THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 1, 1996 TAG: 9610010294
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: 53 lines
The Virginia Commission on Youth will ask the General Assembly next year to fund a study on nonviolent youths who commit ``status'' offenses such as dropping out of school.
Such youngsters account for 10 percent to 15 percent of juvenile crime.
Part of the study may focus on the state law requiring children to attend school until they turn 18.
``I think we need to know what is the state of the state,'' said Nancy Ross, executive director of the commission. ``Who's doing what with these kids; what are the frustrations and the barriers?''
Ross said she hopes to look at what other states are doing to respond to the problems of youths who are on the cusp of serious criminal activity.
This year, Ross and her staff did a cursory study of the problem across the state and found poor relationships between school systems and juvenile courts.
They learned there is no accurate estimate of how many runaways and truants are in Virginia; there is widespread confusion over which agencies should be doing what; and there is little agreement on what, if anything, should be done for the families that produce problem children.
Juvenile offenders illustrate not only what has gone wrong with their families, Ross said, but what has gone wrong with the system as well.
``They bump along and everybody gets frustrated,'' and they seem to get attention only when they commit a serious crime, she said.
Until then, they often get little or no help because courts, schools and other agencies have more pressing concerns.
``It seems to me we have just, sort of deliberately, let some children fall through the cracks,'' state Sen. Yvonne B. Miller, D-Norfolk, said after listening to a report from Ross at a recent commission meeting.
Del. Jerrauld C. Jones, D-Norfolk, the commission chairman, said he would like to see the same attention paid to these delinquents as that devoted in recent years to violent young criminals.
``Certainly, this is equally important, if not more so, because many of these children, if they don't get help . . . are going to graduate into crime,'' Jones said.
Del. R. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, said the commission should look at mandatory school attendance. In one incident last year, four faculty members in a high school had to wrestle down a disruptive student in the cafeteria, he said.
``We don't pay teachers and administrators enough to do that,'' Deeds said. ``Should we require some of these kids to be in school, if they don't want to be there and they are hurting everybody else who does?''
But Miller said, ``I don't see pushing children out of school to make teachers comfortable.''
KEYWORDS: JUVENILE CRIME GENERAL ASSEMBLY by CNB