ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 6, 1997 TAG: 9703060028
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
After school and before working parents get home is a dangerous time for latchkey kids. Some help is available in the Roanoke and New River valleys, but more is needed.
MANY unwed teen mothers - most by some estimates - have their first sexual encounters from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Most juvenile crimes are committed during the after-school hours before parents get home from work. It's during these hours, too, when many youngsters start to experiment with alcohol and drugs.
Entire communities, and not just working parents, should be more concerned about the problems that are altering, for the worse, the lives of latchkey kids. There are 24 million latchkey kids aged 5 to 13, plus many others in their midteens who are sometimes no less vulnerable.
Many are too old for baby sitters, but too young to be cut loose without the supervision and guiding influence of adults.
Thankfully, many community leaders in the Roanoke and New River valleys are attempting the fill the hole in these children's lives with special programs and projects.
Among them are the Roanoke Valley YMCA's ``The Magic Place'' program, which provides child care before and after school in local elementary-school buildings and so relieves scores of parents' headaches. Others include Roanoke's West End Center, which offers organized after-school and summer programs for kids of all ages; Roanoke County's Teen Center; and Blacksburg's Kipp Elementary School, which doubles during after-school hours as the town's recreation center for children and adults.
But these, plus a scattering of others, are not plentiful enough. More such efforts are needed - from schools, churches, civic clubs, neighborhood groups - to provide more youngsters with wholesome, healthy and safe activities in the after-school hours. These could include tutoring, perhaps by college students or retirees, not to mention sports, arts activities and field trips.
It can pay off. In several communities having programs with broad outreach to latchkey kids, the rates of juvenile crime, teen pregnancies, school truancy and school dropouts have all been reduced. The key is not only activities but also the positive, personal relationships that develop between lonely latchkey kids and adults other than their parents.
Trying harder to fill the gaps in care for too many of its youngsters is a task that faces the Roanoke and New River valleys. How much better the quality of life if, between the afternoon hours of 3 and 6, not a single child were home alone.
LENGTH: Short : 49 linesby CNB