c. 1999 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ School violence, teen-pregnancy and illegal drugs top the list of concerns facing today’s youth according to a group of 51 junior high school activists from around the country who met here in early May to make their voice heard on Capitol Hill.

The recent violence in a Littleton, Colo., high school, however, cast the other worries in a diminished light and suddenly elevated the anxiety about school violence among parents and students across the country and at the Washington gathering.”I see violence every day,”said 13-year-old Lakisha Scott, of Washington, who attended the annual RespecTeen National Youth Forum.

Scott, whose stepbrother was killed when she was younger, said her concern about violence and especially school violence was inspired by the everyday problems she and her friends face. As an eighth-grader at an inner-city public school, Scott said the best recourse she has found is God. “If I see violence, I just pray for them,”said Scott.

While prayer may get her through the tough times, it may not make them any less scary. “That could have been our school,”said Scott, who said that the recent shooting in Colorado has left her and her friends”more scared,”than ever.

Because of a letter Scott wrote to Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., to urge funding for anti-violence programs, which she also submitted to the Lutheran Brotherhood letter writing contest, she was awarded the chance to attend the RespecTeen National Youth Forum. A $700,000 annual endeavor sponsored by the community outreach arm of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and open to seventh- and eighth-graders regardless of religious background, the Forum selects one student from each state and the District of Columbia to attend the Washington event to learn how they can influence public policy.

This year, the official issues brought to Washington were not affected by the shooting at Columbine High School because letters were due before the incident occurred. But conversations with participants revealed widespread concern about violence, sparked by Columbine.

This year, under the general heading of”Crime – Violence,”the issue ranked as the third-highest concern. The Lutheran Brotherhood received 1,085 letters on violence out of 11,000 total entries.

Next year,”violence could easily be a No. 1 issue,”predicted RespecTeen Director Ellen Albee.”It does come up and it has come up at every dinner conversation. It is a national issue _ but it is also such a personal issue, because it happened at a place where (the kids) go each day.” For Cheska Valentine, a Forum participant and eighth-grader from Alma, Ark., it was the school shooting that occurred in nearby Jonesboro, Ark., that got the 13-year-old thinking about the problem of violence by teenagers.

Normally, Valentine said, she is kept pretty busy with her cat and two dogs. She plays the clarinet and pores over her homework, especially for her two favorite classes _ science and social studies. But she said her thoughts have been elsewhere recently as rumors circulate and tensions rise at her public middle school. “Someone said that so-and-so was going to bring a gun to school,”she said.”And you are just wondering, could it happen to us?” In her winning letter, Valentine asked Rep. Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark., to support a plan to place a”school resource officer”in every school. That strategy has worked well at her school, said Valentine. “The students in our school weren’t getting into fights and were starting to develop a trust with (the resource officer). They were telling him about their problems, discussing school work, and other things,”she wrote.”If it could save lives and keep kids safe, then why not try it?” The Washington event offered Valentine, and the other students, a chance to actually meet face-to-face with their representatives.

Valentine met with Hutchinson, and his brother, Sen. Tim Hutchinson, R-Ark.

They”agreed with me on my ideas on a school resource officer,”said Valentine. They”agree that something like that has to be taken into the school and in some schools there has to be even more done.” Forum director Albee sees that as progress. “Our goal is to teach them that there may be an issue that they are passionate about or an injustice that they may want to see righted and they don’t have to feel helpless, they can take some action on it,”said Albee.

Albee said that although the recent Littleton tragedy had a big impact on participants, the shooting did not eclipse the wide range of issues brought to the forum.

But conversations with parents and students revealed that concerns about Littleton were never distant.

Carol Waterson, from Rhode Island, who attended the forum with her son, Christopher, said the participants had been able to concentrate on their issues, but she admitted many parents were privately worried.”I myself have two children in high school and I think about it every day as they walk out the door,”she said.”I think these kids did a heck of a job sticking with their issues,”said Ron Paquin, from Charles City, Iowa. Father of Rachelle Paquin, who wrote to Congress on HMO negligence, Paquin attended the forum with his daughter.”I think that events like this will help prevent Littleton from happening,”he said.”Well, I don’t know if it can stop Littleton,”said Albee.”But I do think that it could help teach young people to be leaders and to identify the needs of their peers … and to bring them to the attention of adults. And that is one way that something like Littleton could have been stopped. It also teaches them to see injustices and to do something about it as well.”

DEA END ROCKWOOD