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Mahoning County Judge works to keep youth out of gangs
SHERRY KARABIN
Legal News Reporter
Published: December 4, 2014
Original Killers, Sin City Disciples MC, 9 Kings and Akron Larceny Boys, these are not new movie titles. They represent just a few of the dozens of gangs operating in Ohio.
According to the National Gang Intelligence Center’s 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment – Emerging Trends, gangs are expanding and evolving and pose an increasing threat to communities across the United States. The study says many gangs are now sophisticated crime networks with members that have close working relationships with transnational criminal and drug trafficking organizations. The findings say gangs are also becoming more violent and engaging in less typical activities like prostitution and white-collar crime.
In Mahoning County, Juvenile Court Judge Theresa Dellick believes the answer is to cut off the supply of would-be gang members.
“Since I became judge I have been focusing on more diversion and intervention measures for youth who end up in juvenile court,” said Judge Dellick. “Instead of sending these youth to detention, we have been trying to work with the children and their families to implement changes.”
In October, the court became one of four juvenile courts in the country to receive a three-year $600,000 U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs grant that will be used for anti-gang training for staff and students at four Mahoning County high schools.
While many may think of gang activity as something that is prevalent among older students, a 2010 study by the DOJ’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention found more than 1 in 3 middle school students reported gangs in their schools.
“Our goal is to intervene at the school-level, before the child comes to us,” said Judge Dellick. “Research shows that once a student enters the criminal justice system, there are damaging results.”
This is not the first time Judge Dellick has taken the lead to help at-risk youth. She was also behind the 2008 creation of Mahoning County High School. The Mahoning County Educational Service Center sponsored the school, which offers a safe, structured and supportive learning environment for “at-risk” students and/or those who have dropped out, allowing them to recover academic credit and explore their education interests while developing vocational skills.
“The criminal justice system tends to operate on a ‘kick them when they are down’ platform,” said Judge Dellick. “This school is designed to support these kids, who primarily come from the inner city.”
“We take an individual approach,” said Mahoning County High School Superintendent/Principal Jennifer Whittemore. “We do not focus on punitive measures. We have a high rate of graduation and a good number of our students go on to college.
“We exceed the standards set by the department of education for a drop-out recovery and prevention program with our graduation rate.”
Whittemore said the school has expanded tremendously from when she began in 2009.
“I had about 30 kids,” she said. “Now we have two different programs, one that focuses on credit recovery and drop-out prevention that has about 225 kids and another that has about 75 students from the outlying area.”
“One way in which we seek to provide positive reinforcement is through our monthly parent-teacher nights, which include a dinner,” said Judge Dellick. “Younger brothers and sisters are invited to come along as well. During the evening, children show their parents what they have been doing and the teacher reinforces the progress while offering suggestions like ‘if Bobby came to school every day he could do even better.’
“The praise the child receives inspires his/her younger siblings to stay in school. If there is a financial problem leading to poor attendance, we will provide bus passes so that we remove the excuse.”
The high school is one of the four that will benefit from the grant, providing instruction for staff and gender-specific, evidence-based anti-gang programming targeting moderate- to high-risk students.
“When kids do not have their basic needs met they may look to gangs as extended family members who can help to provide income,” said Whittemore.
“There are a lot of well intentioned teachers and administrators who try to deal with bad behavior but are ineffective and may even aggravate the situation,” said Judge Dellick.
“If we can train our teachers to recognize the signs and how to intervene we can get these kids on a different track before it’s too late,” said Whittemore.
In addition to Mahoning County High School, a court facilitator will handle staff training and gender-based curriculum for low- to moderate-risk students at Struthers, Austintown and Boardman high schools.
“When the judge contacted me and told me about the grant that was being written, I had no doubts that I wanted our district to participate,” said Frank Lazzeri, superintendent of the Boardman Local School District. “We do not have any problems with gangs that I am aware of, however, we are a first-ring suburb of Youngstown and I believe in being proactive.
“We are interested in finding out more about this problem so that we can help our students make better decisions.
“Schools today have a responsibility to do more than teach the 3Rs, they must also work to make sure that students are good citizens who go on to lead productive lives.”
“The grant money will provide the opportunity for us to continue to educate our staff so that they can steer students in the right direction,” said Vincent Colaluca, superintendent of the Austintown Local School District.
“Kids often make choices because they want to feel like they are a part of something. If our teachers can learn to recognize the signs, we can help keep them from going down that negative road.
“We do not have any major issues with gangs in Austintown. We are fortunate because we have a great relationship with our local police department. We have police officers in every building at the front desk and two school resource officers and one D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) officer that work in all buildings,” said Colaluca.
“This grant is a great addition that will help us move forward in combatting problems.”
Funding from the grant will also be used for the court’s mediation and restitution program as well as for the training of school resource officers, law enforcement, mental and behavioral health specialists and court staff who will support the initiative.
“The court’s restitution program allows young people who commit certain types of crimes to make restitution to their victims by performing paid community service,” Judge Dellick said. “They use this money to pay their victims, which holds them accountable. It also gives the perpetrator a face, which helps the victim to heal as well.”
Judge Dellick said the gang programming is expected to start in the schools in January 2015.
“You cannot save every child, but statistically we can increase the numbers,” Judge Dellick said. “Youngstown is at the top of the list when it comes to crime and on the bottom when it comes to graduation rates and we are hoping to help turn these numbers around.”