Posted on 12/01/2003 10:49:29 AM PST by hsmomx3
Tucson LINKS encourages students to get involved in after-school activities. Here, Eli Medvescek, 10, and teacher Laurie Burrell work on a project in Lulu Walker Elementary School's science club. The school found such programs cut problem behaviors. They can be saved, these children who come from homes of addiction and chaos.
Schools are helping children to rise above the disarray in their lives, with some of the most basic tasks of parenting falling to teachers.
"Kids used to come with life skills, with empathy, with understanding. We have many more kids arriving at the school doors who have not learned that. We have to teach that," said Kay Aldridge, project coordinator for Tucson LINKS, an $8 million federally funded program that trains teachers and school staff to help children learn to resist substance abuse and violence.
Teaching children basic life skills is a way to build resilience - a way for children to survive in today's society.
Building resiliency is critical for all children, but especially for those who grow up exposed to addiction, neglect and violence, Aldridge said.
Tucson LINKS is a program that works, according to Roseanne Lopez, principal at Lulu Walker Elementary School, 1750 W. Roller Coaster Road. Her school experienced a nearly 20 percent decrease in problem behavior since becoming involved in LINKS.
Teachers and staff at Walker got children more involved in school after experiencing a dramatic increase in poverty among students. The number of children qualifying for free lunch has jumped from 25 percent four years ago to 51 percent today.
The team at Walker determined students needed more to do at school. After-school clubs were started, allowing children to develop a passion for Harry Potter, dance, music and science. The clubs help children feel positive about school and learning, Lopez said.
Schools and the community must intervene early in the lives of at-risk children to make a difference, said Kathy Rucker, director of TUSD Health Services.
"If you do not make a significant intervention in a child's life by sixth grade - and it's got to be lasting, it's got to take - we will lose that kid. We know it," she said.
Even then, the situation may not be hopeless.
NORMA JEAN GARGASZ/Tucson Citizen
Football games at Catalina Mountain School help delinquent teens - who often come from homes where drugs are a way of life - learn to cooperate and work out some of their differences without violence. Behind razor wire and fences at Catalina Mountain School, the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections facility north of Tucson, delinquent children have tremendous strikes against them.
Of the 124 boys at the correctional facility, 14500 N. Oracle Road, 96 percent have substance abuse issues, said Steve Meissner, public information officer. Many have a parent or sibling lost to addiction.
More than half have a family member in prison. Most are two years behind academically. And 36 percent of boys and 53 percent of girls in the system suffer from serious mental illnesses that require psychotropic medications, he said.
Coming from homes of addiction, crime and chaos, children model the behavior they see.
"There's almost a presumption (in the family) that they will end up in the system," said Vicky Bradley, superintendent at Catalina Mountain.
The key to building resiliency among these children is teaching them to seek out relationships with healthy adults, she said.
Bradley is studying the contact children have with Catalina Mountain staff after they are released to determine if there is a correlation between staying drug- and crime-free and maintaining that connection.
She said staff and volunteers at Catalina Mountain encourage children to strive for a better life. They can be taught to disassociate themselves from their parents' bad choices, she said.
"We give them the skills to be able to detach," she said. "We show them they can go down to the Y and play hoops or go to the library and pull out a book. They hadn't known what to do in the past."
Delinquent children are taught to work as part of a team. Kids from varying backgrounds overcame differences on the football field recently, through the heated playoffs that led to the traditional Thanksgiving Day Turkey Bowl. Boys from different units competed to play in the big game.
NORMA JEAN GARGASZ/Tucson Citizen
Time with animals helps delinquent youths learn to be gentle and "makes them feel like boys again," said William Rowe, who coordinates volunteer efforts at the facility. Here, 7-year-old Casey plays with a 17-year-old detainee at Catalina Mountain School. William Rowe, who coordinates volunteer efforts at Catalina Mountain, said retirees provide the nurturing of a grandparent along with one-on-one tutoring many of these kids need to catch up.
Resiliency is also built with volunteers of the furry sort. Through Catalina Canines, dogs and their owners visit the boys, who play with them, groom them and learn to be gentle.
"I like dogs a lot," said 16-year-old Michael, as he played with Casey, a sweet-natured golden retriever. "It reminds me of playing with my dog."
Playing catch and running through the grassy field with a dog on a leash "makes them feel like boys again," Rowe said.
"They all have attachment issues coming from dysfunctional families, or some of these kids have no family," he added. "They need something to attach to."
Making attachments is critical to keeping kids out of prison, Rowe said.
A 1998 study by the Journal of Quantitative Criminology found that each high-risk youth deterred from becoming a career criminal saves taxpayers up to $2.3 million.
About 20 percent of children in juvenile corrections commit new crimes and are sentenced to adult prison within three years, according to statewide statistics.
Most children - even those who face tremendous obstacles - will not end up behind bars.
But addiction among their parents may prevent them from reaching their potential.
Children who come from homes of addiction and violence often are ill prepared to start kindergarten, said Aldridge of Tucson LINKS.
advertisement They have not learned how to get along peacefully with others, mirroring the violent behavior they see at home.
"Kids come to us with a background. Much of the brain development is complete in the first year. By 3 years, 90 percent of the brain connections are formed. And we don't get them until they are 5," Aldridge said.
"We can't fix the home. But during the course of the day we have an absolute responsibility to provide that child with the best support we can," TUSD's Rucker said.
Tucson LINKS will be in 55 elementary schools in the Tucson Unified, Amphi, Flowing Wells, Marana and Sunnyside school districts, reaching 25,000 students.
Aldridge said when you look at successful adults who grew up in dismal conditions, there usually was one special adult somewhere along the path that cared.
"More often than not it's a teacher," she said.
School is often a sanctuary for children of addicted parents.
For Tucsonan Danielle McElhaney, school was the only place she felt safe.
She remembers trying to rouse her mother, who would pass out after cocaine binges, to drive her and her sister to school.
"We wanted to go to school because that was our escape," said McElhaney, now a 24-year-old working mother who is putting herself through college.
Tucson psychologist Dennis Embry said schools can help children understand that "they have a role in the world." Small changes, like making sure children have jobs in the classroom, playing classroom games that help children learn to control impulsivity and writing notes of praise to children can build on their strengths, he said.
Kris Bosworth, a professor in education leadership at the University of Arizona, said "small, everyday acts of kindness, acts of providing support is what saves these kids."
Showing them how to create a bright future for themselves is critical, she said.
"In a chaotic environment you feel like you have no control. Kids who are successful feel like they have control over their environment."
The roll of the public school system is the educate, not try to remedy parental shortcomings or judge who is capable enough as is and who needs help to be brought up to subpar.The illegal Mexican criminals should be deported back to Mexico and stop being such a burden to US taxpayers.
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