Stopping youth violence

Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009 | 2:06 a.m.

The beating death in Chicago of 16-year-old honor student Derrion Albert by other teens, a shocking incident caught on video by a cell phone user, has brought national attention to the soaring youth violence that is gripping the city.

Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said that during the previous school year in Chicago, more than 500 school-age children were shot and at least 36 were killed. In June he urged the Obama administration to work with state and local agencies to help end the violence.

Chicago Public Schools followed up this month by announcing a $30 million plan to help students most at risk of being gunshot victims by matching them with counselors, social workers and jobs.

Tragically, the plea from Durbin and the school initiative did nothing to prevent Albert from being bludgeoned last week by assailants armed with railroad ties as he was walking home from school.

The only thing that can prevent more of this needless bloodshed from happening in Chicago or anywhere else, for that matter, is to have a national conversation on youth violence with an enforceable plan of action.

Every relevant topic should be on the table, no matter how controversial. There is a good chance that many violent youngsters have little or no supervision from parents or other responsible adult mentors, lack education or job opportunities, and perhaps lack transportation to access programs that can keep them out of trouble. What they do have in many cases is easy access to weapons, drugs and other vestiges of gang culture.

When they look to the future, they don’t see any hope. They have no motivation to succeed in life.

Those are the very reasons why stopping youth violence should be made a national priority, one that merits participation not only from parents, schools and police, but also from Congress and state legislatures.

Americans say they want a peaceful and prosperous nation. How does that square with the likes of Albert and other children who are being robbed of promising futures?