Columnist Sandra Thompson: Politicians must hear kids’ voices

Sandra Thompson

Saturday, Sept. 16, 2000 | 6:27 a.m.

Sandy Thompson is vice president/associate editor of the Las Vegas Sun. She can be reached at 259-4025 or e-mail at thompson@lasvegassun.com

FOR YEARS the Junior League of Las Vegas has been championing the causes of children to ensure that each child has a chance for success.

In that vein, the league sponsored the Candidates' Forum on Children last Wednesday at Tam Alumni Hall at UNLV. The audience included representatives of local groups and agencies dedicated to improving children's lives. Although nearly every political candidate was invited to attend, only a handful showed up: Assemblywoman Gene Segerblom, state Sen. Ray Rawson, state Senate candidate Terrie Stanfill and state Board of Education candidate Theresa Malone. State Sen. Jon Porter, who's running for Congress, sent a representative.

Does that tell you how important children's issues are to politicians?

To be fair, there are some dedicated lawmakers and aspiring lawmakers who are interested in these issues, and scheduling conflicts always occur during a campaign.

But there were two main messages that every lawmaker -- and every resident of this community -- should hear about. The first deals with needs; the other is coming up with the best approach to see that those needs are met.

There was a general consensus that children's voices, particularly those who are young, are not being heard. (That's also been a familiar theme of this column.) The forum speakers focused on specific areas: homeless youths, teen pregnancy, foster care, education and providing kids under 6 with a solid foundation on which to grow.

Kathleen Boutin, with the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth, estimates there are 300 youths living in the streets around UNLV. Most left home because of physical or sexual abuse. There are a "few thousand" more who are "couch surfers" -- those who move around, spending different nights at the homes of friends or relatives.

There are few if any programs to deal with these youths. Boutin is supporting legislation that would grant civil liability immunity to agencies that serve these youths without parental consent. Now, she says, if a youth shows up at a soup kitchen, he must have a note from a parent to say he can eat. How ridiculous is that?

Boutin's organization has been passing out phone cards and food vouchers to these kids, and has volunteers to talk to them one on one. The group wants to open a drop-in center and emergency shelter for these youths, many of whom are pregnant or already have a child.

Nevada's teen pregnancy rate is dropping, but not by much. We're still fourth in the nation. Fran Courtney of the Clark County Health District says 12 percent of all births in Clark County are due to teen pregnancy.

She supports more effective family life and sexuality education in the schools, teen pregnancy prevention community action teams, family planning programs and after-school programs to keep kids busy and out of trouble.

Michael Fitzgerald of the Nevada Department of Education advocates improving the quality of teachers, setting standards and increasing accountability. One of his best suggestions was to extend the school day (this must be done for high schools if we are to improve education and graduation rates) and the school year.

These are areas we, as a community, can work to improve. But how? There already are an amazing number of agencies, groups, initiatives and collaboratives raising awareness and advocating for children. Yet Nevada's children aren't that much better off than they were 10 years ago.

It's time for all these segments to pull together (leave the turf battles and egos at the door, please) and form a major, special-interest bloc. (Politicians understand special interests.) Then use that power to lobby the Legislature to do what's right for our kids even if it's politically or financially painful at the beginning.

Here's an approach we can borrow from the gaming industry: Casinos treat their high-rollers like gold. They cater to their every need.

Let's treat our kids like high-rollers.