Inside Report: Local group addresses anger in Baton Rouge area youth

Our youth are alarmingly angry.

That was among the Black Family Initiative’s most-salient findings after more than a year of counseling juvenile delinquents in Baton Rouge.

It’s a reality that troubles the Rev. Donald Hunter Sr., the New Beginning Baptist Church pastor who serves as director of the multidenominational initiative.

“We’re very concerned about the impact of this anger problem on a child’s ability to function well in an environment such as education,” Hunter said.

“We have young people that are angry,” he added, “and it’s causing them to be separated from the school environment. So many are being suspended and expelled because of this anger problem.”

The Black Family Initiative, a coalition of pastors and community leaders, has sought to address anger management and related issues such as juvenile crime. Drawing on resources from their own congregations, organizers designed an intervention model that Hunter says is getting through to vulnerable youth in some of the city’s most crime-ridden neighborhoods.

Working with referrals from court and corrections officials, the organization conducted more than 950 therapy sessions with about 100 families over the past year. More than half of the referrals related to anger management, Hunter said.

So what’s fueling this anger? While there’s no single cause, absent fathers are often a common denominator.

“The impact that fathers have on children is significant,” Hunter said, “and when they don’t have that person involved in their lives, it could very well be one of the reasons why they are angry. When a child’s father is not in the home, they recognize that, and it creates a kind of culture that leaves that child at least wanting in areas of development.”

After identifying the source of the anger, counselors try to instill a more-positive outlook in the youth. The interventions are designed to develop self-esteem, improve social skills and promote family unity.

“Family counseling is significant in our intervention,” said Hunter, who plans to address the challenges in more detail at a summit next month.

More than 62 percent of the juveniles did not commit new offenses, said Hunter, who also noted that at least one of the children in the program was murdered.

“The research speaks to what we have to do and the effectiveness of counseling and intervention,” state Sen. Sharon Weston Broome, D-Baton Rouge, said at the Feb. 6 initiative news conference. “I certainly applaud them for this effort.”

The research and counseling last year was funded by a $30,000 grant, Hunter said, and another $15,000 has been secured from the state Office of Juvenile Justice for funding through June.

The initiative has focused on the northern part of East Baton Rouge Parish, including the high-crime 70805 ZIP code area. But Metro Councilwoman Ronnie Edwards said she would like to see the model implemented throughout the community.

“I really see this as a smart initiative,” Edwards said. “We’re taking public policy and public dollars and we’re putting them to smart use, which means the dividends and the return on investment to our community are huge.”

“I would love to see this recommended across the community,” she added. “We’re talking about some of the most vulnerable families in the community.”

Jim Mustian covers law enforcement in East Baton Rouge Parish. His email is [e-mail]

Comments

1) Comment by Melisse3 - 27/02/2013

Whatnow nailed it. As long as we continue to reward behavior, it will continue. Single women having multiple children on welfare will continue to fuel the problem. It needs to be addressed.

2) Comment by bourbon-soda - 27/02/2013

Google "anger fatherless" - it is a tenable hypothesis that absence of a father is a precursor to this kind of anger. Lots of credible people have written about it. Holding government accountable because of subsidy of fatherlessness, is not an unreasonable position.

3) Comment by bourbon-soda - 27/02/2013

@twinkle - your response to Whatnow is straw man fallacy - just in case any teachers of critical thought are still reading this.

4) Comment by Attila - 26/02/2013

Silly people...everyone knows it is the white man's fault. So just shut up and keep on paying those taxes so that those who would rather make excuses than actually work to improve their lot in life can continue to receive the guvment bennies,.

5) Comment by twinkie1cat - 26/02/2013

Presumed joint custody of the baby is a solution no one seems to want to look at here. That is where both the mother and the father are equally responsible for the child. No one pays child support, but both parents participate in the child rearing and support. This may help resolve the problem if these hot mama females realize they are going to have to have a relationship with their baby daddies until the children are grown, that they are not going to be able to use the guys as ATM machines and that the babies do not just belong to the mother. Might also help if the mothers are sent to jail for denying the fathers access to the kids like guys are now for not paying child support.

6) Comment by twinkie1cat - 26/02/2013

So Whatnow are you recommending that we pay for women to get abortions??? Or are you going to force them to be sterilized or wear a chastity belt until they make enough money to support a child by your backwards Republican judgement? In rural India they used to pay poor men to get a vasectomy. Maybe that is your solution. You going to volunteer for the first one? I think it would take a little more than a radio, which is what Jindal's relatives gave to the men who agreed to the surgery.

7) Comment by twinkie1cat - 26/02/2013

Make school relevant to the kids and stop trying to force everyone to be "college prep". Take the emphasis off of testing. Have a vocational diploma that readies and certifies students for an entry level skilled job by the time they graduate, something that pays more than minimum wage routinely---LPN, welder, cosmetologist, large appliance repair, auto mechanics. Make sure that all children who appear to have disabilities are tested and placed in special education of the variety that is best for them and that they are taught by certified special educators. Don't try to keep everyone on the "same page" but make sure that everyone with an IQ higher than 50 can read and write functionally by the time they graduate. Get rid of Teach for America and put the $5000 a year paid by the school systems for each of them into scholarships for Education majors. HIre only real teachers to be teachers and give them tenure and evaluations only every three years after tenure happens. Pay for them to get a Masters Degree.>>>>>>>> And here is something that will really help. Eliminate suspensions and expulsions. If a child is sent to In-school suspension more than once, he gets a full special education evaluation and ongoing counseling, a mentor, and a behavior plan with a really good reward if he completes it. No long term suspensions (more than three days) except for bringing a loaded weapon and no expulsions. Long term suspensions must be no more than a semester and provide educational services at home as well as counseling both for the student and the family. School social workers with power and connections to assist with home issues. Get rid of uniforms. Make sure every child has recess. Parenting students get an educational daycare center on campus. Medical and dental care at school. It will cost some money to do the schools right, but it will be a lot less than keeping a person in prison because they were angry.

8) Comment by Whatnow - 26/02/2013

It will stay this way until the government quits paying women to have babies. If they had to pay for them themselves, maybe they would learn to say no or used the free condoms that are everywhere. The women don't even hold the baby daddies responsible, so why should they be?

9) Comment by nimby? - 26/02/2013

how do we get mothers to be moms , fathers to be dads , children to stay in school , not have children they don't want , can't afford or take care of ? it doesn't take a village , just a person putting one foot in front of the other going in the right direction , choose your path .

10) Comment by phil - 26/02/2013

So how many more generations will there be of angry kids who grow up to be angry adults who raise more angry kids and the cycle just goes on and on.

11) Comment by Melisse3 - 26/02/2013

And if those same youth keep listening/buying today's popular urban music, you are just swimming upstream.

12) Comment by [e-mail] - 26/02/2013

Anger? So what else is new? They've been told since birth that nothing is their fault, that they have a right to everything anybody else has, that schools must succeed in educating them, etc. When any of those things doesn't happen they get angry; then they're owed something by somebody, and somebody had better ante up.

13) Comment by tradewinns - 26/02/2013

their "anger" is the same as a spoiled child. there has been little to no discipline in their "family" so the kid is use to doing what they want when they want with no punishment. they just carry this over into their adult life. in fact they carry this into the prisons with them and usually learn there they are not the top dog in life. that from other prisoners not from our failed justice system.

14) Comment by bourbon-soda - 26/02/2013

A mentor once told me, if you want someone to hate you, give him something. If you want them to hate and despise you, keep giving it until he needs it.