Feds Warn Schools to Get Tougher on Bullying and Civil Rights Violations

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In a rare move, the Department of Education is sending out a 10-page letter today to thousands of school districts, colleges and universities, to make sure they are complying with federal rules to prevent bullying and harassment. They warn that some types of bullying may actually be discriminatory  harassment under the Civil Rights Act. The letter clarifies when student bullying may violate federal education anti-discrimination laws. It explains educator’s legal obligations to protect students from the following kinds of harassment and bullying. Racial and national orientation
Sexual and gender-based
Disability

The letter provides examples of harassment and explains how schools should respond to each case.

Forsyth County Most Aggressive in Fighting Teen Sexting

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There have been at least 10 sexting cases in the Forsyth County school system over the past four years. This is what drives sheriff’s investigator Jeff Roe in his campaign against sexting and Internet based sex crime among teens, according to the AJC. He visits schools with a blunt message: kids have committed suicide after being exposed on the Internet and in picture text messages. He urges students to take the problem seriously by not participating in any form of sexting, explicit text messaging or sharing of lewd images online. Is the reach out to the community working?

Grant Provides Lawyers for Kids Fighting Deportation

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Every year, immigration officials discover more than 8,000 children who’ve come to the states unaccompanied. These kids have to figure out how to find and pay for their own lawyers while facing deportation. Microsoft has partnered with actress Angelina Jolie to grant $3 million to Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), an organization based in Washington, D.C. that helps young people who are facing the immigration system alone. KIND has helped almost 1,900 kids originating from more than 35 countries in the past year.  More than 1,900 attorneys have received training from KIND in an effort to build a national pool of lawyers for unaccompanied kids in the U.S.

For the full news release, click here.

Sex Abuse in Detention: Numbers are Low, But Still Troubling

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The FBI did some extensive research on sexual victimization in juvenile facilities across the country and found that violent sex assaults are relatively rare, but the numbers are still disturbing. The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) published Sexual Victimization in Juvenile Facilities Reported by Youth, 2008-2009. The report found that out of about 26,000 kids in both state and privately run facilities, 12.2% (3,220) said they experienced sexual violence. Here’s a breakdown:

Youth-on-youth sex abuse incidents: 2.6%. Youth-on-youth incidents involving force: 2%
Staff-on-youth sex abuse incidents: 10.3%
Staff-on-youth incidents involving force: 4.3%

And here’s a surprising find: Facilities that housed only girls had the highest rates of youth-on-youth sex abuse (11%), while detention centers that housed only boys had the highest rates of sexual misconduct involving staff (11.3%).

Good News, Bad News About Teen Driving Deaths

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The number of 16 and 17-year-olds dying in car crashes went down 36 percent from 2004 to 2008. The overall number of teens dying on the road has steadily decreased since 1996, according to research compiled in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), released in October by the Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention. But there’s still bad news. Car accidents remain the leading cause of teen deaths, accounting for 1/3 of teen fatalities every year. So, what’s driving the decline?

President Obama: Anti-Bullying Message

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President Obama has joined nationally syndicated columnist Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” Project to fight against gay bullying. In a video released last week, Obama said he was "shocked and saddened" by the recent suicides of several young people who were bullied and taunted for being gay. Click here for the full video, in case you missed it.

Advocates Urge DMC Amendment to Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act

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Two well known child advocates are making an impassioned plea to fight harder against disproportionate minority contact in juvenile justice systems nationwide. Nancy Gannon Hornberger, executive director of the Coalition for Juvenile Justice, and her colleague, Gina E. Wood, chair of the Ethnic and Cultural Diversity Committee, write about unfairness, inequality and racial and ethnic disparities in Youth Today. They urge congress to consider a DMC amendment to the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Action, currently up for reauthorization.  They recommend a policy requiring every state to identify and solve problems with a six-point plan:

Establish coordinating bodies to oversee efforts to reduce disparities. Identify key decision points in the system (i.e., arrest, detention, diversion) and the criteria by which decisions are made. Create systems to collect local data at these points of contact of youth with the juvenile justice system (including case level/individual level data) to identify where disparities exist and the causes of such disparities.

Albany Declares War Against Saggy Pants

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Police in Albany, Ga may soon be going after kids with saggy, baggy, droopy pants. The first draft of an ordinance called “Public Indecency Prohibited” was introduced to the City Commission on Tuesday to replace another law called the “Defecation in Public” statute (yes, that’s defecation). According to the Albany Herald, this ordinance prohibits people from wearing pants or skirts more than three inches below the tops of the hips and exposing any skin or underwear below. It’s patterned after a similar ordinance passed last month by the folks in Dublin, Ga, 120 miles up the road. Aside from banning saggy pants, the law would also ban people from performing certain acts in public, such as nudity, masturbation and sex.

Teen Crime Trends: Understanding Why

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Juvenile crime rates have dropped in the past 20 years and new research is showing why. The greatest reduction involves kids who commit crimes together, according to research from the OJJDP.   The study cites some reasons that could apply across the country:

More participation in religious and volunteer groups
A reduction in the use of guns
The drug market shifted from selling crack cocaine to selling marijuana

Which kids are more likely to offend? Those exposed to violence, childhood abuse and neglect, according to this research. Crime is also more likely to happen in small, geographical areas such as individual street blocks. For the detailed report, click here.

OJJDP Praises Atlanta’s Art-at-Work as a Program that Works for At-Risk Kids

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Looking for a way to help at-risk youth in your community? Start an arts program. Arts programs for at-risk youth in Atlanta and two other cities show measurable success in helping kids stay out of trouble and develop a more positive attitude about their future, according to research sponsored by the OJJDP and the National Endowment for the Arts. Art-at-Work in Atlanta started 14 years ago as a collaborative effort between the Fulton County Arts Council and Juvenile Court. The program was designed to provide art instruction, job training and literacy education to a small group of first-time status offenders, primarily truants, from 14 to 16-years old.