Our Kids are Not Safe Anywhere

Officiating basketball games at the youth recreation through high school level is my avocation. Most of the kids I encounter display good sportsmanship at all times. Of course if they don't, it's my job as an official to penalize them for their misconduct. In the real world parents and guardians are the officials. It's our job to penalize our children for poor behavior. More often than not, we are falling short of the mark in this area. The rash of violence by and against children in recent weeks in the D.C. area is troubling if not surprising. There are adults killing children, children killing children and children killing themselves. Some of you are thinking "I thought this was a sports blog, why is he talking about kids and violence?". Frankly, from what I hear from the stands during games, I'm not surprised at the violence in our communities. How can the kids be expected to display good sportsmanship and follow the rules if we don't set that example for them? Children are not born bad. Behavior both good and bad is learned.

When I arrived at the site of my game assignment on Tuesday I learned that there had been a shooting near C.H. Flowers High School. Flowers is well known for its science and technology program that draws students from all over the county. What may not be so well known is that not all of the neighborhoods that feed children to Flowers High School are created equal. There are kids from Glenarden, Palmer Park and Ardmore attending Flowers. According to a story in the Washington Post, there are gangs representing each of these areas and students from these gangs attending Flowers. The principle of Flowers High School, Helena Nobles-Jones says that "claims that the shooting involved gang activity at the school were hysteria". She does admit to seeing graffiti tags at the school, but denies that there is any connection between gangs and any incidents that brought harm to her students. It may be premature to make that assumption, but I think there is some degree of ignorance in Ms. Jones' statement.

The problem with these neighborhood gangs or crews as some call them is that they are a team in and of themselves. They are comprised of people with similar backgrounds who most likely lack a sense of family at home. Their members don't value life and don't hesitate to use weapons to settle disputes. We as parents have to participate in the lives of our children. We must be advocates for them. We must model acceptable behavior for them. Sports can be used as a tool to teach kids good sportsmanship and teamwork. Please model that behavior at home as well. Please talk to your children. Please listen to your children. Please give them a reason to live so that more innocent lives are not snuffed out by senseless acts of violence.

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