We are pleased to announce that we have now connected with more than 500 members of the Reclaiming Youth Network on Facebook!   Are you a part of the network?  If not, we invite you to join us! Simply go to Reclaiming Youth Network and join.  This is a great way to network with others who work with at-risk youth and families.  Share ideas and help others with one of the discussion topics.

If you are already a member of the Reclaiming Youth Network, there are posted discussions/questions from colleagues who need to hear from you!  Please visit and share your ideas!

In some of my education classes at Augustana College, I ask my students to "write a letter to a teacher or student that made such an impression but you never had a reason to write him or her before. Consider this your opportunity." One of my students submitted this powerful letter to a classmate that bullied her. It might be something that some of you may want to read to your students with follow-up conversation and discussion. ~ Steve Van Bockern

Letter to a Bully

Dear KC,

I’m not sure that you remember me; it was for only a short time that we knew each other. But it was in that brief span of life that you had made my existence painful and nearly unendurable. My name is Audrey. In that land of preteen hierarchy called middle school, I was made the victim by your cruel words and actions.

It must take some sort of genius to do as you did; to turn away those I had been friends with, and those I would never know. To spread rumors with no foundations in reality; to plant their seeds and reap the withered fruits they produced. To tear me apart with a surgical precision that left me breathless and alone. But perhaps I grow too poetic in my nostalgia, too gracious in my words of praise. Your intelligence was no more than that of a pouting child with power; perfect skin and hair, the magic combination of popularity.

In just a couple of months, the 17th Annual Black Hills Seminars will take place in Rapid City, South Dakota amidst the unique and beautiful landscape of the Black Hills. This event is consistently referred to by participants as ‘the best conference and training I have ever attended!’ We know how sincere they are because our return rate is high and ‘recommended by a friend or co-worker’ is the response most-often indicated for our survey question “How did you hear about us?”

The 2010 Black Hills Seminar will be exceptional in many regards. We will be celebrating the 20th Anniversary of "Reclaiming Youth at Risk: Our Hope for the Future" - the book that started it all. In addition, we are pleased to announce that Dr. Temple Grandin, world-renowned autism advocate and animal behavior expert, and Dr. Sandra Bloom, acclaimed trauma expert, will be presenting at the Conference along with a host of other distinguished presenters. A full listing of conference workshop descriptions will be posted on our website at the end of this month.

Contributed by:

Edna Olive

RYI Board Member, Exec. Director of Rocket, Inc. (www.rocketinc.net),

Author of Positive Behavior Facilitation

“Nine teens are charged in bullying that led to girl’s suicide”

“All teachers fired from local school”

“State Senate offers budget plan cutting $1.4 billion from schools”

Yes, these headlines are real. Each of them came from local news sources printed during the last two weeks. I don’t know about you, but when I read stories such as these, it’s easy for me to get fixated on the negativity of the world and the challenges facing those of us in the field of education, advocacy and child care. It’s easy to forget that in the midst of these headlines, there are children who need and deserve our support. In other words, it’s easy to forget what’s important.

A Book Review of

Rethinking Juvenile Justice

Elizabeth S. Scott and Laurence Steinberg

2008, Harvard University Press

Reviewed by Steve Van Bockern

A 12-year-old charged with two counts of homicide will stand trial as an adult. The boy is charged in the February 2009 shooting deaths of his father’s pregnant fiancée and her unborn son, Christopher. The boy was 11 at the time of the killings. If convicted of murder as an adult, he faces life in prison without parole.

Our courts are faced with the dilemma of trying to determine when children and if children should be tried as adults. Questions abound:

• When is a child a child and adult an adult?Even when there is an horrendous act of violence by a child, is she less culpable by virtue of her immaturity?  
• At what age does a person become fully responsible for crimes committed? 
• Is trying children as adults successful? How do you define success? 
• Do juvenile courts rehabilitate better than adult prisons?