Children in Crisis in America and Around the World

A brown bag lunch discussion was held in the Hage room of the HUB, on Tuesday, March 8^th, regarding the growing problems children face around the world. Marcel Lebrun, a Professor of Education at Plymouth State University hosted the meeting before a small group of concerned community members.

Lebrun has done vast research in the "underbelly" of programs that deal with children, such as the foster home life that many children have to live along with sex trafficking and prostitution of exploited children. "I'll be in jail by the time I'm fifteen," a child had said to Lebrun. Another child, less optimistic than the first, felt he would be dead by the time he was twenty.

Many facts that people are not necessarily aware of were found in Lebrun's research. In 2006, more pre-schoolers were killed by firearms than on-duty law enforcement officers in America. Gun control politics aside, Lebrun showed a statistical correlation between homes with guns and homes with children. Thirty-three percent of homes in America with guns, also have children.

Another lesser known fact about America, is that seven percent of children in this country live in poverty. Lebrun's PowerPoint indicated that research "has proven that children who live in poverty are more likely to lag behind their peers, are less healthy, trail in emotional and intellectual development, and are less likely to graduate from high school."

States are able to predict with a good level of accuracy how many prison beds they will need ten years down the road, based on school standardized tests, and the number of students at risk of receiving specialized services in elementary schools according to Lebrun's presentation. One example given was of a violent six-year old boy who resisted arrest and was actually forced to be put in handcuffs. Putting a six year old away in juvenile hall wouldn't solve the problem because the child wouldn't learn anything. It also costs 2.8 times more money to keep children in jail than in school. "We're losing our most gifted kids to the streets," said Lebrun.

The process is a revolving door for troubled youth as well as those in foster care. There are over 500,000 children in foster care right now in America. These children are often sent from program to program, constantly being uprooted with no solid foundation of relationships or stable living. Seventy-five percent of foster children drop out of high-school and thirty percent more likely to become substance abusers.

The world doesn't just turn its back on youth that need help, it endangers them. Children are sex trafficked regularly in third world countries. Over 10,000 children in Kenya are involved in the sex trade. Other children with nowhere else to go are recruited as child soldiers. Many children disappear from the street altogether and are brutally harvested for their bodily organs. A large portion of the organ buyers and child sex customers are tourists, and Americans.

 In a world that has turned its back on many children with programs for youth that simply serve as a revolving door back to the streets, something needs to be done. Lebrun mentions the fact that society is "aware and in a position to do something about it." Lebrun has a new book coming out titled, Youth in Crisis, which will be available in the spring