Quote:
Originally posted by momoftwo
Some things have changed in Northbrook since May 4. Tickets for curfew violations are already at the total they reached all last year. There's apparently a greater police presence in the parks and forest preserve. When neighbors see signs of teens and drugs or alcohol, they are calling the police. It seems like the community is trying to make a statement about what behavior they consider acceptable.
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Which could be helpful, but, at least in part, is the proverbial closing the gate when the horse is already out of the stable.
Frankly, I find the curfew tickets thing disturbing -- because I don't recall curfew being a part of this equation. It's easy for it to become open season on kids in the minds of some law enforcement.
The extra patrols in parks, etc. probably aren't a bad thing, and anytime neighbors get involved in drug or alcohol problems, it's probably also a good thing. You simply have to hope that the "community statement" doesn't penalize all the kids who aren't breaking the law.
This entire situation is of interest to me because we live (and our kids attended) in a school system which is probably a lot like Northbrook. Of the five (soon to be six) high schools in the district, three of them are on "the list," one above and two below your school. One of them had 42 National Merit Scholars or Finalists in it's last graduating class. It's an amazing system, but the social interactions are so complicated, and often so confusing to a teenager, it's amazing that there aren't many more incidents. The kids there have just as many opportunities to get into trouble as those in less desirable neighborhoods. But, in many cases, it's different kind of trouble.
Or perhaps there are as many incidents, and we just don't hear about them.
Then there's living about ten miles from Columbine High School, where the area is, demographically, probably very much like Northbrook. Maybe not quite as affluent, but close. The shooters were bullied, called names, etc. Which is basically hazing.
We necessarily concentrate so much on the inner-city schools, while gigantic problems fester in the suburbs as well.
It's a worrisome situation at best.