Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 14, 1995 TAG: 9503140113
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The officers complain the teens don't heed their first warnings, making that harshness necessary to get the message across.
A three-hour dialogue between teens and police at the New River Valley Mall last Thursday gave both sides the chance to ask questions and hear answers on issues they don't understand about the other.
Members of Christiansburg High School's "Teens Need Teens" peer-counseling group led the discussion, but students from all four county high schools participated. Officers from Blacksburg, Christiansburg, the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office and Virginia State Police talked with the teen-agers.
The meeting was sponsored by the Montgomery County Youth Adult Partnership and by Community Education and Prevention Services, an arm of New River Valley Community Services Board.
Kathy Kenley, a prevention specialist with prevention services, was impressed with the estimated 70 people who attended.
"The turnout, especially from the law enforcement community, has been tremendous, and we really appreciate it," Kenley said.
The large crowd broke into smaller groups and spread out across the mall for a session examining teens' perceptions of police and officers' thoughts about teen-agers.
One student wondered why he sometimes saw officers turn on their emergency lights to scoot through traffic lights, only to see the lights be turned off a short time later and the police cruiser resume normal speed.
Blacksburg Chief Bill Brown and State Trooper Steve Fijalkowski explained that the officer may have appeared to have just wanted to get through the light, but he may have been told by a dispatcher to disregard a previous alert to respond somewhere.
"You get it from both ends," Brown said. "You think they're going fast. When we get there, it's 'What took you so long.'"
Some teens - especially those who have had a DARE officer assigned to their schools - said they saw police as helpful and as being the "the good guys." Others said their negative perceptions - drawn from television shows such as "COPS" - included that police used too much force, were prejudiced and made illegal searches.
Fijalkowski encouraged students in his group to remember that "police officers are human" but perhaps like the teens, some of them watch too much television and get their cues from those shows.
"We're not perfect. We make mistakes," Brown said. But should one officer act in a way people don't think is correct, he asked the teen-agers not to "paint the whole police force with that whole paint brush."
The officers and deputies attending Thursday's meeting told the teen-agers that they had gained an admiration and respect for them.
"I just really see a lot of positive," in today's teen-agers, said Martha Cox, a Christiansburg dispatcher. "You have to remember, guys, that we were kids, too."
Martha Spencer, a Montgomery County deputy who teaches DARE classes, said "teens are really more involved with the community" than her generation was.
The officers and counselors also encouraged the teen-agers to feel like leaders who are empowered to make positive changes when they see other students in trouble. While most of the teens said they feel helpless to do anything about substance abuse problems of friends and acquaintances, they were encouraged by the officers to speak up and tell a teacher or an officer.
The two groups left the meeting with new-found respect for each other and made a commitment to meet again, with challenges from both sides to involve even more people in future gatherings.
"We are constantly exposed to bad people. ... Things like this right here, they pump us up," Fijalkowski said.
by CNB