 | Administrator's Message |
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| Administrator's Message |
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In the midst of our national anxiety about recent violent tragedies in and around our schools and our search for solutions, we must be careful to act on the basis of fact, not fear, and to solve real problems, not imagined ones. Reliable data indicate that students are safer at school than away from school and commit fewer crimes during school hours than after school ends. The real problem area is not the school itself but the world our children return to after the dismissal bell rings. In today's society, fewer and fewer children have a parent waiting for them at home when school lets out. As a result, youth often supervise themselves and younger siblings after school with varying degrees of oversight by parents and guardians. Most juveniles are responsibly engaged in an array of positive activities, such as sports, clubs, or homework, or they "hang out" harmlessly with friends. However, for youth who have few activities available, whose friends are prone to negative behavior, or who experience other risk factors, the unsupervised hours between school and dinnertime offer ample opportunity to go astray. Statistics show that serious violent crime committed by juveniles peaks in the hours immediately after the close of school. At the same time, we should not fail to recognize that during these afterschool hours, juveniles are most likely to become victims of crime, including violent crimes such as robberies and aggravated assaults. In this unsupervised time, youth are more vulnerable and more likely to be exploited, injured, and even killed. The data reported in this Bulletin document the need for schools and communities to develop strategies for youth during afterschool hours. The information provided here demonstrates the desirability of exploring policy changes, such as flexible work schedules so parents can provide more direct supervision during these crucial hours. Local school districts and communities need to consider initiating or expanding recreational, sports, employment, mentoring, tutoring, arts, and homework programs as positive alternatives to unsupervised time in a child's day. Knowledge is indeed power. Although we may not always be able to prevent isolated incidents of extraordinary violence, we can work together to develop programs and strategies that prevent juvenile crime and violence where and when they occur most predictably—away from school during afterschool hours.
Shay Bilchik
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