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Home My WebLink About7 - Items for Discussion/Information, Handout Article, A youth perspective on Boulder County•, Twaday, Feb,uary 13,1001 ua SECTION • A :J~CAL NEWS ,. ,.. . ., . ~A youth perspective on Boulder County : By Annaliese Reed very quickly and because of tha4 • most of them go undetected. ... - Edetor's note 1he jolJowing : passagr< nre excerpted jrom the : Young Columbru Award-winning ; essay 7hes year's Daily Camem ' contest was open to youth fn . •Boulder Coanty and requ~red them :- to read the paper ouer the cnurse oJ ~ three w¢eks and choose seuero! ~ssaes that concern th¢ youfh ' aud~ence : While readmg the Daily Caznera . Newspaper these last few weeks, I : began to noflce some recurring ~ issues in and azound Boulder • County that greatly aHect the lives - of the residents, namely those who - are under the age of 30 'Ihese ~ ~ssues range from tenslons with loc olice to issues invalving : s orientation 'Ihe issues that : yo . people of Boulder County • encounter are aRen overlooked by - the older half of the popula8on, ~ and it is important fhat they be ~ reported on and acknowledged so ' they can be more eHecHvely confronted and resolved. ... Drug use among young people has caused numerous acb of vlolence in the past few weeke end months A Longmont teenager was sentenced to 8 fourvyear youth prison sentence for hia part in a drug retated murder. In another case two I.afayette teenagere wete shot to deaffi for not paying for lwo pounds of inarijuana Subatance abuse tatea gte lilgher in Boulder Eountp thait in ptiret ' other places 1h fhe stete ot the country. It'e ao wonder fhet tewe and young peopk In the azea haoe sach big drug problema, becauee figurea In the commwilty that ' ahould be looked up to'are turning out to have aimilar iasues with illegal eubetaacee themeeh~es. One cese inwlves a dnig cout~eelot ~ fro~oom5eld getdng caught , e[t( vinaueed • ~ ~, ,, I found that there were many articles reporting on teen crime atid delinquency, but there were few aMicles that addressed how teens can instead put the'v time into communityenhancing acdvi8es. One article suggests that teens get involved in actividea sach as mentoring programa, aRer school programs, and community service projects. I have found that from my own experience, teens are very social people, and while such activities can be social, in general teens prefer juet hangfng out with friends. ... One thing that the cities in Boulder County can do to encourage these kids to keep from walking the streets is to install places for teenagers to go Because o[ Boulder County's lack of places to "hang out," there is more illegal activitq and more negadve police confronta4one. 'It~e new akate park fhat opened in November in Boulder le one place teena can go to hang out, but because it's oablde, it can only be uaed during ffie day and during good weather. Il'e not just fhe teena and high echool etudenb that need a place to "chW," but also the majority of the CU undergraduate eludenb that are under inveafiga ~n,t i~afficking. pi oblem is the i ~irnqfl In the ~S meth lebe ~ad t ' our easlly ubtaldLW~(~uduEed ie tl they ar~uRea u'sed es daldrape dnute.'llf~ee dabe=tabe drulCb er under 21. Most of the clubs and bars that are popular hangoute for the older crowd require a minimum age of 21 W be admitted, and there are aLnost no places to go for younger people to hear music, go dancing, and meet people. I think that if the city organiud a supetvised or semi- supervised teen center, lt would give young people a place W go away from the'v housea but not on the atreets. Keeping young people off the streets would decrease the amoant of IDegal activity and perhaps lower poGce tensions. . The majority of the problems with the yoanger people in Boulder County parallel the problems of dtug use. Ae drug use incceases, so do the number of crimes rnmmitted Looldng at the articles in the newspapers, I realized that most of the violent crimea were atcohol or drug related. Part of the drug problem is that kids have no where to go and no one pays attenHon to what they are doing 'Ihey are presented with the opporWnities to get into trouble . By providing locaNons for the youth to go around Boulder County, we may be able to resoWe other issues fhat oar community is faced wlth. s~~~- ~p'ec`~-{~~m i /~ ! ~' ~ ~ y