Troubled Teens Resources

Are middle school age adolescents vulnerable to the attraction of gangs? Does it really start so young? Yes, unfortunately, most teen crisis intervention has to start well before a child enters his teens, in fact, pre-teens are as vulnerable to the cultural hype as their high school counterparts. That’s why new programs for troubled teens about gang recruitment now are aimed at middle school.

“The presence of Tracy’s Gang Task Force at Monte Vista Middle School on Tuesday morning was akin to putting out a grass fire before it becomes an inferno, officials said.

While officers said that the school was far from being a hotbed of gang activity, they were quick to note that middle school years are when students are most vulnerable to being recruited by a gang.

“This is the time when they start seeing it and it starts to become normal to them. The real danger is when they feel that joining a gang is the normal thing to do,” said officer Ricardo Hernandez. “We want to get the message to them now before they hit the high school level.”

The presentation included detailed photos of gang activity and members, a drug dog demonstration and stark descriptions of what that lifestyle is really all about.

“It really hits them when they start seeing pictures of gang members here in Tracy,” Hernandez said. “Then they realize it is happening all around them and not just on television.”
(source)

With the immense peer pressure endured by teenagers combined with a culture that has come to depict drug abuse and out of control behavior as glamorous, what good do mere words from parents have on the impressionable young children and troubled teens in their care?

Plenty. More than you know, trust me. This was brought home to me in one incident that I can recall from my teenager’s life. I had casually cautioned him that no matter how much he admired his friends, friends could lead him astray simply because they were operating with faulty information. The topic that produced this mundane bit of advice was around the subject of drug abuse and the “latest research” that suggested marijuana had no long lasting detrimental effects on a teen’s development. The particular purveyor of this faulty information was, at the time, a star athlete and top student who was just beginning to dabble in drugs and purported to have all of the latest info.

I advised my son that to be a good friend, perhaps he should take the time to research this on his own. His friend’s info turned out to be sourced from a popular counter culture magazine that omitted all research contradicting his assertions.

My son later confided that because of that one seemingly inconsequential conversation, he rejected any future efforts by his peer group to experiment with drugs. He did the research and learned that even the brightest and most admirable of his buddies could be dead wrong.

So, yes, please do talk with your kids about drug and alcohol abuse. They may spurn your attempts and it may seem that they didn’t hear a word, but, trust me, they are listening .
Talk With Kids is a highly informative site that helps parents conduct these conversations with their young pre-teens and troubled teens. Visit, bookmark it ,and use it.