Parenting Strangers, part 2 - Thugs & Gangsters

First, a fact - better than 30% of the kids that enter high school do not graduate.  It's been that way for a long time.

In the early 90's, I took a job with the City in a youth program that didn't yet exist.  The idea was simple.  Hire kids who had dropped out, were on probation or parole, and give them a job and teach them primary job skills.

Primary job skills are the stuff most of us understand without being taught; how to show up, how to show up on time, how to dress appropriately, how to take instruction from a supervisor, etc.  Stuff we learned because our parents cared enough to send us to school everyday, on time, looking nice, and then asked us in the evening how school went and whether or not we had any homework.  Stuff we learned because our parents had jobs.

We hired four kids and we were lucky.  The first four were bright and wanted a chance to do something with their lives.  They all had rap-sheets as long as your arm and had spent considerable time in juvenile detention.  One of them was arrested and sent to prison along with a couple of his buddies for carjacking and killing an old man after he'd been with us for about six months.  The other three had jobs, one was married, and they were doing well last time I checked.

My job was to take out a work crew and mow all the Fire Department properties in the city.  It's a big city.  There are a lot of Fire Stations ranging in size from half an acre to twenty acres.  That first year was a challenge.  I lead by example.

The program was a success.  After a year, we hired more leaders and more kids and took on new jobs.

The City Management was confused.  We were successful, i.e., our kids stayed out of jail when they were with us and for long afterwords and organization from all over the country were surprised and envious of our success.  But the liability of having large numbers of thugs and gangsters on the city payroll was a strain on their tolerance.

I loved the kids.  But the City Management was horrible.  So bad, I finally quit in the year 2000.

There were other factors; personal issues and a desire to write.