The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

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I have problems with the facilities themselves that deal with our kids, I’m
quite distrustful
of. Many residential treatment programs and chemical dependency
programs I’m not always sure that they are doing what is best for the child
but rather for their own system. There definitely are systems,..., that do not
have the type of care to rehabilitate kids. They just maintain kids in a
semi—orphanage type settings...But, for right now, I’d say if I had one big
problem that I’d like to see overcome it’s the advocacy of the parents of
these kids. Years ago it would be like, we would recommend that the child
be placed out of the home and the parents would be clambering to keep the
child at home. Now, I find that the staff are wanting to keep the child at
home and the parents just kick them out and say, you take care of them
now...
Q. To what would you attribute the change in parents
A. Other than the deterioration of families, I’d assume that there are a
number of factors.
Q. To what do you attribute the deterioration of the family
A. The families are willing to let the peer groups take over. Today’s
teenagers are more mobile, have greater access to everything from very
violent TV shows to alcohol or other types of drugs. . . the parents don’t
spend a lot of time with the kids. . .For the most part, some it is cultural in
terms of, let’s say the American Indian, the grandparents tend to do a lot
of the child—rearing. With the situation as it exists in Sioux City, that
seems to be a very difficult situation for the elderly individuals to contend
with these kids. They are out on the street and they are kind of like Street
urchins. The delinquent kids that we see are pretty much disenfranchised
from their own families. The school provides a pretty much unsuccessful
setting. Schools are more than willing to get these kids out of the
educational system here in town. The families habitually complain to the
school system and it’s sort of like one thing leads to another...
I think it’s essential that everybody understands that we take serious our
advocacy roles because these kids were from the most part disenfranchised
from the schools, the communities, and the families of these
communities...