How Social Media Can Help or Hurt in Court

By |

Teens have been warned that what they post on Facebook, Myspace and other social websites can affect their chances at getting into college or landing a job. Now, judges and attorneys are using these online profiles in court, which could hurt or help. Criminal defense lawyers sometimes consider reviewing social pages as important as reviewing medical and school records and other background information, according to the New York Law Journal. Teens often post pictures of their wild exploits and share information through posts and comments. This kind of personal disclosure can undermine statements they make in court and lead to a longer sentence.

How Young is Too Young to Babysit?

By |

Parents across the country are talking about the 11-year-old babysitter in Sandy Springs charged with murdering a 2-year-oldgirl this week. Some are asking if it's wise to leave a child in the care of an 11-year-old. Time magazine tries to answer this question. It looks like there are enough 11-year-olds babysitting that the American Red Cross has a course designed for 11 to 15-year-olds, teaching things like how to keep kids safe and how to handle emergencies. Time reports there doesn’t seem to be any government regulation on babysitting.

D.A. Considers New Charges in Babysitter Murder Case

By |

An 11 year old girl remains in the Metro Youth Detention Center in Atlanta after a hearing Wednesday morning in juvenile court.  Police have charged the child with murdering 2-year old Zeyda White, who was left in her care on Saturday night. The D.A. has already decided not to try the babysitter as an adult, according to Lt. Steve Rose of the Sandy Springs Police Department.  He told the Examiner.com the D.A. will also decide whether to charge one or both parents, who left the toddler with the 11 year old babysitter. The Fulton County District Attorney issued this statement on Wednesday:
"Our office is awaiting a full report on this matter from the Sandy Springs Police Department. Upon receipt of that report, we will conduct our investigation and make a decision regarding the appropriate charges." Mom blogs across the nation are buzzing with concern.  Here are some comments from Momania:
"I don’t know who dropped the ball on this case.

Elementary Kids Accused of Gang Activity – Mayoral Candidate Intervenes

By |

Should children face felony charges for a school fight? The issue has become political in Bibb County. Mayoral candidate C. Jack Ellis is supporting four boys, ages 9 and 10, charged with felony gang violence, according to WMAZ-13 TV. The boys put another child in a chokehold in March during a fight at school. Ellis maintains this was not an act of gang violence because there was no blood, broken bones or weapons.

Monitoring Kids’ Social Lives

By |

AOL now offers SafeSocial, a program that scans Facebook, Twitter and Myspace to find and report inappropriate behavior, such as bullying, drug use, or suicidal words. This is not the same as the parental controls being offered by cell phone companies. This is for parents who actually talk to their kids. AOL makes a point that SafeSocial is not an outlet for parents to spy on their kids. Parents must invite their kids who must accept the invitation to be monitored by SafeSocial.

Saggy Pants Ban: Will It Overload Dublin, GA Courts, Encourage Racial Profiling?

By |

By Chandra R. Thomas

Dublin, Ga. Juvenile Court Judge William Tribble, Sr. says he has plenty of work to keep him busy on the bench. Now’s he’s concerned that a new ordinance signed into law Tuesday banning saggy pants in the middle Georgia city might end up overloading an already jam-packed court docket. “I can just see my assistant district attorney prosecuting a case like that,” says Tribble, who claims he spotted a young man in sagging pants on the streets of Dublin during his phone interview. “We’ll have a robbery and child molestation cases to handle and then there will be 20 baggy (pants) cases that we’ve got to get rid of.

Boy Scouts Clamp Down on Sex Abuse

By |

The Boy Scouts of America appear to be taking child molestation more seriously after settling a $20 million lawsuit, according to Youth Today. In the 1980s, former Assistant Scoutmaster Timur Dykes was convicted in Oregon of abusing Boy Scouts, including former Scout Kerry Lewis. Lewis filed suit against the BSA for failing to act on “the perversion files,” confidential files that red-flagged potential molesters in Scouting. Five other victims of Dykes have also filed lawsuits against the BSA. Lewis, the first to be awarded, received $1.4 million for negligence and $18.5 million in punitive damages in April.

Teens Turn in Classmate for Facebook Threats

By |

A Paulding County teenager faces three felony charges of making terroristic threats, plus one count of disrupting a public school, after police say he posted threats against three classmates on Facebook. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, other teenagers read the threats late Wednesday, told their parents, and called the Sheriff’s Department. WXIA TV reports deputies were searching for the 16 year old boy at North Paulding High School as buses were arriving Thursday morning. The teen turned himself in at the Sheriff’s office.  He will be held at a youth detention center until Monday, when he faces a hearing in juvenile court. While some people use Facebook as an outlet to blow off steam, threats are keeping police busy around the world right now.

Cobb Alcohol Taskforce Targets Adults, Recruits 100+ Teens

By |

The Cobb County Alcohol Taskforce has a unique approach to curbing the number of young people who drink illegally – crack down on adults. “It’s about rattling adults out of complacency and rubbing the sleep out of politician’s eyes to get them to wake up to the problem of underage and youth binge drinking that affects thousands of youth everyday,” says Youth Council Manager, Afiya King. Unlike many organizations that tend to exclusively focus on discouraging youth from drinking alcohol, this one, formed in March of 2000 to address underage drinking conditions in Cobb, targets the actions or inaction of adults. “We’re not about changing kids, we’re focused on the adults,” explains Taskforce Communications Manager Alisa Bennett-Hart. “Adults enable kids to have access to alcohol knowingly or unknowingly; through commission or through omission.

New Census Counts Children on Probation

By |

New data is coming in about how many children are on probation.  It’s a national snapshot from October 21, 2009.  Here’s a breakdown:

Total youth on probation:  196,806
16 year olds on probation:  49,841 (largest category)
10 – 12 year olds on probation:  3,923

The latest available data from Georgia shows 9,486 kids on court-ordered probation in April, 2005.   To get this number, researchers polled probation offices.  It is not clear whether they polled both DJJ probation offices, as well as independent court probation offices.  Georgia's independent courts handle about 50% of the state's juvenile cases, and may not always share data with the rest of the state. The 2009 Census of Juveniles on Probation was conducted by George Mason University for the OJJDP at the U.S. Department of Justice.  Researchers are still working with the data, so we may get new information as it becomes available.   Currently you can search for data based on gender, age, case load at juvenile probation offices, and more. Thanks to reclaiming futures.org for the alert.