1993_05 Insight May 1993

              Page 12
May 12,1993
*Officials see education, counseling as
ways to rehabilate.
Part Three of a Three-
part series
By Mike Fleming	
Staff Writer
H. P. Specs shudders when he thinks
of what the future may bring.
As chairman of the Fresno County
Juvenile JusticcCommission, a former
health department worker and a foster
dad to several at-risk youths. Specs
has seen the despair, the frustration
and the pain of troubled juveniles
first-hand.
He has seen the torment and anguish
that result from family dysfunction,
and he has seen the scars thai are left
behind. He has witnessed the tough
facade of Juvenile Hall inmates melt
into tears of desperation and loneliness, and he has heard their cries for
help.
And Specs is afraid thai, without
widespread community support and
activism, the cries of these children
will go unanswered.
"There's a river of destruction running across the country, and its name
is delinquency," Specs said. "Too
many kids arc going over the falls of
this river, and their lives are being
broken beyond repair. Upstream, there
are other kids being thrown into the
river.
"We have to build a dam quickly
and make some serious changes in
our system or we're going to be facing
some dire consequences."
But reform doesn't always come
easy.
Specs wishes he could produce some
magic elixir that would rehabilitate
juvenile offenders and prevent subsequent generations from falling into
the trap of criminal behavior. But
Specs knows there is no cure-all and
realizes that hopes for such a panacea
are in vain.
He just hopes, as the future turns into
the present, that society will hear its
wake-up call and will lake the steps
necessary to winning the war against
juvenile crime.
Spces, Fresno Unified School District Superintendent Chuck McCully
and Fresno County Court Schools
Director Ken Campbell are among the
prominent local officials leading the
fight, and the three agreed upon some
of the most essential ingredients to
launch a successful campaign.
They cited education, counseling
and guidance as the most important
elements to help curb the current wave
of juvenile crime, and they maintained
that, despite a painfully bleak oudook,
all hope is far from being lost.
The first step, McCully said, is to
identify "at-risk" kids at a very early
age.
"We need to intervene early to help
prevent these kids from ever reaching
the system," McCully said. "We need
to work more directly with the individual kids and with the parents, and
wc need to help show them the roads
to success.
"We have to predict the pattern before it ever gets that far. When the
kid's in the fifth grade and has been
suspended 20 times, we've obviously
missed something. It shouldn't have
Young offenders focus
of new rehab program
to CI
o that."
McCully believes that early intervention is possible because at-risk
youngsters demonstrate identifiable
characteristics.
"These kids nearly send up signal
flares," McCully said. "Ortcn limes,
they're begging to be noticed, and it's
our job to both recognize the problem
and to address it as soon as possible.
"The older the child gets, the more
difficult rehabilitation becomes, and
wc have to rehabilitate these youngsters if we're going to give them a
fighting chance in ihc educational
system."
McCully cited dismal national dropoul rales of more then 35 percent as
evidence that the system is failing
somewhere along the line.
"The bottom line is that these kids
are gcuing lost in the shuffle," he
said. "We need to quit shuffling
them and start addressing their
needs. Otherwise, we'll continue to
see more lhan onemillion kids dropping out of "school each year."
Campbell hopes that alternative
assessing what ihcir needs arc on an
individual basis," Campbell said. "Once
we've assessed their needs, wc can gear
a program to suit those specific needs.
It's that kind of individual attention that
you just can't get in a crowded classroom in the public schools."
Connections pairs local volunteers
with recendy released juvenile offenders in an attempt to provide the
youngsters with some extensive follow-up care to their incarceration.
The volunteers. Specs said, come
from all walks of life and are simply
"The older the child gets, the more difficult rehabilitation becomes, and we have to rehabilitate."
—Chuck McCully, FUSD superintendent
educational programs, 1 ike the court
and community schools that he oversees, provide the means to reduce
the drop-out rate and to reach out to
troubled youngsters.
"These kids need to experience
success, and they need to feel that
they can have success in a classroom, not just on the streets,"
Campbell said. "They need to experience both academic and social
success, and that's what our programs are designed to do."
The court and community schools,
funded and operated by the Fresno
County Office of Education, serve
youngsters who have been incarcerated or who have been referred
to the program because of disciplinary or attendance problems.
Alice Worslcy School serves
youngsters while they arc detained
in Juvenile Hall, and C.K.
Wakefield School accommodates
those youngsters serving a long-
term commitment at C.K.
Wakefield, a juvenile detention facility.
Campbell said curricula of these
schools are designed to provide
youngsters with an opportunity to
enhance their academic skills and
also to improve their self-csiccm
and occupational possibilities.
"We're looking at these kids and
Bul Campbell, whose programs enjoy
a student to teacher ratio of approximately 15 io one, realizes the limitations
facing the public school system.
"They don't have the luxury of small
class sizes and individual attention in the
public schools." Campbell said. "That's
a problem to which, unfortunately,
there's no easy solution."
California currently has the second
those people who care enough to
donate ihcir ume to these young-
Spces said the program can help
fill the void that the probation department cannot fill because of its
limited resources and that the volunteers act as role models for these
youngsters who arc searching for
guidance and acceptance.
For more information on how to volunteer
your time in the community, please contact one
of the following organizations: Fresno and
Madera Youth For Christ at 237-4741; Susan
Bechara of the House of Hope at 233-3246; Big
Brothers-Big Sisters of Fresno at 268-2447; or
your neighborhood school.
highest average class size in the United
Stales, and, as McCully said, "it's not
looking like it's going to get any better."
And that's where Specs comes in.
Brandishing unbridled idealism and a
commitment to society's youth. Specs is
trying to make a difference with a variety of innovative approaches, including
the new volunteer mentor program,Connections.
"We're looking at exerting positive influences in the lives of these
kids through counseling, guidance
and love," Spces said. "The kids get
to know that somebody cares and
that somebody is there for them."
The union between the volunteer
and the juvenile lasts a minimum of
six months, and the juvenile is required to meet with his or her "partner" on a regular basis. The adult.
Spees said, has very specific goals.
"The adult will visit the youth's
home, have the youth to his to her
home, visit the youth's school and
attend at least one campus activity
with the youth," Specs said. "The idea
is to make connection that will have
lasting impact on these kids.
"Role models who communicate
with love ... that's what it's going lo
take to break the cycle of delinquency.
That's what personal involvement
docs."
Spces said thai seven "connections"
have already been made in the new
program. His goal is to have made 25
such matches by ihc end of the year.
"We're just beginning," he said,"and
we've got a long ways to go."
But Specs said thai the long fight
ahead does not have to be a losing
battle. He maintains ihat juvenile delinquency can be curbed and that personal involvement is ihe key to the
success of ihat venture.
"We need to bring services back
into the community and encourage
community activism," Specs said.
"We heed to have more scout masters, mentor moms and big brothers.
Wc need more PTA members and
more classroom volunteers.
"Every person has something io give,
and it's when wc start giving and stop
complaining that we'll finally sec a
change for the better."
Twenty-thrcc-ycar-old Efrcm
Maruiso Jr., a community center volunteer and self-proclaimed survivor
of the streets, also sees the hope for
change, and he sees the need for a
different approach to juvenile crime.
"Sure, you have to lock up ihc serious offenders, and you have to use
punishment in a lot of cases. But there
needs to be love and forgiveness, too,"
Maruiso said. "Wc need to instill
morals and values in these kids, and
we need to teach them better methods
of handling their daily challenges.
"People everywhere need to open
their hearts, minds and eyes and try to
do somcihing for these kids. Wc all
need to help out to make a better
tomorrow."
Fresno archaeological group evolves
By Davin A. Hutchins
Staff Writer
the Archaeological Institutcof America
in association with the Fresno County
Archaeological Society.
Historically, FCAS has been the
Valley'sprimary organization for amateur and professional archaeologists.
Now, through affiliation with A1A,
Cline said FCAS plus the enure Valley
can enjoy brand new opportunities unavailable before.
"This will pul Fresno on the map," he
said.
ALA is the oldest and largest archaeological organization in North America.
Local chapters often sponsor lectures,
field trips, museum visits and tours to
Mexico, Greece, Egypt and Turkey.
"We're trying to break the mold of
what [FCAS] been doing for 17 years,"
said Cline, a professor of Greek and
Near Eastern ancient history. "Most of
ihe membership is older people around
Fresno, bul we're trying to attract youth."
Cline said roughly 70pcoplecurrcnily
belong to FCAS and only handful of
those arc students. He added that one
reason many CSUF students aren't in
volved with FCAS is that meetings
arc conducted in downtown Fresno
and not on campus.
According lo Cline, FCAS concentrates primarily on California and
New World archaeology. However
through affiliation with ALA, it would
be able to expand its focus on Ancient World archaeological study,
such as ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome
and Israel.
Anthropology major and FCAS
member Dominique Comcync said,
"Some ofthe activities [FCAS] have
right now aren't necessarily related
to archaeology. For example, sometimes we get lecturers from within
the organization who show a slide
show or wc' II go on wildflower trips.
Thai's okay, but you want to leam something more scholarly."
Cline said the new AIA chapter will not
only attract students interested in the Ancient World but also the intellectually
active people in the community.
One of the advantages of AIA affiliation, said Cline, is Fresno can choose from
50 to 100 renowned speakers on the lecture circuit who specialize in a myriad of
topics.
"We can choose from New World, Old
World, Egyptology, Greece, Rome,
Mayans, Lncas... you name it," he said.
He added it will be easier for budding
historians, anthropologists and archaeologists at CSUF to get on digs in Europe or
the Near East because AIA membership
gives people the chance to network with
professionals.
Even though archaeology is nol her
field of endeavor, history and classical studies major Komclia Bulk said,
"I will definitely look into [AIA].
They'll givemc a tremendous amount
of information that will be well worth
"I'm just a U.S. history major," said
Eric Anderson, "but I think it would
be interesting to leam aboul new
things. As a future teacher, I might be
teaching world history and if I could
incorporate this stuff into my class,
that will be great."
"Fresno, the city and community, is
going to benefit by getting the big
names coming in," Cline said.
"Multiculturalism is such a big buzz
word on campus— everyone's concerned aboul where arc their origins," Cline said. "If you come to
Ihcsc lectures and meetings, you
start getting an idea of where they
arc.
Comcync added ihat many of the
related departments which arc slated
for closure, such as art history or
classical studies, may benefit from
renewed student interest in the Ancient World. Cline expressed hopes
that this interest may signal to the
university administration a need for
preserving these disciplines in light
of the budget cuts.
Those interested in joining the San
Joaquin Valley chapter of AIA, may
contact Dr. Cline at 278-5156.
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