. But he wanted to ride his own bicycle, so the Air Force had to pick up his and Mrs. Foley's cycles at their home and deliver them to Andrews Air Force Base for the flight. In a case like this, the dollars are usually small, but they can add up."
Anthony Gonzales, Concordia High School, Concordia, Kansas

"Only a person of good character deserves the public's trust. Because public officials should be role models."
Trang Le, Central Islip High School, Central Islip, New York

(page 17)

Despair
(insert)

(page 19)

No Responsibility

Harn-Jen's prescription (below) for controlling crime--a large dose of responsibility--was recommended repeatedly by students:

"It is every person's responsibility to restrain themselves when under great pressure. When they lash out and resort to violence they are being irresponsible."
Harn-Jen Shiue, Carbondale High School, Carbondale, Illinois

"The responsibility for getting this problem under control lies first with the students and teens of this country. I think that the parents and schools share the next biggest burden of responsibility. Students definitely need more discipline from both places. There is not much that lawmakers can do. If a student desires a gun badly enough, he will get one; but it should be made as difficult as possible. If the teens themselves and [their] parents do not take responsibility for their actions, pretty soon every school in America will have had a murder and everyone will be toting guns and killing each other over stupid things like sneakers or a girlfriend."
Jory Wipf, James Valley Christian High School, Huron, South Dakota

But does the primary responsibility fall on the shoulders of our youth, as Jory claims in his excerpt above? Perhaps adults have confused priorities. Rebecca suggests as much in her excerpt below:

"As a whole, members of today's society are unwilling to take time to admit their fears and weaknesses, or even share their experiences. They are neglecting to teach values to the young generation. They don't want to sit down and talk with some 'stupid,immature,out-of-touch-with-reality teenager.' Most kids today feel like they are at the bottom of the list of national priorities, and it's no wonder when you look at the average American child's day. They wake up at 6:30 am and are rushed out the door to an impersonal day care center where they are dealt with 'en masse.' Now, that is no way to instill 'family values.' How can we expect kids to take pride in themselves when their own parents place more value on earning money than on raising their kids. There always seems to be some bigger dilemma on our nation's agenda. But while we are trying to make peace, pay off the national debt, nationalize health care, save the environment and keep our own citizens from killing each other, a generation...is left to raise [itself]. " Rebecca Reim, DeForest High School, DeForest, Wisconsin

Isn't protection the primary obligation of government? Andy Chen thinks so:

"The fourth definition for responsibility [given in Andy's paper] indicates an involvement of duty or obligation. Well, it is the government's obligation to make its own nation safe to live in. However, it is a fact that the crime rate in the United States is one of the worst in the world."
Andy Chen, New Providence High School, New Providence, New Jersey

Obviously government is losing the battle and we are seeing more and more children without hope. The results of a study concerning child rape and conducted by the Bureaus of Justice and Statistics was made public in June, 1994. Although only eleven states and the District of Columbia have kept data concerning the age of sex victims, the study extrapolated the findings to the entire nation and reported that in 1992 17,000 girls eleven years old or younger were raped and invariably by someone they knew. This does not consider unreported rapes. The percentage of rape victims under age 18 that actually reported the crime to police are as follows: Rhode Island=70 Alabama=38; Arkansas=44; Delaware=71; Florida=46; Idaho=35; Michigan=68; Nebraska=42; North Dakota=57; Pennsylvania=42; and Wisconsin=42.

More and more teens are taking their own lives:

"Almost 1 in 3 people I know can name someone they knew who committed suicide. I myself can name about four off the top of my head....If someone's child commits suicide, or runs away; maybe it wasn't 'that evil music they listen to.' Maybe it was the parent's own fault in raising the kid badly, or possibly the social scene at school. It could be a number of things, things people don't like to accept, things that hurt, but things that are nonetheless the truth. Music and lyrics aren't going to do it, and they shouldn't be seen as an easy way to dodge your responsibility."
Lindsay Lifrieri, New Providence High School, New Providence, New Jersey

"A survey was taken in 1991 of United States high school students and results were very surprising. An admitted twenty-seven percent said that they had 'thought seriously' about suicide at least once in the past year. Also, eight percent revealed that they had actually tried to kill themselves during that period."
Tricia Camp, LaCrosse High School, LaCrosse, Washington

On July 26, 1994 a 20 year-old top-ranked ice skater took his own life in Palo Alto, California.

"We want to stop death, not [encourage] it. I feel there is a solution to every problem and death is not the solution."
Tiffany Wagner, Kensington High School, Kensington, Kansas

We need to find a solution to teen suicide that will satisfy Tiffany and her peers and their younger brothers and sisters. According to Cindy (below) adult researchers are working on the problem:

"Researchers believe that the breakdown in the American family is one of the leading causes of teen suicide. ...Up until the late 1950s, most families lived with or close to their extended family. This would include grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. This gave many young adolescents the opportunity to talk to someone about their problems. Today most of these relatives live far away and many parents aren't home so teens keep their problems to themselves. Today's teens are in trouble and they feel they have nowhere to turn. They are desperately crying out for help, but no one listens. When society finally hears their cries, it may be too late."
Cindy Fuerstenberg, Iowa-Grant High School, Livingston, Wisconsin

Teen Pregnancy

As if violence were not enough for teens to worry about:

"It is like just one big circle; kids getting drunk, shooting up, and having sex. Some kids do it just to be 'cool'. Others do it to run away from family or friend problems. Since these kids are high when they engage in these activities, they feel wrong or 'dirty' afterwards, if they even remember it, and some get saddled with a bigger problem-- unplanned pregnancy or a serious sexually transmitted disease, like Aids."
JoEllyn Cordes, Eureka High School, Eureka, Illinois

"Sex is almost accepted, and probably expected from today's teens. When talk of sex comes up, rarely is contraception included in the conversa- tion."
Danielle Bngowatz, DeForest High School, DeForest, Wisconsin

"In support of the teenagers today, I don't believer our parents'gener- ation can actually understand how treacherous the waters have gotten since they were at sea. ...For the teenagers of today, responsibility has become more of a threat than a promise... Now, with the AIDS virus looming over the heads of all sexually active teens, as well as the many other STD's [sexually transmitted diseases]which are present in the world today, both partners have a responsibility to each other to be sure they are untouched by any of these diseases before becoming intimate."
Benjamin E. Debiec, Antietam High, Reading, Pennsylvania

"A study done in 1987 said that in America each day 3,000 teenagers become pregnant which results in one million a year. Four out of five are not married and over half of them get an abortion to solve this problem. These statistics should tell people that we need to start educating everyone a lot more."
Trisha Olson, DeForest High School, DeForest, Wisconsin

A 1994 Roper poll of 503 students in grades 9-12 found that 75 percent of the sexually active teens were using birth control regularly, 72 percent had sex in their parents' home, 60 percent thought their parents were aware of this activity and 54 percent of the teens who had sexual intercourse wish they had waited.

A report issued by the Alan Guttmacher Institute in June, 1994, found that teens who have learned to use contraceptives are doing a better job of not getting pregnant than are their less informed counterparts. Actually the number of teen pregnancies has held at about one million a year for the past 20 years. What has changed is the percentage as the number of sexually active teens has increased. According to the same report, over 50 percent of girls and 75 percent of boys under age 18 are not virgins. Seventy percent of the babies born to teens are born out of wedlock and only two percent of all illegitimate babies are offered for adoption.

Unfortunately responsibility is learned and takes discipline:

"Many of my other friends are sexually active and do not use birth control because it is not as convenient. They sometimes get worried that they my be pregnant, but they say they'll simply get an abortion. ...If someone feels that she is old enough to have sex, she should be old enough to do so safely. ...I am not pro-life or anti-abortion, but I am against the reckless lifestyle it may involve. I worry that this irres- ponsible behavior could end up hurting people I love."
Tresssa Bell, Antietam High School, Reading, Pennsylvania

"In a survey conducted by myself I found that 8 out of 10 high school students ages 15 to 18 who answered the survey have had pre-marital sex. Many are not with the same partner now. Five out of 8 teenagers have had more than one partner and 2 out of the 8 have had many partners (more than 3). Still 4 out of 8 do not use any means of birth control or protection. One out of the 8 use only birth control pills and condoms and 1 out of the 8 use only use condoms. These teenagers are not taking into consideration the risk of sexually transmitted diseases or even worse the fatal HIV virus and then aids followed by death."
Angie Gillispie, Rock Hill Senior High School, Ironton, Ohio

Here again adults are being asked for help:

"Sex is very important in the production of movies. In the movie Porkies, sex seems to be the only important item about being in high school.I feel that the movie makes young people feel that if they are not having sex, then they are not important and aren't cool, but if they do have sex, then they are cool and are important... Peer pressure in dating is very common. Guys seen to pressure the girl into having sex on the first date. The guy will usually say that he fell in love, and he wants to show her how much."
Danna Hines, Salem High School, Salem, Missouri

"Teenagers are a prime target of alcohol advertisers and drug dealers. Advertisements portray beer drinkers as cool, popular, life-of-the-party people. It's easy to see why teenagers can get caught up in the peer pressure of wanting to fit in."
Nicole McConnell, Prairie High School, New Raymer, Colorado

"Friends have a very important role in sex. When you're around them, most of them will talk about having sex. It will sometimes make you feel that you don't fit in with them because you're not involved with sexual activities."
Danna Hines, Salem High School, Salem, Missouri

"Teens get this false impression that sex is something everyone is doing and that it's great. Many of the movies that have sex in them never show the characters using birth control. In fact they sometimes have multiple partners and, of course, they never end up pregnant, unless it is in the storyline."
Dawn Eddy, Iowa-Grant High School, Livingston, Wisconsin

"If you look through a magazine or watch television you see teens having sex and it is no big deal. They should be showing that if teens are going to have sex then they should use protection, but they just avoid the issue all together."
Tracy Poknifke, DeForest High School, DeForest, Wisconsin

Sasha is absolutely eloquent:

"Instead of the calm commercials about how sex is for someone you love, I think they need to be more to the point. Teenagers who are having sex with lots of partners are not in it for the love part, so why not grab their attention by speaking the reality; sex is dangerous. Start showing commercials and even have some on the radio that talk to real AIDS patients. Show the result of some wasted futures and show that it does happen to all people, no matter [their] race, color, or [wealth]. ...My little sister, 14, a freshman in the same school, has friends who have already lost their virginity and had no idea of how to be protected. If you get the information out early, on the results and precautions, a great lot of people wouldn't have to face such terrible decisions."
Sasha Mshar, Kiona-Benton High School, Benton City, Washington

Jeanne and JoEllyn expand the appeal---and the reasons:

"Most people feel teens know about sex. I don't feel this is the case. I feel abstinence should be taught by the school. Parents should talk about safe sex to their children. I feel there should be condom ads and commercials. Some people feel this is encouraging sex. I don't. I feel this is promoting safe sex. This would solve many problems about the way teenagers feel about sex. It would also put an end to the problem of saying 'I didn't know' or 'I wasn't taught'."
Jeanne Johnke, Centerville High School, Centerville, South Dakota

"A lot of kids are also afraid to go into a store and buy them [condoms]: getting them at school is much more reassuring to them. ... I wish the generations before would understand a little better. Teenagers are going to do what they want. They just need the guidance to do it right. A lot of teenagers have a problem talking to their parents about the responsibility of having sex, and in some cases, parents don't care. This sense of not having anyone to turn to is sometimes what drives teenagers to have 'irresponsible' sex."
JoEllyn Cordes, Eureka High School, Eureka, Illinois

Kimberly gives us a ray of hope:

"Studies have also shown that teen-agers get smarter as they get older. The proportion of females that report using oral contraceptives increased from 25 percent at age 15 to 51 percent at age 19. Another thing to credit teenagers is that even though they are having sex, they are not doing it all that often. While 44.9 percent of women ages 15-19 are sexually experienced, only 28 percent have had sex in the past month, and only 15 percent have been consistently active during the past 12 months. A 1987 survey of young women obtaining abortions indicates 40 percent were using a birth control method during the month conception occurred. This detects a fault not in the product, but in the knowledge of the user of the product. This is where education must play a large role so that those that want to protect themselves, can."
Kimberly Redd, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

Kimberly's statistics should increase our resolve to help teen age girls reach the ripe old age of 19 without unwittingly becoming mothers. Unfortunately the excerpts that follow show that teen pregnancy is increasing:

"Take the example of Crystal Cagle. Crystal's first and second daughters were born when she was 13 and 15, respectively. Did Crystal need free condoms, or someone to tell her that abstinence is nothing to be ashamed of? I think not. What Crystal, and other pregnant girls like her need is for someone, anyone, to care for them in some way. If the reader can remember the personalities of even a few pregnant girls they have known, they ought to realize how most of those girls came to be that way. All too often adolescent girls who engage in sex have not been overcome by lust or hormones; the physical gratification of sex is not their motivation...Abstinence cannot make a forsaken girl feel loved and condoms cannot protect her from the emotional pain of a bad sexual experience, yet these are often the only solutions offered to adolescents. It seems obvious to me from the little attention devoted to helping these girls that, were they not becoming pregnant, our society would probably pay them very little attention... In my opinion there is only one way to prevent teen pregnancy: our nation must give hope to the children who are our hope, so that they believe the future holds something of more worth than the fleeting comfort of sex. For Americans, who often prefer their social problems to be handled by the government, this will be a daunting task. Nevertheless, this problem is best handled by parents and teachers and even other teenagers, not by bureaucracy."
Jason Dawdy, Seaman High School, Topeka, Kansas

"I use to know a girl at my old high school in California before I moved to Missouri, and she had a little girl when she was sixteen years old. She use to tell me that she was happy to have her child but it was a very hard responsibility. She said it was real hard to get by in life because her parents kicked her out. She was real sad and upset because she had to raise the child herself because the father left and didn't want anything to do with her or the baby. She said most of the time she didn't ask for anyone's help. She would tell me that she wanted to give her baby up for adoption because she couldn't handle it. She would tell me that she wished she had somebody by her side to help her out. At the end of the year I never saw the girl again because she had another baby and she dropped out of school for the time being. I guess she didn't learn her lesson from her first mistake."
Richard Garrett, Salem High School, Salem, Missouri

"About a year ago someone very close to me got pregnant; she was my cousin and she was only fifteen. She was always a very shy person and no one ever thought she would think about being sexually active. No one ever talked to her about using protection. She started going out with an older guy and sneaking out at night to go be with him. When she became pregnant her dad made her get an abortion. When her boyfriend found out he moved and she hasn't seen him since the night she told him that she was pregnant. The abortion was against her will. Her dad kicked her out and now she lives with her grandmother. I can't imagine how she must feel; her boyfriend left her, she wanted a baby but her dad wouldn't let her, and then she was rejected by most of her family."
Michelle Hathaway, LaCrosse High School, LaCrosse, Washington

"I read in Newsweek magazine 'Ða young black girl living in the slums decided to have a baby just to express herself.' Did she really understand how hard the rest of her life is going to be? Not only will she be looking out for herself, but for the life of her baby."
Alyssa Daigle, Deer River High School, Deer River, Minnesota

We believe Melanie (below) is being realistic when she says:

"Abortion should be legal because everyone who wants one is going to get one no matter what would happen to their body or even if it would cost them their lives. So with it legal they can get the proper care they need. I don't believe in abortion myself, but I can't make people do what I believe. I could have made that choice with my baby but I decided to take responsibility for myself and my actions and now I have a beautiful baby boy."
Melanie Grassi, Marion High School, Marion, South Dakota

Caressa brings up another problem:

"Currently, Kansas has one of the nation's most liberal laws. It requires only that a woman receive the consent of a doctor, and have the abortion in a medical facility. A bad point is that the law forces teens to tell their parents. This causes bad results for those who cannot tell their parents. One example of this is Rebecca Bell. Rebecca Bell died at age 17 after she got an abortion-related infection. She couldn't get a legal abortion in Indiana without her parents' consent, and she was afraid to tell them."
Caressa Brokar, Kinsley High School, Kinsley, Kansas

Kendal offers a different observation:

"A problem with our society is that abortions are so easy to get. Even though the Supreme Court case of Missouri Planned Parenthood vs. Danforth in 1976 required minors to have their parents' permission to have an abortion, many states now allow minors to get an abortion without that consent. [According to the 8/9/90 issue of Rolling Stone magazine] Thirty-five states have parental consent or parental notification laws, but only a third enforce them. ...All the people that believe and support the pro-choice movement, who believe that women have the right to control their own body, should be reminded that those women could have controlled their body before they got themselves pregnant. Anyone who gets an abortion simply for the reason that a baby would get in the way of their life, are just being selfish in avoiding responsibility for their actions."
Kendal Piatt, Kiona-Benton High School, Benton City, Washington

The Good Old Days

"America today is definitely not the same as when my grandparents were young. People worked hard for their money. They took responsibility for their actions, good or bad. Today's generation is taught not to take the bad with the good. (They) complain, 'It's not my fault.' ...Surprisingly, it is working."
Heather C. Thomason, Plainview High School, Ardmore, Oklahoma

"Our values have changed from the honest, hard-working, proud people of the 1950's to the superficial, corrupt and power-hungry people most often depicted in the 1990's. We want everything and we want it now. Unfortunately, we don't care who's feet we step on in our quest to get it."
Keli Crane, Blue Ridge High School, Blue Ridge, Texas

"In the past, family, church and school were considered a triangle for education. After the 1960s values were not even mentioned in the classroom."
Shane Morris, Camden High School, Camden, Tennessee

"Why can't the world we live in be like the one our parents grew up in? It may not have been perfect, but I can guarantee it was better than today. The irresponsible behavior can be blamed on the breakdown of families and the media that portrays it."
Rachel Miller, Harrisburg High School, Harrisburg, Illinois

"Television reflects society. In the 1950s we only saw the white population. Now we show how it really is out there. In the 1990's we need to show reality, which includes violence and many unwanted problems the public faces everyday. If we try to hide racism, sexism, and violence it will not solve any of these problems."
Shelly Douglas, Blue Ridge High School, Blue Ridge, Texas

"In a society with role models who use drugs and gamble, a society where television shows every ill of society to anyone who will watch, will children find something to base their values upon?"
Matthew C. Winkleman, Harrisburg High School, Harrisburg, Illinois

Morality:

"According to a poll conducted by this student, over a wide span of ages, it was found that the older people would not commit crimes or fraud because it was 'wrong' or 'morally incorrect'. Those of the younger generation stated that 'I would have to think about it' and 'it depends on the consequences'. This in itself illustrates the point that responsible behavior resulting from good morals has somehow declined."
Michelle R. Gannon, Rock Hill Senior High School, Ironton, Ohio

The Harry Singer Foundation (HSF) has the results of several 1994 polls of teenagers on related subjects which we would be happy to share with interested parties. The first is related to the answers to questions 7 and 9 in the 1993-94 Essay Contest concerning responsibility; the contest that produced the excerpts for this and two other HSF books.

7- What would you do if you found a large sum of money? What would your teacher and classmates likely say or do if you told them about your find?

9- List five likely attributes of the successful role model of the 1950s. List five likely attributes of the successful role model of the 1990s."

From the HSF workbook for social studies departments:

13- Show the process a person with moral principles might go through in deciding if he/she should rob a bank? Write down the questions that might be considered. 14- Go through the same exercise with a person who has discarded moral principles. What might this person consider?

15- By secret ballot determine how many members of the class have cheated between one to five times at anything. How many have cheated more than five times? Never cheated? How many think it is ok to cheat sometimes? Write down the resulting four numbers. Now write down the kinds of things where it is ok to cheat, providing you believe there are any.

In their excerpts below, Josh and Kara assure us that all is not lost in the 90's:

"Jim Brinkerhoff of western Iowa, found a bag of money containing $1,500 ...and decided to return it because his conscience would not let him keep it."
Josh Johnson, Centerville High School, Centerville, South Dakota

"There was a robbery a few years back in a small town. The thief was running out of the bank, and dropped his bag of money. The money went all over the place. All of the money, which was in denominations of twenty dollar bills, was returned except for one twenty dollar bill. Just that one example proves that some people do take the responsibility of being a citizen and carry out all of the duties that go with it."
Kara Babrowski, Eureka High School, Eureka, Illinois

The marriage contract:

"Today it is a surprise to hear of a couple celebrating their twenty- fifth wedding anniversary. Fifty years ago it was a shock to hear of someone getting a divorce."
Christie Brady, Eureka High School, Eureka, Illinois

"People should realize that a ruined marriage is not only hurting the children, but our whole country in the long run."
Carissa Becker, Marion High School, Marion, South Dakota

"As the children get older they see their parents argue and eventually divorce. Caught in the middle of World War III, the child has to listen as each parent blames the failed marriage on the other. They aren't even responsible enough to make an honest commitment to the person they married."
Heather Stearns, Carbondale High School, Carbondale, Illinois

"With a 50 percent divorce rate, children are forced to live with one parent, usually the mother. This means many children grow up without a father, and for boys the crucial issue is a role model."
Carmen Knuppe, New Underwood High School, New Underwood, South Dakota

"The definition of family has changed. Fewer children grow up in two parent homes, while many are being raised by grandparents or other family members."
Amy Deehr, Freeman High School, Rockford, Washington

"Many people also are no longer keeping their vows, and therefore, single-parent families are on the rise. Child-care facilities and the Head Start program are trying to take the place of one or sometimes even both the parents. The results of these changes have been mostly devastating. Ð People are going to have to start facing the problem head-on, and come up with a reasonable solution. If it means going back to the ways of the 50's in which mom stays home and dad works, then so be it. Families may be poorer, and many women will complain, but it worked once and people were happy so why not try it again."
Kevin Brown, Concordia High School, Concordia, Kansas

We think Kevin might like to hear about a new support group in Spokane, Washington for "today's working-at-home woman." We extrapolate from the flyer that we received recently from Melissa, founder of the Homemakers of the 90's Club :

Most homemakers today are overworked and under-valued. Although not often recognized by society, a homemaker could be described as a care- taker, nurse, housekeeper, gardener, taxi driver; psychologist, accountant, teacher, judge, jury, chef, seamstress and handyperson. Homemakers are really the foundation of the family, but once the husband and kids have left for the day, they may begin to feel alone and unimportant. At the Homemakers' Club they get to spend a little time each week with other 'professionals' in their field....At the local weekly meetings they share experiences and ideas concerning craft projects, recipes, parenting strategies, spousal relationships, gardening tips and information about issues directly affecting their profession.

When most working women head off to their jobs every day, they are immediately surrounded by others who share the same work experiences and can offer them peer support. Shouldn't those who have chosen homemaking as a way to contribute, also be able to experience a network of support?

"Parents have lost their power to parent. It has not always been this way. Parents once thought that it was their moral obligation to take care of, discipline, and take responsibility for their children. The community expected this of the parents. These children knew that their parents would not tolerate their behavior and they did obey them. There is no longer a connection between the family and their community such as these."
Carie Mitchell, Camden High School, Camden, Tennessee

"First-born kids are thrown into a life where they are the main role model for their brothers and sisters and since their parents are not around enough, they must also work through any problems which may come up. There may have been a small number of kids in our parents' generation who (found themselves) in a situation much like the one I have described, but in today's society, single parents and families which have both parents working full-time are more abundant than ever before."
Benjamin E. Debiec, Antietam High School, Reading, Pennsylvania

Prioritize! Kids Are Worth It!

"The decline of morals in this world is directly related to how much time the parents spend raising their children and teaching them the difference between right and wrong. By taking this time when children are young, you can help eliminate the chance of crime and violence later on in their lives."
Allecia Finley, Eureka High School, Eureka, Illinois

"When looking at the facts, the parents must not be doing their job because of the number of teenage pregnancies."
Melissa Grassi, Marion High School, Marion, South Dakota

"I believe too much blame is laid on the parents. I don't think a lot of parents know what goes on in the day-to-day lives of their children. Most parents are working too long---and don't have much time for their children."
Heather Hicks, Camden High School, Camden, Tennessee

"A mother left her child alone in a house for three months. While we still do not have all the facts, we do know that nothing can justify this behavior. When a person brings a child into this world, their responsibility does not end when it is convenient. A perfect example of responsibility in this same case is that the thirteen year old child continued to go to school every day even though no one was there to 'make her go'. How did such a responsible child get raised by such an irresponsible parent?"
Megan McGraw, Garnet Valley High School, Glen Mills, Pennsylvania

"What good does the work at school accomplish if they enter the world of violence in the afternoon? What good does all the supervision in the day mean if they go to a world where there is no supervision, no parents and no structure?"
Crystal Bearley, Kensington High School, Kensington, Kansas

"Most people today don't care what their teens are doing at night or who they are with and I think that should change."
Gunner Rotter, Centerville High School, Centerville, South Dakota

"The local roller rink has signs posted that say 'not responsible for accidents.' Many parents, however, drop their children off to skate for hours at a time. Some of these children are no older than four or five. Is it any wonder so many children are abducted each year? Someone needs to be responsible for these children at all times. If the roller rink is not, why aren't their parents?"
Abby Ann Dunn, Knoxville High School, Knoxville, Illinois

"The family unit is very important. Many values and standards begin in the home with the family. Families should learn to communicate more thoroughly so teens will not take their anger out on other teens. Parent could take enough time to be a part of the teen's activities and know more about them. This would prevent many people that are too young for many video games and song lyrics from being a part of them."
Melanie Homan, Demopolis High School, Demopolis, Alabama

Values or work ethic?

"When I asked my uncle about what he thought was happening to values in the home, he said that it all stems from society making everything easier and more convenient. He believes that we are an undisciplined society with a degenerating work ethic."
Ryan L. Moore, Carbondale High School, Carbondale, Illinois

"With moms working outside of the home and fathers sometimes working two jobs, parents are too busy to teach their children values and morals. They just aren't around their children enough, so the teens look to a peer group they can feel secure in. Often this group is a gang."
Jeremy Adams, Big Spring High School, Newville, Pennsylvania

The Ingalls, The Waltons And The Cleavers Give Way To The Simpsons

"Responsibility is an individual concept and an individual lifestyle, one taught by the most important institution this nation will ever know -- the family."
Angela Fletcher, Broken Arrow High School, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma

"Over the past three decades, families have evolved from, what I consider, the Walton Family generation. The roles of parents and children have changed as well as their attitudes and beliefs. The Waltons were a tightly knit family with a stern and sturdy father, a loving mother, five compatible children, a dinner table filled with discussion, a strong feeling of love, and the teaching of the difference between right and wrong. This is the way a family should function. Instead, we see, today, families like the Simpsons, a family loosely held together by a helpless father, a careless mother, and two mischievous children. We also see single-parent families with children having to live with the memories of divorce or with questions about their lost parent."
Nicole Peduzzi, Big Spring High School, Newville, Pennsylvania

"Lack of communication has to be one of the biggest problems within the family."
Chris Jublin, Post Falls High School, Post Falls, Idaho

"Guilt and the need for placement of blame is a common problem in divorce situations. 'The unspoken feelings in this area are the worst kind because even though parents may feel responsible, their children might still blame themselves for what happened in their families.' For example; when I was eight years old, my parents were finally divorced. They had been separated for many years before this occurred. Because of such a long separation period, I felt that I could have done something else to keep my family together. I never knew until later that the problems in my parents' marriage were much too serious to be overcome by anything that I might have said. The unspoken truths of our family problems led to a feeling of guilt that a child should not have to experience."
Sherri Paulk, Lubbock-Cooper High School, Lubbock, Texas

Section Two

The Causes

(pages 35-39 missing)

Some blame 1990's music:

"Many states have gangs popping up in their larger cities, which is mainly due to the glorification of being in a gang. Rappers like Eazy-E and Flavor-flav are glorifying violence... This is a problem that every state in the United States should worry about because gang violence is rapidly spreading."
Jason Tenhonen, Wallace High School, Wallace, Idaho

"Rap stars who act as role models for many teens think its okay to kill people."
Todd Gordon, Pioneer High School, San Jose, California

"(Athlete) Charles Barkley, with flagrant language and a rude attitude, has worked his way into homes as a model for kids. Convicted rapper Snoop Doggy Dog's record has become one of the top albums in the nation. Other rappers like Flavor Flav, Tupac Amaru Shakur, and Ice T have invaded our youth's minds, sending them messages of death, sex and violence."
Jeremy Hoffpauir, Walters High School, Walters, Oklahoma

Others don't see it that way:

"Some record studios are banning rap music from their stations because they think it causes the younger generations to be more aggressive. When rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg was asked if his music was too violent for kids he said: 'Whether I make the record or not, someone is being shot right now in gang violence. Are you going to blame me, because I make a record about it?' Another question asked, 'Does rap music cause violence?' Snoop Doggy Dogg commented with:'That's a lie. Before rap came out there was violence; when I was nine years old, one of my 'home boys' got shot on some gang violence, and wasn't no rap music being played then. So you tell me the music we make now made him die?...' "
Mario Walker, Meadow Bridge High School, Meadow Bridge, West Virginia

"Communities need to organize activities."
Keilani Williams, New Underwood High School, New Underwood, South Dakota

*Notice how the blame has shifted from the media, to parents, to kids themselves and right on to the community. Sara is tired of 'passing-the-buck':"With all the whining and blaming going on all over the television and newspapers, the amount of difficulty in finding someone deserving of praise bows only to the almost impossible task of finding someone taking responsibility for themselves and their actions."
Sara Heberling, Broken Arrow High School, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma

The Injustice System

Students think the court system often sends the wrong message:

"Juvenile offenders know they are going to get off easy so there are no restrictions on them. If we would start treating them like the criminals they are and give them the punishment they deserve, the juvenile and gang problem would begin to decrease."
Jamie Sue Bellis, Prairie High School, New Raymer, Colorado

"The average prisoner serves only 41 percent of his/her sentence. For example, the standard sentence for robbery is about 8.6 years and almost 22 for murder. The average for these crimes stays in jail for about 16 months. For each crime committed, the offender stands a 1-in-20 chance of serving time."
Kara Krauskopf, Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

"When people go to court for crimes they committed and are acquitted, it is sending a message to Americans that they can commit a crime and get out of it fairly easily. We should not be surprised about the rising crime rates!"
Katie Wettstein, Eureka High School, Eureka, Illinois

"When a kid goes to jail or a juvenile center for the first time with a knowledge of only the one crime he has committed, he comes back into the world later with knowledge of how to do other crimes as well because he has talked with more experienced offenders"
Brian Claybrook, Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

"Violence is devastating the young people of this country, much like polio devastated children 40 years ago... They also need stiffer penalties for offenders because to some young people jail is like a sleepover camp where most of their friends are also."
Beth Civitarese, Antietam High School, Reading, Pennsylvania

Police cannot do their job when everyone is afraid of testifying:

"Eduardo Samanigo, 14 years of age, was shot and killed after he testified against gang members. The police and prosecutors were not responsible enough to keep him under protection, even though over and over again his parents were promised that nothing would happen to him. Now his parents are suing for 15 million dollars."
Ryan Kosecki, South Kent High School, South Kent, Connecticut

Many students agreed with Beth (above) that courts have been too lenient with offenders:

"Billy L was already due in court for armed robbery when he, along with two teenage friends, came upon a homeless woman in New York City Central Park. On the spur of the moment, they beat her with a pipe and repeatedly raped her. At the time Billy was twelve years old. Upon apprehending the youths, police found evidence leading them to believe that a month earlier, Billy had murdered a woman in a similar rape and beating. At a hearing in New York's family court, he received the maximum penalty a twelve year old could get---eighteen months at an up-state boys' camp."
Matt Raiha, Wallace High School, Wallace, Idaho

"Michael Reese was convicted of rape four times and after each time he was convicted, he would always get the lesser charge or parole and would later be set free. What kind of message is this sending to these criminals?"
Jenni Williams, Freeman High School, Rockford, Washington

"Sometimes the courts let the criminals off so easy that they end up better off than they were before they were arrested. For example, a jury decided that Michael Hayes was insane when he killed four people in a barrage of rifle fire in 1989. Since then, he has been making $500 a month in federal disability benefits. Hayes has spent this money on TVs and VCRs for his room at a state mental hospital in Raleigh, two leather jackets worth more than $300 apiece, some forty knit shirts, and a secondhand motorcycle that he uses to cruise around the grounds. 'He's had more disposable income than he's ever had in his life.' said R.B. Nicholson, whose 24-year old son was killed in the shootings.... The courts are no longer worried about putting the bad guys in jail, they are more concerned about making sure everyone has the right to a fair trial. Once a person is found guilty of breaking the law, then that person's rights should be limited...When will our country realize this crime that is taking place? By crime, I mean the criminals that are being paid millions of dollars from the pockets of taxpayers and the criminals that go free after breaking the law. It is us, the hardworking taxpayers that really suffer and until we all realize this and start to take action we will continue to suffer."
Jennifer Hodges, Blue Ridge High School, Blue Ridge, Texas

Students are concerned with what they perceive as a lack of justice for the victims of crime:

"In Woodbury, New Jersey, a victim of a drunk driving accident survived her coma but suffered from severe brain damage. She underwent painful rehabilitation, which involved learning to walk, to read and even to be toilet trained again. Later her mother attended the sentencing of the drunk driver. She was outraged as the judge asked the culprit if he was remorseful. When the drunk driver shrugged his shoulders and whispered an apology, the judge sentenced him to a mere three years in prison with eligibility for parole. This example demonstrates that the victim suffers while the criminal takes advantage of the system. Moreover, it displays decay in the values, such as justice, that serve as the foundation [of] the United States."
Amy Asbury, Knoxville High School, Knoxville, Illinois

"A woman in Chicago was shot in the face by her husband seven years ago, forcing her to suffer the last seven years of her life unable to speak and walk. The lady had to be fed through a tube in her stomach. ...(Her husband's) prison term was for two years."
Julie Thomas, Lexington High School, Lexington, Illinois

Many students believe that justice is hampered by what some condemn as bureaucratic nonsense:

"Another story of governme nt failing the public is the story of two eighteen-year-olds who were caught drinking and driving. Charges were dropped, because the state Supreme Court ruled that just because it looks, smells, and tastes like beer, doesn't mean it is. Authorities have to confiscate beer and pay for chemical testing to prove that it's beer."
Mara Bergeron, Deer River High School, Deer River, Minnesota

"There are some people who are getting sick of the crime and are taking a stand. Chuck Hollom, a San Francisco cab driver, stopped a mugger in May, 1989. He saw a man run up to three young Japanese women, knock one down, and steal her purse. He and another cabby chased the man, drove onto the sidewalk, and pinned him against a wall with his front bumper. Three minutes later, police arrived and the mugger, Ocie McClure, was arrested. Still, a lawsuit was pressed against the hero for using 'excessive force' against the villain. This is stupid. That only discourages people from helping others who are attacked."
Kristi St. Aubyn, Colby High School, Colby, Kansas

Public policy often causes more problems than it solves:"The disturbing truth is that we have been doing all that we can to put criminals behind bars. In the past three decades, America has become the world's No. 1 jailer, and right now, there are not enough cells to go around. In the 80's, we went through a stage of harsh drug penalties and pushed the U.S. incarceration rate to 455 per 100,000 citizens, causing a $21 billion dollar tab. As the nation's inmate population grows and expands, we find ourselves having to let some criminals out before they have served all of their time."
Kara Krauskopf, Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

A precedent is set:

"We allow public figures to do wrong without being punished."
Nicole L. Manning, Barnesville High School, Barnesville, Minnesota

"[A] judge by the name of Robert Schillberg released Leroy Kelley who is a convicted thief, violent offender and rapist, with a $ 1.00 fine which the good judge paid himself. Kelley was caught stealing cigarettes from a grocery store. The judge said that the store was more at fault, for providing the cigarettes, than was poor Leroy. The officer who arrested Kelley was obviously upset and felt that the judge's reasoning was unfair. This judge is sending a message to society that if you commit a crime against those who do legal but somewhat socially unacceptable things, you do not have to pay for it."
Michael Gammon, Eureka High School, Eureka, Illinois

Students discovered that allowing defendants to shift responsibility, encouraged violence. In the excerpts that follow, two students from Plainview High School in Ardmore Oklahoma, offer some implausible excuses for murder.

"A teenage girl appeared on a nationwide television talk show admitting to having killed one of her so called friends. She claimed, however, that she was not in her right mind at the time and it did not seem to be either a wrong or immoral act. Because of her state of mind during the murderous act, she felt that she should not be held responsible for the girl's death."
Terri Boardman, Plainview High School, Ardmore, Oklahoma

"A sixteen-year-old from Enid murdered his parents because he couldn't use the family car. He had cut classes the day before and had been grounded from the phone. When he was denied the use of the family car, he shot both of his parents. He claimed the reason was because they were too hard to get along with. This type of behavior will give people the idea that it is okay to kill people, if they can find an excuse that shifts the blame onto another person."
Farrah D. Gunter, Plainview High School, Ardmore, Oklahoma

"A man entered a local restaurant where a girl he was interested in worked. When she refused a date with him, he broke into a shooting rampage, killing six people. He, too, felt he should not be held responsible for his actions because he claims to have been under the influence of both drugs and alcohol at the time of the shooting."
Terri Boardman, Plainview High School, Ardmore, Oklahoma

Students see the lack of communication between parent and child as one of the causes of escalating crime in this country:

"In my area, many teenagers are irresponsibly finding themselves in the county jail for minor offenses. To be released, they must have someone post a small bond. Many of these teens have called friends instead of calling their parents to come bail them out. These kids are finding ways to avoid telling their parents the truth or the whole truth about what they did wrong."
Julie Thomas, Lexington High School, Lexington, Illinois

Families 90's-Style

"The definition of family has changed. Fewer children grow up in two parent homes, while many are being raised by grandparents or other family members."
Amy Deehr, Freeman High School, Rockford, Washington

There is ample evidence that the breakdown of the family is a strong cause of our societal woes:

"Father is leaving, mother is working, brother is in a gang, and sister is alone after school watching television until sometimes eleven o'clock. As the family falls apart, so does America."
Anne Turcea, Danville High School, Danville, Kentucky

"The responsibility of a parent is the greatest ever... In order to learn we must have guidance and this guidance must come from the home, not a stranger... parents should learn to become parents again and not just someone to place a roof over the children's heads."
Trisha Rachel, Blue Ridge High School, Blue Ridge, Texas

"If the parents cannot take responsibility for their children they will never be able to teach the children to take responsibility for themselves."
Carie Mitchell, Camden High School, Camden, Tennessee

"An excellent example of the collapse of the family system is the fact that today, parents spend forty percent less time with their children than their parents spent with them."
John Espinosa, Aubrey High School, Aubrey,Texas

"Because the parents are less at home, values aren't being taught."
Nicci Bachand, Concordia High School, Concordia, Kansas

Many students stressed the importance of morals and values:

"Here in Tampa, Florida, vandalism, auto theft, drug use, and underage drinking are just some of the shameless acts teens commit. These teenagers are often bored late in the night and have nothing better to do.... More often than not, these kids have no family background to establish morals and values.... Morals and values are instilled at home, and how a child acts outside the home reflects his/her learning and understanding of parental teachings."
Chris Newcomb, Armwood High School, Seffner, Florida

"The irresponsible behavior of today's youths can be associated with a lack of moral education in our school systems. From ancient Greece to cold -war America, educators have felt comfortable instilling the differences between right and wrong. Yet the Social Revolution of the 60's eliminated schools from the triangle that once existed between family, church, and school. It was not until the late 80's that people began to realize the severe effects that valueless people have on society."
Patrick F. Welch, South Kent High School, South Kent Connecticut

"As more and more people think only of themselves we see the homeless population grow, crime rates accelerate, suicide rates jump, and education scores decline." Amy Deehr, Freeman High School, Rockford, Washington

"I don't think that any of these problems of violent crime can be solved until we teach our children moral values and ethics."
Brian Skouby, Carbondale High School, Carbondale, Illinois

"Crime is a social problem and education, or re-education, will help solve the problem. We need to teach our children respect. Respect for themselves, respect for others, and respect for human life. We need to rebuild family values in our homes. Our children must soon realize that they need to be responsible and talk out their problems, instead of shooting them out. For if they don't, they will eventually kill every youth in this great nation of ours. It's genocide."
Patrick A. Sampson, Concordia High School, Concordia, Kansas

In the following excerpt Daisy makes an interesting point:

"Children do not strive to pay back society by stealing, killing, or hurting others. Children are basically good until society shows them how to steal, kill, or hurt." Daisy Clam, Carbondale High School, Carbondale, Illinois

But nothing is as simple as it might appear on the surface. As Jennifer's excerpt (below) suggests, outcomes sometimes depend on what values are being taught in the home:

"The age twenty-one says one thing to most teenagers,'I can drink now without getting in trouble.'Drinking goes along with adulthood and most teenagers want to be adults. Alcoholism ruins the individual physically and emotionally because of the dependency. A family can be torn apart because a person has a drinking problem. I write this with experience in my own family. ... I learned how to drink when I was five-years-old."
Jennifer Ciano, DeForest High School, DeForest , Wisconsin

Tough Love

Earlier a number of students criticized the justice system for being too lenient. The excerpts that follow claim that lenient parents are a large part of society's problem.

"Teens should know that they should not drink when they're not old enoughÐI would bet a good [number] of teens have been picked up for drinking related accidentsÐand have been let off easy by their folks."
Gunner Rotter, Centerville High School, Centerville, South Dakota

"Too often, a student will get into trouble [with] little consequence."
Dustin Gwinn, Meadow Bridge High School, Meadow Bridge, West Virginia

"These days kids are not afraid of being arrested or put in juvenile detention. They are very much aware that nothing 'serious' could happen to them."
Martha Yeahquo, Aubrey High School, Aubrey, Texas

"The solution to our nation's problems in the line of responsibility begins at home. The United States is a place of freedom, but many parents are giving their children too much money and freedom. Many of these children do not learn about responsibility because they never had to really work for what they ... received; their parents just gave it to them. When they are forced, or decide to go into the real world, they discover how difficult life really is. This is where many of today's problems begin. They will do or say anything to get something for nothing, just like they have been used to getting. These people soon become so desperate that they listen to drug-pushers [talk] about easy jobs that aren't what they seem to be. The truth is that there is no easy way out. Life isn't fair so get used to it and learn some responsibility."
Tim Pace, Kiona-Benton High School, Benton City, Washington

"Parents need to stop neglecting their children and start paying attention to what their children are doing, not only at night, but also during the day. They need to make their children go to school and make them do their school work."
Beth Civitarese, Antietam High School, Reading, Pennsylvania

"Responsibility and good moral values have to be taught at a young age. Parents have to enforce and set rules for their children. Kids today don't know [what's] right and [what's] wrong. [Many] parents haven't enforced rules at home, leaving kids to do what they want. This makes it harder for schools to teach responsibility and moral values. Kids bring everything taught at home to school with them. They feel that if they can do it at home, it's okay to do it at school."
Shaine Jenkins, Blue Ridge High School, Blue Ridge, Texas

"Some will blame the system while others blame the parents. I think it is a combination of both. Neither of the two put any pressure on kids to have high moral standards and to do what is right. All the messages sent to kids today are negative, such as on TV, radio, or movies. Society is not worried about high standards, only what sells, which of course are only the bad things....Today there seems to be no discipline, and what [little] of it there is does not seem to get the message across. In many situations when kids are corrected, they just rebel and get even worse. ...Parents and society should stop and think about what they are doing and how it may be influencing young people. We should all care and encourage everyone to do what is right."
Karen Lynn Cox, Camden High School, Camden, Tennessee

Tough, but consistent:

"Charles King, director of a Phoenix school, which provides therapy and schooling for thirty problem kids, thinks that inconsistency of family treatment is more damaging to children than unrelieved harshness. He explains if a parent strikes their kid, then lavishes gifts on him, the child has no way of telling right from wrong." Jodie Lewis, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

Gangs

Students tell us that many families simply don't care about their children:

"Children are filling the empty places left by absent parents, or other family members, with gangs. The children involved in gangs believe that fellow gang members care for them the way their families should but do not."
Jamie Sue Bellis, Prairie High School, New Raymer, Colorado

"In a child's life there are two major pillars: family and school. This is where the kid finds his heroes and company. When one of these are missing something substitutes: Gangs. What the kids don't get from their major pillars they get on the street. The streets don't teach you how to survive in society and certainly not how to do well with the workforce."
Ashley Wilson, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

"We have given up the responsibility of raising our children ... Because of this, children have turned to gangs for what the family should be giving them -- acceptance and love. [The gang's] love and acceptance often has a price and the price is usually being active in criminal activities."
Paula Rogers Demopolis High School, Demopolis, Alabama

"More and more kids are becoming involved with gangs and the ages are getting younger and younger. ÐKids need to belong to something or someone. ...Part of the problem is in the home, where the kids are missing something that they had before. . .When the change at home takes place we can expect the change in the gangs to start."
Richard Espinoza, Prairie High School, New Raymer, Colorado

"Many gang members express a desire to distance themselves from inept or uncaring home environments which lack even the most rudimentary family structure." Jodie Lewis, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

"One group in our society who are not showing responsibility are the parents of gang members, drug users, alcoholics, and juvenile delinquents. Many of these children would not have these problems if their parents had taken the time and energy to be a part of their children's activities and taught responsibility while the children were young enough for the values to sink in. When these children were born they became the responsibility of their parents, not the responsibility of the courts, juvenile homes, or the streets."
Jeff Garner, Blue Ridge High School, Blue Ridge, Texas

"Kids that have a low self-confidence level, and lack love and attention at home, are the gang members that we see today."
Melanie Malone, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

"The youth of America have begun looking towards gangs as ways to make drug money and to be part of a fellowship that believes it doesn't matter who is killed or hurt, only that their gang stays alive. ...In this case, responsibility lies in 'family values' and moral standards which teach children what is right and wrong. It is up to the parents."
Brenner Farr, Broken Arrow High School, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma

"To have comrades is a reason for [belonging to] gangs. Just to keep from being alone, [kids] choose [other] kids in the same predicament."
Ashley Wilson, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

"We need to get one parent back into the home to be there when the children return home from school. Kids need a sense of security. They have turned to gangs to try to fill this void."
Sherrie Slagel, Prairie School, New Raymer, Colorado

One Parent Homes

We were surprised at the number of times students insisted that father- less homes were the source of a variety of problems:

"Fatherless children are many times more likely to commit crime than children with a male figure in their lives. Fatherless children are also more likely to abandon their [own] children when the time comes for them to take responsibility. I can personally attest to this fact, for one of my best friends, who is fatherless, has a brother who just left jail and is on parole. He also has a pregnant girlfriend." Richard Cioll, Garnet Valley High School, Glen Mills, Pennsylvania

"Studies of young criminals have found that more than 70 percent of all juveniles in state reform institutions come from fatherless homes. Kids without fathers are forced to find their own ways of doing things. They come up with their own ideas, from friends and from gangs. Nobody is showing them what to do except to be drunk, deal drugs or go to jail. They have no [constructive] role models."
Ryan Hauer, Barnesville High School, Barnesville, Minnesota

"It is estimated that in New York alone there are 1500 fatherless children between the ages of one and five. This simple fact shows how many men are causing pregnancies and then just allowing their pregnant girl-friends and their unborn babies to fend for themselves."
Thomas R. Velasco, Phoenix High School, Phoenix, Oregon

Maybe it's time to stop pretending a mother's marital status has no bearing on the fate of her child. Studies have shown that marital status of the parents plays a heavy part in determining infant mortality, childhood poverty, juvenile crime, drug addiction and whether the child does well in school.

"Gaylynn L. Becker, the assistant director of counseling and testing for the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction, said that students from his state performed better than the rest of the nation because the majority of them came from stable homes."
Hess Wright Demopolis High School, Demopolis, Alabama

A study conducted by the Children's Defense Fund showed that a parent is more likely to fall behind on child support than on car payments. The delinquency rate for used car loans was less than 3 percent in 1992 whereas the delinquency rate for child support was 49 percent in 1990.

"Eighty percent of adolescents in psychiatric hospitals come from broken homes. Three out of four teenagers who commit suicide come from broken homes. Girls from intact low-income families scored higher than boys from broken high-income homes on cognitive tests. In a government survey of 17,000 children, children living apart from a biological parent were found to be 20 percent to 40 percent more vulnerable to sickness. Twenty to thirty percent were found to be more likely to be injured in an accident."
Karl Werner, Broken Arrow High School, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma

"Experts in crime, drug abuse, depression, and school failure blame the family problems on the disappearance of fathers from the American family. David Blankenhorn comments that the trend of fatherlessness is the most socially consequential family trend of our generation. Studies of young criminals have found that more than seventy percent of all juveniles in state reform institutions come from fatherless homes. Children reared in broken homes are almost twice as likely as those in two-parent families to drop out of high school."
Jennifer Stahl, James Valley Christian, Huron, South Dakota

"Broken homes may teach a child to shift responsibility from himself. Some examples include: blaming a teacher for a bad grade, giving the excuse 'Well he made me do it' when in trouble, or even saying that the hungry dog was the reason for lost homework. If children learn early to shift the responsibility from themselves to avoid trouble, they will carry that habit with them throughout their life, eventually leading to a 'I only care about myself' and 'It's not my fault' society."
Kimberly Knutson, Broken Arrow High School, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma

Working mothers were frequently cited as the inadvertent cause of crime. Between 1985-1990 the percentage of working women 20-24 years-old dropped, stabilized and dropped ever so slightly again in 1993. The following reasons are often suggested: (1) better marriage prospects, (2) women had already saturated the workforce, (3) lower interest rates meant lower mortgage and car payments, allowing couples to live on one income and (4) telecommuting allowed women to work from the home. Cooking, cleaning, organizing and holding down the home front constitutes a career which is more appreciated today than ever before. Women are marrying older men who can afford to let the wife stay home with the kids. These women have less economic incentive to join the work force. The Foundation's 1991 essay contest was directed to child care. Although the book of excerpts resulting from that project is out of print (pending enough requests to warrant another printing) any reader with a computer and a modem can browse or download the entire text on Singer On-line 408-626-1700. The next 12 excerpts concerning "stay-at-home-moms" are from the 1991 HSF book, What, If Any, Should Government's Role Be Regarding Child Care In The United States?. Most of the writers are currently in college. They are identified here only by state:

Pro:

"If only we could get the mothers or fathers to stay home and raise their kids, instead of strangers, our society of tomorrow might be a better place to live." Montana

"A parent who chooses to stay home and not pursue a career outside of the home is spending valuable time with the child. The parent keeps a family atmosphere in the home and hopefully will bring the value of a family back to society." Michigan

"Mothers who do not