Thursday, April 22, 2010

http://insideandout.chicagopublicradio.org/content/marcus-run

I read this story about a 14-year-old named Marcus who had been getting involved with the wrong kind of people. He was into gangs (because he got encouragement from gang members) and running away from home for extended amounts of time. From this, he acquired a stigma of being a troubled kid, and was then constantly viewed this way at school. He grew tired of getting into trouble, and said he just wanted to learn, and liked to write. But he was getting wrongly accused of things at school because of his reputation. His mother would try to set limits for him, but they weren't strict enough, and he ended up running away again. He ran away for months and at the end of the article, he hadn't been found but when he is, he will be arrested, because he was already put under house arrest several times.
This kind of story is frustrating to read, because you realize that if Marcus had been growing up in a more nurturing environment, he wouldn't have had such troubles with the law. He had realized he had done wrong by participating with the gangs, but felt as if there was no true way out. He felt alone, as no one would believe him when he said he wasn't guilty of something at school. The stigma he carried, the one he got at the age of 14, affected the rest of his life. Now, I realize we can't simply eliminate gangs and bad influences in neighborhoods, but I feel like if kids were provided with people at school who gave them a chance and didn't judge them, they maybe wouldn't get into such trouble. No one really believed in Marcus; no one gave him an alternative to getting into trouble. If we would only give kids this chance, and try to understand them, I think more kids would be able to stay out of the court systems and make something of themselves.

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