Guns at School: Collateral Consequences

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If your child gets caught bringing a gun to school, he or she may have trouble getting into a college and the military may not be an option. Possession of a weapon on school grounds is a felony and kids don’t realize the consequences of their actions, according to the Macon Telegraph. The newspaper looked at a sampling of colleges in Georgia and found that most applications ask if students have ever had a felony conviction or been suspended from school. Those who answer yes have their transcripts and disciplinary records reviewed by a special panel. This doesn’t mean an automatic denial for a student with a record, but it can severely hamper his or her chances of getting in.

Experts to Share Latest Bullying Prevention Strategies

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Every day, thousands of kids wake up afraid to go to school. They check their Facebook or look at their cell phones, worried about what they’ll find. If there’s a child in your life who needs help, check out a webcast sponsored by the Federal Partners in Bullying Prevention Working Group, taking place October 27 at 1:00 p.m.

The webcast will feature a panel of experts including:

Dr. Catherine Bradshaw, Associate Director, Johns Hopkins Center for the Prevention of Youth Violence
Kevin Jennings, Assistant Deputy Secretary, Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, U.S. Department of Education
Capt. Stephanie Bryn, Director, Injury and Violence Prevention Programs, Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

The registration deadline is October 25. To register and get log in information, click here.

Judge Michael Key Targets Zero Tolerance, Legal Orphans, Crossover Cases and More on National Stage

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LaGrange—Judge Michael Key is a hometown boy, a son of  the cotton mill village where he played rhythm guitar in a rock-and-roll band on Saturday nights and went to a Southern Baptist Church on Sundays. He was headed off to Emory University’s law school before he ever met a lawyer. “Back then people just didn’t go from the mill village to being a lawyer,” he says. For 31 years, Key (LaGrange High School, class of ’68) has been back home practicing law. For 21 of those years, he’s also been a part-time juvenile court judge.

Florida’s Juvenile Crime Problem a Mirror for the Nation

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There’s a steady increase in the number of kids sent to adult court for violent crimes in Central Florida, where 600 teens were tried as adults last year. The Orlando Sentinel reports on the dilemma facing prosecutors and judges, who want violent offenders locked up in prison.  While child advocates argue that exposing children to prison life is almost a guarantee they will reoffend. A criminal justice professor points out a problem that may sound familiar:
“The increase reflects a system-wide conundrum when dealing with violent repeat young offenders: The juvenile-justice system — oriented toward rehabilitating children — offers few alternatives for punishing young offenders who pose serious threats to the community”

Teens Drinking Less in Georgia: Feds Credit Community Teamwork

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Underage drinking has declined in Georgia, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). SAMHSA has released a video on the many ways the state of Georgia has successfully fought underage drinking. “I’m happy to say that Georgia has the lowest reported binge drinking rates of all the states and I firmly believe that this is the result of a concerted effort,” said Brenda J.D. Rowe, Ph.D., Director of Substance Abuse Prevention & Behavioral Development for Georgia’s Department of Human Resources. The Cobb County Alcohol Taskforce is one of the groups on the frontlines. Coordinator Cathy Fink also sees great progress.

Sixty Percent of Kids are Exposed to Violence

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More than 60 percent of children have been directly or indirectly exposed to violence within the past year, according to a national study by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Nearly one-half of kids surveyed were assaulted at least once in the past year and more than 1 in 10 were injured in an assault.

Conducted between January and May 2008, the National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence, measured exposure to violence for kids 17 and younger. They looked at conventional crime, sex crimes, school violence and threats, family violence and more. Attorney General Eric Holder recently unveiled the Defending Childhood Initiative, focused on this issue. So far, the Department of Justice has aware $5.5 million to eight cities (none of them in Georgia) to focus on:

Providing appropriate programs and service for families and children
Increasing access to quality programs and services
Developing new services where gaps exist.

Apple Patents Anti-Sexting App

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Parents will soon have a new tool to prevent their kids from sexting on an iPhone.  Apple has created a text blocker to filter out certain explicit language, including abbreviated words that other similar programs may miss, according to CNN. The patent document actually says:
If the control contains unauthorized text, the control application may alert the user, the administrator or other designated individuals of the presence of such text. The control application may require the user to replace the unauthorized text or may automatically delete the text or the entire communication. A blogger at Tech Crunch points out that people who really want to send salacious messages will invent workarounds that don’t set off the censors.  And oh, by the way, the patent addresses only words, not photos.  So this won’t be the end of sexting, but it may be a step.

Marietta Police Produce Video on Bullying

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The Marietta Police Department and the City School system have created an eight-minute video with advice for parents on bullying.  The first recommendation may be the most important: good communication between parents and kids. Police officers also outline how families can identify the signs of bullying, how parents should report bullying, what schools are required to do, and what actions police may take. Click here to watch the video

Click here to see more crime prevention videos from the Marietta Police Department.

Judge Steve Teske: The Silent Majority

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A young boy is ripped from his family.  As he is placed in the back of a stranger’s car, he looks out the back window and sees his mom crying and his dad in the back of a police car.  He doesn’t understand. He is scared. He can’t stop crying. 

A young teenager is running the streets and getting into trouble.  He is stealing and getting into fights to survive.  He knows he is ready to kill if he has to. A young man was neglected and sexually abused as a child.  He sees no purpose in life. Death, at times, seems more inviting than life.

Hotel and Airline Workers Get Training to Spot Victims of Child Sex Trafficking

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Hotel and airline workers are getting trained to spot child sex trafficking, according to Reuters.com. Innocents At Risk, a nonprofit focused on fighting child exploitation and human trafficking, is working with Airline Ambassadors International and the Air Transport Association. They have a training program to help flight attendants, hotel desk clerks, cleaning crews and other workers spot children in trouble. Signs of child trafficking include:

The child has few personal items when they board the plane. The child avoids eye contact, looks paranoid, undernourished and behaves in an unusually submissive manner.