LOCAL TEENS EXPRESS VIEWS AT SUMMIT

Teens want more activities geared toward youth, for teachers to act like they care, for police to listen to them.

Those were some of the issues discussed by participants at the Teen Summit 2000 Youth Conference held Saturday at the Salvation Army.

And while the adults who organized the conference are committed to helping turn some of these wants into reality, they said an even more important result of the summit was seeing the teens realize they could have impact on some of these things themselves.

"Talking about subjects like schools and drugs made them look inside themselves," said Kim Johnson, a substitute teacher who was a moderator for sessions in which teens not only talked about problems but also looked for solutions.

At the sessions, moderators lead participants in discussions about programs and activities for youth, how to get drugs out of the community, how to improve the relationship between police and the community and ensuring the success of students in school.

Shardace McCauley, a 14-year-old St. Mary's Catholic School eight-grader, said more programs for youth would help in many ways, keeping youth active and away from drugs and improving school work.

"A community center with computers, learning centers and sports would be great," she said.

Dr. Deanna Corbett, a construction manager at Procter and Gamble who served as a moderator at the conference, said many participants voiced this need.

"It's not just providing activities," she said. "It's doing so in a place that is accessible to teens or providing transportation to get there."

And while many participants wanted places to play sports, Corbett said most also want more access to computers for school work or help with homework.

Equilla Jones, a 13-year-old Schultz School student, said she'd like to have more help at knowing what she wants to do when she grows up.

Corbett said the need for more career counseling came up in one group as they talked about the problems of drugs.

"The teens said many kids do drugs because they don't see other alternatives," Corbett said. "They thought Job Corps, skills training and career counseling would let teens see the many other things they could do with their lives."

This theme was also echoed in a afternoon program by motivational speaker Dwayne Bryant of Chicago. He said teens have to be exposed to the greater world to greater possibilities or they won't know they exist.

He emphasized to the teen participants that what they do now can affect them their whole lives. And if they don't plan for the future, they might not have a future.

"It's easy to talk about being successful," Bryant said. "But to actually be successful, you have to do something about it."

He urged the teens to set goals for themselves, then set out to find out what they need to do to reach those goals and not let things like drugs, family, sex and peer pressure get in their way.

Corbett said most of the teens at the summit felt the police did an important job, but some felt they had been harassed by police officers in the past. She said teens felt it would help if there was more opportunities for the police and teens to get to know one another.

Phil Brooks, a 14-year-old student from Cape Junior High School, said school is difficult when only about 25 percent of the teachers act like they care.

Johnson said the teens at the summit felt schools would be more effective with new and updated materials, teachers giving students more learning tools and going more in-depth into subjects.

Bryant said many teachers and schools could be better, but he also put responsibility for school success back on the teens.

"You have to set higher expectations for yourselves," Bryant said. "If you know you could do better but you choose not to, you have settled for mediocrity."