Precious resource of youth seen as responsibility of adults
March 20-April 2, 2009 page 5 - includes comments by SSEF Board Member Jim Anderson

Reconnecting with youth is a responsibility that rests on the shoulders of adults, speakers said March 16 at Sandy Springs Civic Roundtable.

Jim Anderson, the chief municipal judge of Sandy Springs, said that in addition to seeing troubled youth in his courtroom, he has "the perspective of a baseball coach and a Scout leader, so I see what works and I see what doesn't work".

Anderson has issued more than 500 arrest warrants and search warrants in 2008 he said. "Too many times those were for children as young as 14, many of them felony warrants."

"Many of those arrests were gang-related and youth gangs often are controlled by adults", the judge said.

"Laws today are tougher on behaviors that used to warrant a slap on the wrist, but the severity of crimes committed by youths also has escalated", he said. Hard drugs are "pervasive" and marijuana is "everywhere."

"I don't lose focus on the fact that youth are our most precious resource, and most of them are not troubled," he said.

Julie Koriakin, the Executive Director of Cowart Family Ashford Dunwoody YMCA, said: "We need to remember that youth is an asset".

"The main draw of a gang is a sense of belonging and meaning for a kid. If we could just created that in a positive way, gangs wouldn't exist," she said. "We are disconnecting from youth at an unprecedented rate".

"In a society where many families have two working parents, children need at least three trustworthy nonparent adults in their lives. They also need three or four hours of extracurricular each week and a connection to an institution ..."