Reminders Return Focus To Our Kids

You could argue that we didn’t really need one more report about America’s kids and what it will take to deliver them safely to a productive adulthood.

After all, not much is new in the 85 pages of findings and recommendations released in Seattle last week under the title, “Bruised Inside - What Our Children Say About Youth Violence and What We Need to Do About It.”

The report by the National Association of Attorneys General points out that government isn’t the best agent to reduce youth violence. It takes a commitment by society - parents, schools, churches, kids themselves.

The report says youngsters need positive adult role models who set limits and uphold standards. That youngsters need structured activities in their free time and safe environments. It says communities must value their youth and honor young people’s contributions to civic life.

Juveniles who engage in violence, the report says, tend to come from settings that breed it - abusive and neglectful homes or cliquish social relationships marked by harassment.

That’s been documented before. For one example, the National Clearing House for the Defense of Battered Women reports that children who are victims or witnesses of parental assault are 10 times more likely than others to assault nonfamily members themselves.

So, yes, much information from the latest report is old news. But that doesn’t make it superfluous. It only demonstrates that the evidence is piling up. Fresh or not, the information is before us if we want to use it.

But guess what? We have been using it, with encouraging results.

This week’s anniversary of the shootings at Columbine High School may be rife with grim reminders, but it comes at a time when youth violence is actually in decline.

Significantly, that downward shift coincides with increased focus on programs that provide youth with mentors, opportunities to serve their communities, structured after-school activities and mediation systems that use peer pressure as an asset instead of a liability.

A year after the tragedy in Littleton, Colo., we have to acknowledge that severe problems remain to be addressed. Perceptions aside, however, schools are among the safest places for kids to be.

We need to create safe climates not just in classrooms and hallways but in homes and in neighborhoods, some of which are filled with peril for children as they travel to and from school - and for some, as they crawl into their beds at night.

Most of all, when the horror of Columbine is too dim a memory to sustain our energy, we must let devotion to our children keep us focused on the known causes and proven corrections that offer them a more hopeful future.

Maybe we need more reports.