Juvenile detention populations low: Young black teen lies on bed with legs propped up on wall on cot in empty room with grey cement floor and white walls

Tennessee lawmakers want more oversight of juvenile detention. The Department of Children’s Services is pushing back.

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The commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services publicly said this month that the agency was working with lawmakers to address oversight gaps at juvenile detention facilities across the state. But behind the scenes, the department is working to water down a bill that would do just that, according to one of the bill’s sponsors and others working on the legislation.

Ryan Gainer - When police encounters with autistic people turn fatal: a police officer walks away from a San Bernardino sheriff's car with gun in hand

When police encounters with autistic people turn fatal

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Last Saturday, a San Bernardino sheriff’s deputy shot and killed Ryan Gainer, an autistic Black 15-year-old, outside his home in Apple Valley, California. The shooting, which is under investigation, came after Gainer chased the deputy with a large bladed garden tool, according to police and body camera footage released by the department. The teen’s family had called 911 when he became upset during a disagreement, broke a glass door and struck a relative. They told CNN that by the time deputies arrived, Ryan had calmed down and apologized.

Student psychiatric evaluations: Woman with long red hair in ponytail and navy sweatshirt hugs and kisses forehead of young boy with black hair

Schools are sending more kids to psychiatrists out of fears of campus violence, prompting concern from clinicians

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The 9-year-old had been drawing images of guns at school and pretending to point the weapons at other students. He’d become more withdrawn, and had stared angrily at a teacher. The principal suspended him for a week. Educators were unsure whether it was safe for him to return to school — and, if so, how best to support him.

Oxford school shooter's parents can face manslaughter trial: two people with masks sitting at table with hands cuffed while policeman looks on from background

A history of holding parents responsible for their kids’ crimes

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Just three days before her 15-year-old son carried out a mass shooting at his Michigan high school in 2021, Jennifer Crumbley was captured on security camera leaving a shooting range with the handgun in tow. She had just taken her son out to target practice in what she described on social media as a “mom and son day testing out his new Christmas present:” a 9-millimeter pistol the high schooler referred to online as “My new beauty.”