Teen Summit 10/17/15

The  atmosphere of this Saturday afternoon was full of expectations on the adult side and the youth. The meeting of the minds of actually several generations. The ages ranged from almost 70 all the way down to the babies that attended. The event was called "Teen Summit" and the jewels dropped by the youth almost left no room for the adults to add their two cents. I had no idea how much is being said by the youth in our schools that is going right over the adults heads. In our generation the bullies were the have nots that were jealous of the ones that had extras. If a child could not afford a hair cut or even five outfits to wear consecutively, he was the bully who took from the clean cut student. Nowadays these kids are saying if you can't keep up with the Jones' you are the one subject to be bullied.
I had a discussion with a friend that told a story of how after fifteen minutes standing outside of Wilson Middle School the language and attitudes of these students was so repulsive they wanted to go upside atleast three of these students heads. I mentioned that my kids attended the school and had to really sit back and think this was twelve years ago and in real time to me it was more like twenty years. You never know what the issues could be with these kids until you sit down and find a common denominator. The idea Sonya Arrington had when she brought these students and adults together was to bridge the communication gap not only between our youth and adults but also pool resources between the cities of Cleveland and Erie.

From the mouths of these young adults came statements like it starts in the home and the fact that if the adults want respect from the kids they have to live respectfully. Very deep and on point were the words of the commentator Marcus Atkinson.I didn't realize two of the Erie youth panelist I knew them since they were born but just had not been around them since they were babies. This gave me an even broader perspective to gauge the atmosphere and bridge the gap mentally. The issues of poverty and violence always go hand in hand along with the recidivism rate which actually has been lower over the last few years. Erie traditionally held its spot at number three in the state in population has slid down below one hundred thousand for the first time since the 1920's. So with this effort of reaching out along with finding out what petitions need to be put together and who to talk to as our district representatives to change the unbalanced laws we can all make a difference. Im looking forward to more of these panel discussions but as adults let's be more open for conversation and understanding the many changing issues of our youth. If you didn't know now you know
DAJOURNALIST