Youth Task Force assesses student needs

By Mike Marino
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — The meeting of the new Community Task Force, formed to deal with the growing problems of truancy and violence in the schools, got underway Wednesday morning at the Coyote del Malpais Golf Course.

The purpose of the task force, which includes representatives from different agencies in the community, is to formulate programs to help keep kids in school, and to deal with the problems they have in t society.

The Columbine school shootings, and the recent Virginia Tech campus shootings are unfortunate examples of a national concern. The fact that most of these acts of violence occur in smaller communities is especially alarming. Smaller communities tend to have high incidences of teen drug use and alcoholism that are contributing factors to these numbers of increased violence.

The room was packed with representatives from every level of the community, including schools, social service agencies, law enforcement and the city. Joanna Pena, who heads up the project said, "The main purpose of today's meeting is to follow up on where the different agencies are on the truancy issue, and what each agency is supposed to be doing with their departments. We will also be talking about bullying and to pitch a program today (of) preventative measures so we can, as a community, be proactive and not reactive."

In addition to the speakers, there was a half-hour film about a program called "Safe School Ambassadors" that tries to get a school's student body to get involved, to intervene in instances of bullying. Ron Lucero, the state truancy prevention coordinator for the department of education said, "We have to talk about attendance and not truancy. We have to treat the whole student and also focus on their home life and to address the adverse affects of truancy on a community."

Among those adverse affects are juvenile delinquency and drop-outs. When a student drops out of school, that person is less likely to have a well-paying job.

Another effect of truancy and rising drop out rates is the economic impact on schools. Money goes to schools based on criteria that includes the number of students enrolled.

"If a school has fewer students, then fewer dollars are available," Superintendent of Grants/Cibola County Schools Kilino Marquez said. "We have to make the schools and the classrooms more exciting, and we have to work harder to know our students and see more interaction between the teachers and students so they really get to know each other."

"Lemuel Martinez and the staff at the District Attorneys office are pleased to work with this group in anyway we can. Our office feels that the comprehensive approach this group is taking is great," Deputy District Attorney Randolph Collins said.

The DA's office also talked about how the economy is changing rapidly, and more education is now required to meet future job force needs of the nation. Staying in school and getting that education helps in reducing community crime numbers.

Mayor Joe Murietta of Grants was also present, and he said, "I'm here to see just how we can best help this program. We have discussed a school bullying ordinance for sometime now and are waiting for a final draft for council action."

Funding and grants were other issues discussed, and plans are to go after and secure those funds. The name of the task force was also an issue. Initially it was called the Truancy Task Force, but because it reaches further into the problem, Pena suggested they vote on a new name for the group. The name Youth Task Force was presented and the vote was unanimously in favor of the name change.

The meeting ended on a positive note as all the agencies begin to fine-tune strategy and allocate resources to treat this problem. The next meeting is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. June 20, 2007 in the clubhouse at the Coyote del Malpais golf course.