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June 26, 2001

Host: Michael Grant
Topic: Youth and Teen Issues
Producer: Paul Atkinson
In-Studio Guests:
Von Bryant, national trainer for the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and prevention consultant with East Valley anti-tobacco campaigns;
Michelle Mitchell, parent and principal at Longview Elementary School in central Phoenix;
Tara Abbott, Gilbert high school senior and member of the Gilbert Mayor's youth advisory committee;
Melissa Bez, Xavier College Preparatory senior and vice-president of the volunteer centers youth advisory board

MICHAEL GRANT: "Good evening and welcome to "HORIZON." I'm Michael Grant. Sex, drugs and rock-'n-roll aren't the only thing worrying parents of kids these days. Tonight's "Community Roundtable" looks at a number of issues affecting our children, from the negative influence of pop culture to the growing concern over school violence. Joining me is Von Bryant, national trainer for the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. Mr. Bryant also a prevention consultant who has worked on many East Valley antitobacco campaigns. Michelle Mitchell is a parent of five kids and she is also principal at Longview Elementary School in central Phoenix. Ms. Mitchell has long been active with the Epworth Neighborhood Association in Maryvale. Thanks to both of you. Good to see you. Michele, I sometimes wonder, you know, you have the flappers in the '20s, Lord knows did some pretty nutty things in the '60s and '70s. Every generation claims their own sets of pressures and tensions and 'we're unique.' Is this just generational or is it really more unique in 2001?"

MICHELLE MITCHELL: "I think it's a little more unique in 2001 because the family dynamics are changing and with the family dynamics changing, our young people don't have as much of a base to turn to and experiment when they go out. In the past generations, there was always a mother and a father to come back home to."

MICHAEL GRANT: "More a nuclear family?"

MICHELLE MITCHELL: "A nuclear family and I think with that sometimes children go out on that limb and experiment a little bit, but they really don't have that sense of belonging back at home and sometimes they get off in different directions that can be critical for them."

MICHAEL GRANT: "Single-parent households a factor in particular in organizations like Boys and Girls Clubs?

VON BRYANT: "Oh, definitely. We find more families where a single parent is raising one or two -- one or more children and also trying to hold down one, multiple jobs, and the time that they can instill values, morals is cut to a very small degree. So those youth are looking for those morals and those values from a wide variety of segments within our society. And some of those segments, as you know, are very negative, and this allows them the opportunity not only to express themselves but to express themselves in a very disturbing behavior. But what we need to do is the enhancements from the community itself. I always go back to, it takes a whole village to raise a child. I really believe in that. It took a whole village to raise me."

MICHAEL GRANT: "What are in the enhancements that you think - either do the job or don't do the job as the case may be?"

VON BRYANT: "It would be wrong for us to tell a parent not to go out and make a living. I think that's very wrong. Everyone wants to make a decent living and they should have that opportunity, but in allowing individuals to go out and make a decent living, we need to supply things like there needs to be more community centers that are supplying programs where individuals can become empowered, where they can get a sense of belonging, things like what they're doing with multi-generational programs where you have senior citizens and youth coming together, whether it's for knitting, whether it's learning how to use a VCR, we need to do more of that, have more of those kind of programs as an enhancement for that single parent."

MICHAEL GRANT: "But, Michele, can -- no matter how well intentioned, can schools, community centers any number of well intentioned enhancements ever really replace the nuclear family?"

MICHELE MITHCELL: "I don't think it can replace, but we can make opportunities there and make it comfortable for families to come together to do things. I think one of the secrets that we have with children is if you make those opportunities inviting to young people, they will share those opportunities with their parents, their grandparents and bring them in. At Longview elementary, we've done a great deal of multi-generational volunteerism and activities. Our kids go out and work in the community. They participate in getting Arizona involved in neighborhoods, activities. They go out and do cleanups. We have a program, one of the view across the country, where we bring senior volunteers into the schools, and many of our displaced young people, people who are coming from Mexico or families have moved and come here, they don't have that extended family where when mom or father is not in the home, there's always grandma or a Tia or somebody there available. When you bring a role model, adult, or senior adult into the school, those children kind of learn how to express themselves.

MICHAEL GRANT: "Let's talk about impacts. Just pop culture generally, how does that impact kids today?

VON BRYANT: "You know, we live in an age of technology where youth, teens are receiving information a mile a minute. The images that they are able to pick up are ten times greater than what they were 10, 15 years ago. Those images that they are seeing are not all positive images. So if a child is looking at TV, as we know, coming home from school, maybe doing homework for about 30, 45 minutes, if that, the rest of their time is spent either at a video game, which has a very definite impact, listening to music, which has, we know, has a very definite impact, or watching images on TV."

MICHAEL GRANT: "Good point. From time to time, the suggestion is made, listen, we can take care of this thing by -- well, the suggestions run the gamut. Let's have ratings systems for video games. Let's have firewalls on the Internet. Let's have cable channel blocks on television. Let's fence the kids off from that and that will make it better. What do you think?"

MICHELE MITCHELL: "Well, if you have active parents who are concerned with what's going on with your children, that parenting can take a very positive -- have a very positive influence on what's going on in a child's life, but when you have parents that are by themselves or overwhelmed with what's going on in their own lives, children are left to their own devices. And the federal level has provided a great deal of funding through 21st century grants, after-school programming, to see and provide children other opportunities that they aren't exposed to as parents come home late in the evening, they're tired, they get children to bed. The only technology that kids have is the Internet, the TV and the media, and they're being bombarded with truly negative things.

MICHAEL GRANT: "It does seem to me that there is an element to the Internet that sort of takes it the next step, positively and negatively, but that's the interactive element. I mean, with television, it may be good, it may be bad, but you simply watch it. The Internet engages on a much more core and depending on where you're going a much more dangerous level."

VON BRYANT: "Yes. Yes. Go ahead."

MICHELE MITCHELL: "I think what's important is our young people are seeking relationships, seeking a sense of belonging, and that interaction that occurs on the Internet provides that, and it also allows them to be prey to negative people who are out there, because the children want to be belonging to someone, wanting to have a relationship that if they are not involved in sports at school, they have to truly be seeking other opportunities to feel part of the community. A long time ago, a lot more young people were involved in scouting and those kinds of things. We do have a lot of sports activities. But there are opportunities within our community if parents help children seek out those opportunities, and that's the important thing.

VON BRYANT: "Not only that, but those opportunities have to be made economical for any and everybody. And that's really one of the issues that we have here, is that all of those resources that we're talking about, all of those opportunities, those activities, are not necessarily economic to your normal Jane and John Doe and we need to somehow find a way to do that, whether it be with making the school a central foundation where all those programs are brought into, that way the school becomes a 24-hour community center, or be it that we build more Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCAs, campfire, Boys and Girl Scouts. We have to somehow find a way to make those things economical so that everyone can tap into them.

MICHAEL GRANT: "Drug use. Is it -- I know you've been involved in anti tobacco…"

VON BRYANT: "Anti tobacco, anti drug…"

MICHAEL GRANT: "Is the -- is it increasing generally among teens?"

VON BRYANT: "It depends on what sector you're looking at. I know young ladies are becoming more and more involved in drugs. That is increasing, yes. Boys, it's not necessarily dropping. It has dropped from where it was five years ago, which was very high. Involvement in gangs, which those drugs play a part in. Young ladies are more and more becoming more involved in gangs than boys are.

MICHAEL GRANT: "Why?"

VON BRYANT: "Goes right back to that sense of belonging, sense every feeling like I have something that I can give back, a sense of power, a sense of influence. Every child and I really shouldn't say every child, every youth, every teen wants to feel like they belong to something. If they don't have the resources, if they don't have individuals, positive mentors telling them this is where you can go to tap in so that you can belong to something, if they don't have that, then they're searching and they tap into anything that will give them that sense of belonging, competency, usefulness, power and influence.

MICHAEL GRANT: "Michele, what amazes me and I think amazes a lot of people is the availability of drugs. You would think all of the money that gets spent on interdicting supply that it would be more difficult apparently than it is.

MICHELE MITCHELL: "If it becomes a priority in your life, there's enough money. There may not be food on the table for your children, there may not be rent, there may not be the basic kinds of needs. If children are being raised by parents who are involved with the drug culture, which some of the children within my school are, then they have no other positive models to follow but to follow into that culture. I think an important part that we need to do, particularly with our children who don't have positive role models, is bring in adults and young people who they can see another way. Many of my children don't have a vision for the future. Because their parents have no vision for the future. Once you're involved in the drugs and that culture, there is nothing but getting more drugs, and so it's really important to move ahead.

MICHAEL GRANT: "Let me make a break here. In a moment we will be joined by a couple of teenagers and get their assessment on issues affecting kids today, but first a look at some revealing teen statistics.

REPORTER: "In 1999, car crashes and other accidents were the leading cause of death among 15 to 24-year-olds in the United States at 72%. The Center for Disease Control reports homicide was second at 13% and suicide third at 10%. Murder was the leading cause of death for black males 15 to 24 and second leading cause for black females. Suicide was the second leading cause of death for white males 15 to 24 and third leading cause for white females 15 to 24. Some blame kids have too much time and not enough positive outlets for their energy."

JEAN CLAUDE KNOX/Phoenix resident (on videotape): "If we can develop our resources and find the interest in the communities as far as what do we want, what do we need to keep our children focused, as far as educational programs, as far as recreation, what types of centers do we have for our children to utilize their time as well as their recreation, and have it all kind of combined in one."

REPORTER: "According to the Arizona Department of Health Services, the state's teen pregnancy rate reached its peak in 1994 at 4.9% of all teenage girls. In 1999, the latest year available, the rate dropped to 3.6%, an overall drop of 27%.

MICHAEL GRANT: "Joining the discussion is Tara Abbott, a senior at Gilbert high school, a member of the Gilbert Mayor's youth advisory committee and Melissa Bez, senior at Xavier College Preparatory and vice-president of the volunteer centers youth advisory board. Hello to both of you."

TARA ABBOTT: "Good evening."

MICHAEL GRANT: "Those were some pretty depressing statistics."

TARA ABBOTT: "Definitely"

MICHAEL GRANT: "A lot of your friends depressed?"

TARA ABBOTT: "I think with depression is -- today's society basically a lot of times we tend to strand our kids, like what you guys were discussing earlier, with the parents being so involved in their own lives. The kids are left to their own, and everyone -- like you guys were saying -- needs a sense of belonging and importance and when they lack that there is an emotional side effect."

MICHAEL GRANT: "The suicide statistic was really depressing. I would think again activities like Boys and Girls Clubs would help that Von."

VON BRYANT: "Yes, it would, but you also have to remember when we talk about suicides, we're not just talking about individuals who have low self-esteem. We're talking about individuals who are making straight As who are committing suicide, individuals who for some reason the way they look, see themselves in the mirror is very low and what we need to do is by adding these enhancements helping individuals deal with diversity issues, help individuals deal with sexuality issues, because that's a very big thing in schools nowadays. Help individuals deal with bullying. There is a lot of that still going on. That happened when you were a child. It happened when I was a child. Ok? All around this table we have seen that. So those kind of things. And then the peer pressure, what they see on TV, what they hear on the radio, what they read on the Internet, all those things cause pressure."

MICHAEL GRANT: "Melissa let me go back to something we were talking about a few minutes ago, and of course, you don't necessarily have a comparative database, but, I mean, do you feel pressured, does your generation - do you feel you got more stress, more tension, more inputs, more outputs, those kinds of things?"

MELISSA BEZ: "Yeah, I think our generation definitely has a lot more appreciate ours them, whether from the outside world, like the media, but I think also just that we have actually - I think we have a greater vision for ourselves an lot of the generations before. I know -- I think more people are planning on going to college and so there's all the pressures within school to go on to be something great, as well as being involved in so much more, even within the school environment, not just talking about the inner city youth, but even if the more upper classes, I think, have a lot more stress on themselves, and that goes to disorders like suicide and depression, when there is all those pressures on you that sometimes it gets too much."

MICHAEL GRANT: "Still, you wonder, Michelle, why sometimes these bubble over into things like - you know, Columbine and San Diego and -- it's difficult to imagine a set of pressures that will produce that kind of result.

MICHELE MITCHELL: "Well, I think there is a lot of indicators that professionals need to be watching for in young people. I'm very concerned with young people as successful as these young people and my own children with the pressures that are put on them to be perfect in many ways, and then eating disorders come out of the other kinds of things because so many of our young people don't perceive themselves as being successful, and as well developed and as whole as they can be. There is little tolerance within our youth for diversity. Very little tolerance. I mean there's like a uniform of the day for clothing. I mean, clothing is an issue. Fitting into groups. One of my children went to a school, and I accused him of being the beige kid. He did everything to just kind of not stand out and I think a lot of our young people, if they don't feel they can be the best at something, then they don't really try as much as we would like them to.

MICHAEL GRANT:: "Tara, do we overstate the concern about school violence? Has that ever crossed your mind daily, weekly, monthly?"

TARA ABBOTT: "School violence is definitely an issue. You can't ignore it, because if you do, then the only thing that happens is you lead to more incidents. What I do feel is that the more we do talk about it, the more opportunities we give kids who we have-- like we've been saying-- don't really have a belonging, give them ideas - "

MICHAEL GRANT: "The whole copycat kind of thing?"

TARA ABBOTT: "Exactly. There is a point writ needs to be discussed and everyone needs to know what's going on and be aware of it, but there is also the point where all we're doing is providing them information to provide copycat incidents."

MELISSA BEZ "I know for me, I know it's not an issue. I don't think there is a possibility of violence at my school when I walk through the gates. They have increased measures, like security cameras and they lock the gates now and they didn't used to, but I know for me that that's not a concern and when Columbine happened, we talked about it, and everyone in my class said, we feel really safe. So maybe it's that false sense of security that allows for things like Columbine to happen.

VON BRYANT: "In all actuality, I believe it's not so much the false sense of security within a building. I believe it's the false sense of security that there are not individuals here who are depressed, there are not individuals here who go to school with me who have pressures that are so great that bring them to the point of wanting to do bodily harm to themselves. That's really where the false security is. And we know and we see it, Michelle and I see it, every day, individuals, like I say, even straight-A individuals who go into offices and literally break down in tears from the pressures of S.A.T.s, college entrance exams, making the softball team, making the cheerleading squad. These pressures are so great and what we need to do is to provide the resources and make those resources available to everyone across the board.

MICHAEL GRANT: "At the same time, though, those same kind of pressures, those same kinds of demands can be the sorts of things that pull greatness out of people, and, I don't know, how do you make -- how do you make sure they show up and they burst into tears as opposed to showing up and bursting into spring -"

MICHELE MITCHELL: "It's really a challenge for educators to find that middle line, to have crisis drills with little ones and put them on the floor, to protect them and have them understand that there is such a thing as violence and how important it is to protect them, how to -- protect them, how to provide the vision and the dedication you need to have to be challenged in education, because if you don't challenge our kids, then they don't succeed to that greatness. It's a challenge that parents and educators must meet together, and students and I think our students are becoming much more knowledgeable about what they have to do. I know back when I was young, I mean, we just went to school and learned a little bit and had fun. These guys know all about what's expected of them. It's smeared on the front page of the paper. The S.A.T. scores, am I at the right school and I know both of you have picked and chosen the classes you take, do I take this A.P. class, do I take this class to be able to be competitive to get your scholarships. It takes the fun out of school to a certain extent to have to be as competitive as you need to be to successful.

MELISSA BEZ: "I don't think it necessarily takes the fun out of it. Certainly for some people it does, but I know that for me I have structured my classes in such a way that I'm taking four A.P. classes next year but I have taken summer school so that I'm taking the ones I want to take and I'm very busy but I'm busy with activities that I want to be busy with, like the year book and volunteering on the volunteer center's youth volunteer advisory board."

MICHAEL GRANT: "Incidentally, A.P.? Explain that."

MELISSA BEZ: "Ok. That's advanced placement, and so they're harder classes but you have the potential to get college credit for them. You take an exam at the end of the semester which allows you to receive college credit or not."

MICHAEL GRANT: "Tara, you handling the pressure ok? Both of you are obviously motivated people. Are you handling it ok?"

TARA ABBOTT: "Yeah, there are times when you do wonder, is this really going to pay off? Do I really have to stay up this late? But then you see the rewards. You reap the rewards. Quickly. When you're doing the process, you're kind of looking around like, ok, I guess I'll do this, but then the second that you receive an A on your essay or second you pass your A.P. exam, like, "yes, that's what it's all for."

VON BRYANT: "You know, but what helps two individuals like this and I applaud two individuals like this, but they have mentors in their lives…"

TARA: "Exactly."

VON BRYANT: "That help direct all of that energy, that help guide all of that energy. But it also empowers them to want to do it. The key word here is that whatever they're doing in their life right now, they're enjoying it, and that's what we are trying to make available to all youth, those opportunities, those resources that are available to them where they can enjoy what they're doing. "

MICHAEL GRANT: "Speaking of opportunities and those kinds of things, someone made the comment to me a couple of three weeks ago that a lot of kids today, more motivated than perhaps prior generations to get involved in community service. Do you think that's true?"

MELISSA BEZ: "Yeah, I think so. There is the requirement in a lot of schools that they have service requirements. My school has 50 hours required. But I think it's also a positive peer pressure almost that it's more available, that I don't think it used to be really in the mind set of people to go out and volunteer, but I know people who - they don't want to have a summer job and so they decide to go volunteer for a couple hours a week during the summer or -- I think it's a positive peer pressure almost and that there's -- there's more opportunities available to them and when that you present that to people, people want to make a difference, and so I think they naturally go to it.

TARA ABBOTT: "It's also the availability, as you're seeing with technology. The more you realize what's out there, the more you're willing to dive into and it see your potential in that field."

MICHELE MITCHELL: "But, you know, the one thing about community service is you don't have to be an academically gifted young person, you don't have to be athletic, you don't necessarily have to have specific skills or talents. You can go out and make a difference in your community and feel good about what you're doing without having those special qualifications."

MICHAEL GRANT: "Michele Mitchell, thank you very much for joining us. We're out of time. Von Bryant, our thanks to you as well. Tara Abbott, thanks, good luck.

TARA ABBOTT: "Thank you so much"

MICHAEL GRANT: "Good seeing you. And Melissa Bez, our best to you as well."