Forum focuses on youth
Stewart Smith
Staff Reporter
Members of the
Huntsville Youth Council spoke at Monday night’s monthly Diversity Forum meeting
on their ideas to promote diversity, the problems they face and how the city’s
adults can play a role in finding solutions.
The Diversity Forum’s adult members had earlier requested the Huntsville Youth
Council (HYC) present their own ideas on how to best promote diversity among
students. The council suggested that area organizations and entities sponsor
events such as a concert where bands of various genres and ethnic backgrounds
perform or “mixer” events attended by a wide variety of area churches.
Morgan Allyn, HYC representative to the city council, said the idea is to
promote diversity without labeling the event as such and, as a result,
facilitating higher attendance.
“They don’t know they’re being diverse, but they are,” Allyn said.
Many of the adults in attendance, which included several public officials and
city leaders such as Mayor J. Turner, Huntsville Police Chief Jean Sanders and
City Councilman Jack Choate, agreed with ideas, but some suggested that nothing
will be truly accomplished by the city’s youth until the adults are just as
willing to embrace diversity.
“We have these goals and objectives for the youth in our community, and they are
things that most adults are not willing to do,” said HISD School Board member
Karin Williams. “So while we want the youth to get together and have ice cream
with another church, we probably ought to see if the adults of that church would
get together too. The youth are not going to change until the adults do.”
Citing the results of a 2001 Search Institute Survey study of HISD 7th through
12th-grade students, HYC also expressed concerns about the reported drug usage
among Huntsville teens (27 percent reported using marijuana in the last 12
months), heavy alcohol abuse (43 percent reported using alcohol in the last 30
days) and high sexual activity (46 percent reported having had sexual
intercourse one or more times).
“It’s scary how many girls you see walking around the hallways with pregnant
bellies and how many people are doing things in school,” said HYC Co-Chair
Caroline Erb. “And it shocks you to hear about the drugs that are going on
around town and the alcohol.”
Erb said the council hopes by coming up with ideas for activities which diverge
from the usual trips to the movie theater and the bowling alley.
John Escobedo, president of the local League of United Latin American Citizens
Council, said ultimately the well being of Huntsville’s youth falls in the hands
of their parents.
“We need to get control as parents,” Escobedo said. “We give kids cars and
credit cards and cell phones, but we don’t give them strict rules to follow. The
parents have got to understand that responsibility. And if the parent doesn’t
show them, then we can have other people teach them how they need to act.”
10.10.06
Huntsville's Promise