Med Center Neighborhood Association

Teen Violence

Posted in: Cabrillo Park
A Community Problem

Suburban living has always presented more of a quagmire than it appears superficially. Families move into spacious homes in cloned neighborhoods to raise children away from inner-city influences perceived as scary and dangerous.
These houses, each a slightly different shade of brown, cost a lot to buy and maintain. The penance for this is two-income parents leaving the neighborhood each morning in commutes to jobs closer to the city. Junior comes home from school to an empty house or MTV or Jerry Springer.
Some of the kids in Elk Grove, one of the region's fastest-growing new cities, go to the skate park next to the Barbara Morse Wackford Community Center instead.
It's a cool place, right next to the teen center. Parents, city officials and community members have been involved in its nurturing - addressing, among other things, safety. The skate park was built largely on the vision of one dad, Dyric Ramirez. He wanted to decriminalize skaters, who've pretty much been banned from most sidewalks, parks, school grounds and anywhere else they might have a little fun and actually stay out of trouble.
Ramirez sees himself as just a dad - to all of them.
''I love these kids; they aren't at all the troublemakers people make them out to be,'' Ramirez said of the skaters. ''They need something positive to do. A place to have fun. Adults who care. That's what the park's all about.''
I'd never heard of this place until a couple of parents contacted me about an assault there Thursday. Multiple sources say a group of 20 to 30 youngsters not registered with the teen center and skate park - everyone who uses it registers first - came onto the grounds to stir up trouble. A fight involving this same group had broken out earlier at a nearby school, and officials there stopped it, pushing the anger and conflict out onto the street and beyond.
The trouble arrived at the skate park about 5:30 p.m., where a 6-foot-5-inch security guard was on duty. But even one hulking security guard is no match for 20 to 30 gang wannabes who've decided to bust it up that day. Before it was over, a 13-year-old was viciously assaulted by at least two older boys. They shattered his eye socket in two places and busted a rib. Bone fragments from the socket are wedged in his eye, which he may lose.
Teen center staff called the police right away; they arrived just as the attack was stopped. ''My son and others ran to the police and identified the two that did the beating,'' one of the kids' dads said. He asked to remain unnamed because he fears for his son's safety. The police detained them and put them in the cruiser while taking statements. The boy who was beaten eventually was taken to the hospital.
That dad and others are now upset because the police let the alleged suspects go.
Police said the victim initially underplayed his injuries.
Ramirez said the police were out in full force the next day looking for the attackers after they'd had a chance to interview the victim and others. The assault is now a felony incident, and one of two suspects is in custody.
It's the third and worst assault at the park since the skate area opened in January, although none of the ''bad apples'' in any of the incidents were skaters, Ramirez said. Ramirez wants the community to note that.
He visited the victim and his family at the hospital Thursday night. ''I'm a broken man; I'm just sick about this,'' he said. ''Kids need more of these places. I wish I knew what the kids who did this need.''
But he can't save the city's youths alone. In Elk Grove, kids rule in sheer numbers, comprising 55 percent of the population. That's a lot of kids with a lot of needs.
''It's about parents getting off the couch and playing with their kids and their kids' friends and turning this around,'' Ramirez said. ''This is not a skate park problem or a teen center problem. It's a community problem.''

By Diana Griego Erwin
Open Your Eyes

The signs are there, if we are astute enough or lucky enough to see them. Sometimes what you notice are dropping grades or a youngster suddenly begging to stay home from school.
Maybe your child has few or no friends, is the target of bullying or harbors extreme thoughts you find strange or anti-social. Get help. Get help immediately.
Take the following. This is what a poem from a despondent kid looks like:
''Alone. I am alone. I die. You see the tears hit the ground, but from where they came from is nowhere to be found because I am no one. A nothing that's dead and broke down. Can you see the scars? How about the blood that hits the ground? Of course not. Because I am a nothing that's dead and broke down.''
I separated his string of words into sentences. Added punctuation. But at their core, these are the disturbing words of a 15-year-old teenager, tall and lanky, a kid a search warrant shows had access to weapons.
The young man investigators say penned that poem is one of two students arrested at El Dorado High School on March 29 on suspicion of making criminal threats in what seems to have been a plot inspired by the 1999 Columbine High School massacre.
A year after Columbine, a poll found that by a landslide (85 percent) the public believed it was the responsibility of parents to spot the signs that such violence is possible.
You've got to wonder: Did the parents of the El Dorado High School suspects have any idea these thoughts were racing through their children's heads? Did they ever suspect that one of them was despondent enough to write two troubling notes a campus police officer found in his backpack, one reading, ''We are all going to die!!!''
Are parents around enough for this to cross their radar? Do we know what our teenagers are doing?
It's a question that seems to have become harder and harder to answer with each passing generation as the chasm of connection for some kids widens, leaving them feeling utterly alone.
Alone and isolated.
Why this is true is complex, but in other ways simple. As a Washington state minister wrote in an essay that often makes the Internet rounds, these are times when we ''spend more but have less, buy more but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time ... We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life, not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor.''
If this is true, what might an impressionable young person make of a world such as that? Not that those circumstances translate into shooting up your school, but in a troubled mind they might. And do. Take Conyers, Ga. Take Santee, Calif., or Pearl, Miss., or Red Lake, Minn. All school shootings.
A year after the Columbine tragedy, youth violence expert James Garbarino described the problem as a ''socially toxic environment'' polluted with violent images, broken relationships and spiritual crisis to which some kids are more vulnerable.
Rarely, too, are these acts of violence on campus impulsive. The signs are almost always there - if we only know where to look.
In a case last year at Laguna High School, the boys allegedly plotting an attack there told others they were out to break the Columbine High School record of 12 students, one teacher and both assailants dead.
The most powerful finding in a Secret Service study on school shooters is the tendency of most attackers to communicate their intentions beforehand. Which means we must listen and pay attention. Isn't that what many of these kids desperately want and need anyway: attention and a sense of belonging?

By Diana Griego Erwin
May 21st Rally at CRC

First I Thank God; Hello everyone;
I want you all to know the last 3 weeks, I have been on a roller coaster ride filled with emotion. I have met wonderful people. No door has been closed. We will have a rally May 21, 2005 at Cosumnes River College. I asked for 12:00 to 5:00 (the actual rally is 1-4 - but one hour to set up and one hour to clean up) We will meet at our churches, our organizations, our schools, our, institutions and our streets; and w will drive, walk, roller skate I do not care how we get there;then all meet at Valley Hi Covenant Church @8355 Arroyo Vista Dr and/or Cosumnes River College located @8401 Center Parkway. I have asked the President, Director and Pastor for use of their facilities and they share my vision. Valley Hi Covenant Church is adjacent from the college. Valley Hi School is across the street from the college. (I need the school personnel from Valley to speak with administration to inform all staff, students and parents); I feel it is important we rally undivided to take '' Steps towards Healing''
This is not just one school, I am meeting with SCUCD next week . Mr Visger I need you to contact the NFL players you email me about. Ms Wheeler, I need you to contact the North Highlands District, and have your students participate. FM103 I need you to announce it; in the spirit of love. Ms Griego, I need you to have it mentioned in the bee. I know you will know what nneds to be done. Ms Ivey, I need participation from law enforcement in the spirit of love who share the passion you have emailed me about. Ms Lloyd, Ms Maggi, Mr Pickney,Ministers and Pastors, Mr Goldberg bring your material, Mr Pinkston, I appreciate the information you sent me on rally and capital; I was lead by God , I do not know politics and procedures I know God, but please believe your information met the world to me. I was driving and stopped at the one church and college and without appointment I got what I asked , Mr Rodriguez, Ms Hall, Mr Anderson Thank you. Thank you Mr Grimes, Mr Clements, Mr Pickney, Mr Bryant and Councilmember Pannell, Mr Ms McMillion, Ms Gomez, we are getting help and programs for your boys. Mr Harry, Mr Freeman , Mr King, Mr Eaton, Ms Lester,... I do not mean to leave out anyone I need to move on now. I need little league teams and etc... I want our youth to have a voice and speak, school clubs etc. Ms Flynn I appreciate you meeting with me on April 20 Wed @6;00 and I look forward to you sharing with me the experience you have working with Martin Luther King III and others, I want EVERYONE to know your words of compassion and encouragement and support will mean the world to me. I met beautiful people, some who have titles, many just like myself and that is the work of God. God does not exclude others and I do not want to exclude anyone. Call me at 256-5975 or email me, calling me is better. I will add your youth group on program. Although it is a community to heal our youth need to be on the front lines. Titles are nice but it is the person I love and respect. You are all good people. I will try and reach those I respect who are in the streets struggling who also love God.


By Harriet Tubman
Rally (part 2)

How can we expect our children to not be divided from a color, when we are in a society that is divided. There are no politics involved in this rally. Schools, deputies, parents, organizations and churches must work together collaboratively simultaneously and teach our children to love themselves and each other. I went to the rally @the capital ( politics) I stood 3 hours at juvenile Hall last Saturday not to visit but to speak with parents; (frustration); I went to UCDavis Med Center and spoke with a young man shot last week(despair); I have gone to many organizations... I learned our youth are not the only ones who need healing; an entire community needs it. Everyone blames everyone else. See, that is why this rally is important. It is not political, not business, not one church or one institution it will be a community taking steps (walking into the college- an institution built for knowledge, considered higher learning) Where people regardless of ethnicity, age, social class, different church congregations will come together and learn we all serve the same God; the same God loves each of us. We all love our children. We will come together and move towards healing by shifting from a ''power over'' to a 'Power with'' paradigm. Please see what I see; I am not driven by a spirit of anger, hurt, despair, frustration, or hate. I am driven by a Spirit of Love. God is Love. When we approach the situation with Love, with God driving and us riding passenger it will be a success. There is nothing to cloud our true vision.
I am sorry for the length of this email. I am crying now because I thought this would be easy, it is easy for me, but.... Everyone can not see the vision I see; the rally I attended was disappointing to me. It was ''them/us'' type of approach. I am not in my social class by lack of drive or lack of knowledge/intellect. This is who I am and I love who I am. I have information to share, valuable. I want you all to know I am working with others on their projects. Important projects, I will share the info later. So many of us prejudge others (for whatever reason) To rally together without agendas our vision will focus and become clear. I know God has guided my path. I have not met hate. I speak the truth when I say Abosultely no one told me no. There are many who need to learn, what I have. I kow there are those in my community who need to meet the people I have, people at the schools, institutions, business, police agencies who believe in the power of God and share the love I possess. This is necessary to step towards healing, to rebuild trust and step towards healing; to restore our confidence in schools, laws etc. This needs to be visual; not just for the poor; we can all learn from each other. I can not understand why things have to be so difficult when the answer is so easy- love. Perhaps to be guided by anger, frustration, despair, and hate clouds the view for so many. So our rally not given by one group of people will be powerful; because it is driven, guided and inspired by a spirit of Love. GOD


By Rhonda Erwin
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