Gangs and Drugs: Crisis in Public Schools

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Twenty-seven percent of public school students from 12 to 17-years-old report that kids are using, keeping or selling drugs onschool grounds, according to a study by the National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse. The survey, done annually over the past 15 years, found many surprising statistics:

Students in schools with gangs and drugs are five times more likely to use marijuana and three times more likely to drink. 46 percent of teens at public schools say there are gangs at their schools compared to only 2 percent of teens at private and religious schools
The percentage of middle schools with drugs on campus (kids 12- to 13- years old and younger) has increased from 23 percent last year to 32 percent this year
Teens with strong family ties are far less likely to smoke, drink or use marijuana or hang out with people who drink regularly, use illegal drugs and abuse prescription drugs

Click here for the full report.

Security Boost for Fulton Courthouse

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Fulton County will finally get the $5.4 million slated to improve security at the county’s Juvenile Court and to create a security command center in the Fulton Court Complex, according to the Superior Court of Fulton County. As reported here at JJIE.org last week, the money was almost redirected causing the Fulton County Commissioners to postpone the vote.  Wednesday’s 5-2 vote reinstated the funds and ended two weeks of negotiations between the county and judicial leaders. A federal panel recommended these security improvements in 2006 following Brian Nichols’ shooting spree in which he killed four people, including a judge. To read the full report and to follow Fulton County’s Superior Court blog, click here.

Teens Arrested for Gwinnett County Shooting

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A 16-year-old was arrested in Gwinnett County last week for allegedly shooting another 16-year-old in the chest, according to a report in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.  The District Attorney’s Office hopes to try him as an adult, which could result in a 20-year prison sentence. Two other teens, ages 17 and 18, were arrested this week in connection with the shooting.  The Gwinnett Daily Post (GDP) reveals that the older suspect is enrolled as a senior at Hooper Renwick School while the 17-year-old is enrolled in 8th grade at Grace Snell Middle School.  The latter has not attended school all year, a Gwinnett Public Schools spokesperson told the GDP. The three suspects are suspected to be involved in gang activity. "...Arrest warrants show [the 18-year-old] admitted to having a 'captain' rank in whatever gang set he claims," said the Gwinnett Daily Post.

Most Black Teenage Boys Fail to Graduate in Georgia

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Only 47 percent of African-American male students graduated from high school during the 2007-08 schoolyear, according to a report from the Schott Foundation for Public Education. The report is called  Yes We Can: The 2010 Schott 50 State Report on Black Males in Public Education .  It ranks all 50 states by black male graduation rates. Georgia is 10th from the bottom with a graduation rate of 43% for black teenage boys. In contrast, the graduation rate for white teenage boys is 62%.

Fighting Underage Drinking

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More than $20 million has been awarded to states nationwide to help combat underage drinking, according a news release from the Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs (OJP). The federal grant money supports law enforcement, public education and other alliances that deal with young people and is being awarded through a program called Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws. Every territory and state, as well as the District of Columbia, has received $356,400 to go toward activities that hold adults accountable when they provide alcohol to minors. Here's the full news release from the OJP.

Threatening Letters Keep Teen Killer in Prison

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At 13-years-old, Billy Ray White was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences plus 10 years for armed robbery, theft of a motor vehicle and the murder of J.D. Hall in Douglasville, GA.  Four years later, White wrote threatening letters to Hall’s family.  Now, 15 years later, they are fighting his possible release.  CNN’s Emanuella Grinberg reports. In a handwritten letter to J.D. Hall’s daughter, the convicted killer promised to carve her up like a turkey and make her head into a flower pot.  In another letter to Hall’s son, he said he would put him through a meat grinder and force his relatives to eat him. You can run but you can’t hide.  You can go to the police, but they can’t protect you.  You can change your name, address, or even move, but I will always find you,” he wrote in a letter postmarked May 15, 1989.  “They can’t keep me in here for the rest of my life.”
White has admitted to writing the letters and that they were a “stupid thing.”  His sister stands up for him, saying that he was the product of alcoholic parents who neglected and abused him, and that he deserves a chance to prove he's changed

The Georgia Parole Board has refused to release him six times, the last time in June.  He comes up for parole again in April. Click here for Grinberg’s full story.

Teen Faces Child Porn Charges

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A 17-year-old boy was arrested in Milton for 10 counts of sexual exploitation of minors, according to a WSB-TV report. Child pornography was downloaded onto an IP address in Milton and detected by the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office Special Victims Unit.  The Special Victims Unit then alerted the Milton Police Department, the report states. The children in the movies ranged from ages 5 to 13 years old, according to Detective S.W. Hewitt of the Milton Police Department. Read the full story here.

Atlanta Grad Rate Investigation

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Atlanta Public Schools claim a 30 percent increase in high school graduation rates since 2002, but the boost in numbers may be the result of hidden truancy rates, according to an Atlanta Journal Constitution investigation. The story says:
The mass exodus from Atlanta’s high schools may be the primary reason for one of the district’s proudest academic achievements: a dramatic increase in its graduation rate… District officials boast that the rate of students getting diplomas within four years has risen 30 percentage points since 2002. But the rate’s only surge, from 43 percent to 72 percent, came between 2003 and 2005, the Journal-Constitution’s analysis of state data found. During that time, the district removed from its rolls about 30 percent of all pupils in grades nine through 12 — roughly 16,000 students. As a result, most of those students no longer figured into the district’s calculation of what Superintendent Beverly Hall has descried as the “all-important” graduation rate: The fewer students being counted, the fewer graduates needed to make the rate higher.  A student listed as a dropout would count against the rate.  A transfer would not – even if school officials didn’t know, or didn’t try to find out, where a student went.

Judge Key: Show Us Evidence Your Program Really Works

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The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges is looking for evidence-based programs that are effective in dealing with status offenders and their families. The new NCJFCJ President, Judge Michael Key of LaGrange, GA, sent a letter to his members across the country this week.  Here is part of that letter:
August 11, 2010

Dear Colleagues:

On March 14, 2010, the Board of Trustees of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (“the Council”) voted in support of the re-authorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, including the provision which would repeal the Valid Court Order Exception to the detention of status offenders. The re-authorization bill includes a phase-out period, a hardship clause, and support for resource allocation for status offenders and their families. The Council was aware of the concerns this position raised in places where there are scarce or ineffective resources for the status offender population, and received a resolution from the Georgia Council of Juvenile Court Judges calling upon us to address these concerns.  A copy of the Georgia Resolution is available here. The Council's Board of Trustees presented a resolution addressing these issues to the Membership at the July 2010 Annual Conference in San Diego. The Membership approved the Council Resolution Regarding Efforts to Ensure Availability of Evidence-Based Services to Meet the Needs of Status Offenders and Their Families.

Steve Reba: His Life

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Of all my cases, his is far and away the most unjust, living in the fracture just out of the reach of Graham. I met him among the ragged novels in the prison library, a small table between us.  I began the conversation as I begin every first conversation, “Tell me about your life before the alleged offense and prison.”  Nervousness paralyzed his words, which I attributed to the natural reaction that unsounded desperation has when presented with a modicum of hope. His story was sadly common. Siblings defaulted to the role of parent while a mother worked three jobs.  A father would show up occasionally, deliver a beating, and vanish.  He knew precisely how many times he had seen the man.  The last time, particularly memorable, involved a blow that left the boy disabled.  The transitory family moved from government-subsidized housing to mobile home parks in the small North Georgia town.  Some residences theirs, some the homes of kind neighbors who let them stay for awhile.