Speaker hopes to highlight other side of juvenile justice

Dan Kulin

Monday, March 29, 2004 | 10:58 a.m.

Growing up with domestic and substance abuse in the home, Zulema Ruby White's younger brother was troubled and often in trouble -- becoming a ward of the state in the 10th grade, and then was in and out of jail until he was 26, when he was killed.

White also ran into trouble as a youth. And when she was in the 10th grade and about to flunk speech class because she skipped school too often, her teacher offered her a deal: Compete in two speech competitions and she would pass the class.

In her first contest White went up against 150 other teens and came in seventh. The high showing meant White made it to the final round of the competition -- and showed her she was good at something, she said.

"I never quit that team. ... Then I went on to college majoring in speech and I wouldn't have done that without him," White said of her 10th-grade teacher. "And now I get to go all over the country to speak about how we need to listen to children."

White, a University of Nevada, Reno graduate, is a keynote speaker at the 31st National Conference on Juvenile Justice, which is being held at the Rio through Wednesday.

Although White isn't in law enforcement or courtroom work like many others among 1,700 people expected at the conference, she hopes to show them that there are many different ways to deal with the families and children they come into contact with.

"I want to get them to open up their minds," White said. "My specialty is domestic violence, and we all come with different perspectives: the police, judges and advocates. I want them to see there are possibly three sides to a story: theirs, the others' and another somewhere in the middle.

"We are all dealing with families with more than one issue ... but everyone is seeing it through their own lens."

White also said she wants to encourage more cooperation between the agencies and organizations that deal with the different issues that a family in trouble could be facing, such as domestic violence, substance abuse, and juvenile delinquency.

"We're finding that these things are connected but we're not connecting them," White said. "I don't do juvenile justice, I do family violence, but they are starting to understand they are all connected."

White is also expected to give those at the conference a victim's perspective of the family problems they see, and White said she hopes to inspire some at the conference with her story of success "from a life with many challenges."

Jim Toner, dean of National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, based in Reno, said White's speech, which was scheduled for this morning, would give conference attendees a chance to "recharge their batteries ... through a story of resiliency and success."

But White is quick to say there is never one reason why troubled kids turn out successful or don't. There is no one reason to explain why she and her brother came from the same home in in El Centro, Calif., 12 miles from the Mexican border -- but now White is now a happy 35-year-old mother of two living and working in Reno, and her brother is dead.

The paths they were directed to while both in the 10th grade had a big impact on their lives, she said. But neither was the single reason they ended up where they are now, she said.

"People want a recipe card, but nobody can say what will work in your community or with each child, we have to think of each child as an individual," White said, a program manager with the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, and a former director of battered women's shelter in Reno.

But White said that there are general rules for helping youth, which she calls "the ABCs." Children and teens need attention, which can come through participating in sports; bonds, such as with a parent or peers; and communication, which she said doesn't mean talking to the youth, but having a dialogue with them.

For example, in the case of her brother Ruben Ruiz, White said that being taken away from his family not only severed the bond he had with their mother, but also put him in a place where his peers would have a negative impact on him.

"If you get children in trouble and lump them together, it's actually counter-productive," she said.

Teresa Lowry, head of the juvenile division of the Clark County district attorney's office, said the conference is an important source of information for those working with youth. Lowry arranged for all the attorneys in her division to attend.

Lowry said she agreed with White that the solution to many family problems is a complex one.

"I started out as a child abuse and neglect social worker so I know you have to be big picture," Lowry said. "And I think we work together as early as we can, most agencies strive for that. But unfortunately I think you'll find that most are also dealing with a large volume of cases and a lack of funding and staffing."