By Mike LaBella
Staff Writer
March 24, 2008 06:10 am HAVERHILL — A fourth-grader riding a school bus sees something suspicious among other students and reports it to the principal. A middle-schooler is being bullied, and his classmates talk to a guidance counselor to get him help. Two high school students are yelling at each other in the hall, and their classmates pull them apart before it gets physical. In these scenarios, students play a role in making their schools and communities safer — and they become the eyes and ears for adults. These are the kinds of ideas being discussed by students from Haverhill and Methuen schools who attended a workshop led by representatives from Youth Crime Watch of America. The organization encourages young people to get involved instead of turning a blind eye to problems in schools. Youth Crime Watch steers students to find ways to safely prevent and report trouble at schools. It includes giving tips to school officials and helping young people resolve arguments before they escalate to violence. "Anything that helps improve our school and community and our neighborhoods is worth giving it a try," said Haverhill High sophomore Roxana Patroni, 16, one of dozens of high- and middle-school students who attended the workshop at Northern Essex Community College. Carol Ireland, adviser to Haverhill High School's Violence Intervention Prevention Team, said any anonymous crime-reporting system must be managed carefully. "Kids don't feel comfortable with telling on others," Ireland said. "We need to find ways for kids to feel confident that they'll be kept safe when reporting problems." Among the possibilities is setting up boxes in schools where students can drop anonymous notes giving school officials tips on problems in the school. The VIP Team is a group of students who push messages of peace and tolerance among students. Members of Haverhill High's VIP Team visit the city's Nettle, Consentino and Whittier middle schools each week and collaborate with Junior VIP Teams. The goal is to steer young students away from gang activity and away from trouble. "I heard from friends that the Junior VIP Team is doing good things to prevent violence at our school and in our community," said Jessica Palmer, 14, a grade-eight student at Consentino. "I think the biggest problem at our school is bullying. Kids make fun of kids who are different." Methuen High School senior Brian Cabrera wants his school to be as safe as possible for those who will follow, such as his two younger sisters. One component of the crime-watch program is to recruit student leaders who will act as role models and develop specific crime prevention programs within their schools. "Kids might not listen to authority figures, but they might listen to their peers," Cabrera said. "We need to do something so that kids can better resolve their issue and not resort to things like fighting." Nadina Braxton, a seventh-grader at Tenney Grammar School in Methuen, attended the Crime Watch workshop because she wanted to get involved. "I'd like an end to all the name-calling and teasing at my school and in the community," she said. "What some kids are doing is wrong. You might get called a tattletale, but if a life depends upon it, you need to do something." Ireland said students in both districts will decide on what kinds of problems they'd like to address, and how. "They may want to create surveys to learn what their school thinks is a problem," Ireland said. "Gangs are recruiting them young, so we want to pull them over to the other side. That's our mission."
Youth crime-watch goals Anonymous tips from students to school officials about problems in the building Recruiting responsible older students to act as role models Steering students away from gang activity
—
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.