Sandra Birchmore justice: Young teen girl with brown hair pulled back stands smiling next to man in black police uniform and cap with hos arm around the girl's shoulders

In this police youth program, a trail of sexual abuse across the U.S.

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The last known person to see Sandra Birchmore alive was a police officer. He stopped by her apartment a few days before Birchmore, 23 years old and newly pregnant, was found dead in February 2021. The officer acknowledged having sex with her when she was 15. His twin brother — also an officer and Explorer mentor — and a third Stoughton officer, a veteran who ran the program, eventually had sex with her, too. Birchmore’s case is among at least 194 allegations that law enforcement personnel, mostly policemen, have groomed, sexually abused or engaged in inappropriate behavior with children in the Boy Scouts Explorers since 1974.

Legal counseling for behavior issues: Young child's hand holding sculpture of themis, femida or justice goddess on green leaves natural bokeh copy space background

As more youth struggle with behavior and traditional supports fall short, clinicians are partnering with lawyers to help

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Medical-legal partnerships work to address the problems that could be harming a student’s health. After ruling out stressors in Antonio’s family environment, a Yale legal team learned more about the challenges he was facing at school, including severe learning difficulties in the classroom and bullies outside of school. The clinicians realized they needed another team member to help: a lawyer. Can this approach work in other communities?

Parents of teen charged in school shooting to stand trial: middle-aged white man and woman in facemasks sit at hearing

The parents paying for their children’s crimes

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In separate trials earlier this year, Jennifer and James Crumbley became the first parents in U.S. history to be convicted of involuntary manslaughter for a mass shooting committed by their child. They were each sentenced to 10–15 years in prison, the maximum penalty for the crime. Prosecutors argued the Crumbleys ignored urgent warning signs that their son Ethan was having violent thoughts, and that the parents provided access to the gun he used to kill four classmates and injure seven other people at his school in November 2021.

Restorative justice: Several high school students sit in a circle of chairs having a discussion

Breaking walls, building bridges: A call for restorative justice in school discipline

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Imagine waking up each morning with no hope for the day ahead, navigating a minefield of potential conflicts with your body on high alert. That was my reality as a marginalized youth — misunderstood, labeled as a troublemaker and cast out without a chance to reconcile and evolve. Growing up with anxiety in school is an all-too-common experience that perpetuates a cycle of fear and resentment. It’s time to acknowledge and address this narrative that adversely affects our youth’s learning experiences and the education system. Restorative justice programs are part of the solution.

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.

Trauma-informed hubs: Teen standing in ladder next to kitchen back door with back to camera folding tool and doing repairs to ceiling above refrigerator

Trauma-informed ‘hubs’ reduce Chicago youth incarceration

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A 65% reduction in youth incarceration between 2005 and 2021 and the closing of two youth prisons during that time are among the great strides of Redeploy Illinois, an innovative Cook County program allowing communities to tailor state-funded juvenile treatment services to meet their particular characteristics and needs.

Juvenile solitary: Close-up of legs and hands-in-lap of black person wearing over-sized navy pants sitting on edge of built-in cement bench with metal toilet in background.

Hundreds of seclusions were “voluntary.” Some kids don’t see it that way.

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To hear the state of Tennessee tell it, Knoxville’s Richard L. Bean Juvenile Service Center has shown “significant and consistent improvement.” It no longer illegally locks kids up alone in cells, as an investigation by ProPublica and WPLN exposed last month.
But a closer look at the facility’s most recent inspection by the state Department of Children’s Services tells a different story. Instead of secluding children against their will, the facility claims that kids are voluntarily agreeing to be locked up alone.

Juvenile solitary confinement: Lathe one-story red brick building entrance with pillars, white trim and triple glass doors.

Children face solitary confinement in cells at Illinois juvenile detention facility, ACLU says

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CHICAGO (AP) — Children as young as 11 are confined alone to cells the size of parking spaces up to 23 hours a day at a juvenile detention center in Southern Illinois, according to a lawsuit filed by ACLU of Illinois. Young people at the Franklin County Juvenile Detention Center in Benton must ask staff permission to flush the toilet, and they can go days or weeks without access to schoolwork. Black mold grows on the walls, according to the lawsuit filed Friday, and there are no mental health professionals employed at the facility.