Summer Program Teaches Teens Skills in Media

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Creative Atlanta-area teens will get a unique opportunity to learn about writing, interactive media and storytelling from experienced instructors through VOX Media Café, a summer program hosted by VOX Teen Communications, which publishes the only Atlanta newspaper created by teens for teens. Teens may sign up for any number of four, one-week courses at the VOX newsroom in Peachtree Center in downtown Atlanta.  Instructors such as Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey and Atlanta magazine editor Rebecca Burns will teach courses focusing on creative nonfiction, photojournalism, videography and multimedia storytelling. Classes, which cost $350, are limited to 12 students each week but kids can enroll for more than one week.  Turner Broadcasting is offering financial aid.  Deadline for applications (available here) is May 15.  

Tormentors Sentenced in Cyber-bullying Case

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The legal fall out from one of the nation’s most sensational cyber-bulling incidents drew closer to a close Thursday when three of Phoebe Prince’s tormentors were placed on probation, while the statutory rape charge against another was dropped. Fifteen-year-old Phoebe Prince, who had recently moved from Ireland to South Hadley, Mass., was tormented by six other youths — including two of whom she’d dated — before she hanged herself last year. Yesterday, three of the girls involved in the case were placed on probation for misdemeanor charges of harassment or violating civil rights. “If they satisfy their probation, the charges will be dismissed and they will not have criminal records,” the New York Times reports. The statutory rape charge against a sixth former student, who had sex with Phoebe when he was 18, was dropped.

Part Five: The Big Trouble With Oxy

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Just joining us? This is part five of a five part series. Start from the beginning. Scott Merritt, a certified addictions counselor and licensed therapist in metro Atlanta, estimates that about 40 percent of kids in Cobb County high schools use illegal drugs, including alcohol. Though federal officials say the rates nationwide are lower, Merritt isn’t pulling that 40 percent out of thin air.

Part Five: A Day In Drug Court

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Just joining us? This is part five of a five part series. Start from the beginning. Cobb County, Ga’s., Juvenile Court Judge Juanita Stedman’s office overflows every Wednesday at 4 p.m. For an hour, with therapists and probation officers filling every chair and – with several sitting on the floor – Stedman and her juvenile drug court team do a rundown of every kid currently in the program. One by one, Stedman calls out the name of each of 30 or so kids.

Part Three: A Friend and Reason for Hope

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Just joining us? This is part three of a five part series. Start from the beginning. Kyle Boyer, 15-year-old prescription drug addict, duped his parents once again, faking a stomach ache to stay home from school. But instead of staying in bed, he went out to do what had become his norm – breaking into houses and stealing whatever the medicine cabinets within had to offer.

Earlier Classes May Cause More Teen Auto Accidents

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A new study suggests that early class times for high school kids may result in more car accidents. The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, compared weekday crash rates of 16- to 18-year-olds in two Virginia school districts. Crash rates were 41 percent higher in a district where classes began at 7:20 a.m., more than an hour earlier than the second district where classes began at 8:40 a.m.

Researchers say that later start times would allow teens to get an adequate amount of sleep thereby increasing alertness during their morning commutes. "We believe that high schools should take a close look at having later start times to align with circadian rhythms in teens and to allow for longer sleep times," study author Robert Vorona, MD, said. "Too many teens in this country obtain insufficient sleep.

Part Two: The Sympathetic Judge

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Just joining us? This is part two of a five part series. Start from the beginning. Juvenile Court Judge Juanita Stedman, who presides over Cobb County, Georgia’s Juvenile Drug Court has gotten to know Kyle quite well the past three years. Yes, he was one of the most dangerously addicted kids she’s seen.

Part One: Darkness Visible

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Just joining us? This is part one of a five part series. See the whole series. When Suzanne and John Boyer left their upper-middle class home for work on the morning of May 20, 2008, their 15-year-old son, Kyle, had a stomachache and was still in bed. It wasn’t too bad, he told them.

Marijuana Use Speeds Onset of Schizophrenia, Study Says

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For those at risk, marijuana use hastens the onset of schizophrenia, according to a new study.  Researchers found those with a genetic predisposition for psychosis would begin to experience symptoms an average of 2.7 years earlier if they smoked marijuana, and that can mean a greater disruption to their life. “We’ve known for many years that people who develop schizophrenia earlier have a number of poorer outcomes,” Michael Compton, co-author of the report, told the magazine  Miller-McCune. Schizophrenia typically begins between the ages of 18 and 28.  According to the researchers, developing symptoms earlier makes it harder for schizophrenics to succeed later in life because it impacts their ability to graduate high school or finish college. Even though the disease is genetic 80 to 85 percent of the time, many at risk have no family members who suffer from schizophrenia.

Family Feud Part 2

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The Georgia House of Representatives has nixed the absorption of the Family Connection Partnership and its funding into the Governor’s Office of Children and Families (GOCF), an agency created in 2008 by then-Governor Sonny Perdue. The Senate has not yet voted on the appropriations. Officials of the GOFC had said folding the Partnership into their agency would save the state money and simplify access to information and services. Opponents of the move countered that consolidating the entities could undermine the Partnership’s commitment to community-based decision-making, jeopardize its private funding, and increase the size of state government. The House even included notes emphasizing its decision to quash the proposed transfer of the Partnership, a 20-year-old statewide public-private collaboration with an $8 million budget.