Some of the most interesting and amazing things happen when campus organizations team up with one another. Shortly before Fall Break, Longwood members of the National Criminal Justice Honors Society, Alpha Phi Sigma (APS), gave a presentation on juvenile delinquency for educators to members of the International Honor Society in Education, Kappa Delta Pi (KDPi).
The idea of a collaboration between the two organizations came from senior criminal justice major and APS member Misty Watkins. The idea came to Watkins after she took a course on juvenile delinquency taught by Associate Professor of Criminal Justice Virginia R. Beard. "Knowing a number of future educators, I thought it was a shame Juvenile Delinquency was not a required class for them, especially because teachers interact with juvenile delinquents on an almost daily basis," said Watkins. The President of KDPi, senior Alison Moore, expressed interest in collaborating with APS on a presentation on juvenile delinquency for the members of KDPi and was invited to an APS meeting to discuss the presentation in more detail. Moore said, "We do learn about [juvenile delinquency] in our education classes to a minor degree, but to get this information from an expert perspective was very fascinating."
With the help of Dr. Beard, the members of APS gathered information on the subject and presented it to the members of KDPi on Thursday, Oct. 6, 2011. The presentation included information such as how juveniles make up 14 percent of criminal arrests and that six percent of juvenile delinquents are repeat offenders who have had five or more encounters with law enforcement. The presentation also stated how inadequate education is one of the five issues that can contribute to delinquent behavior in minors and that school failure is the best predictor of delinquency.
APS also addressed the relevant issue of bullying in schools and the five forms it can take: Physical, verbal, emotional, sexual, and cyber. Members of KDPi learned about several bullying prevention strategies that are currently in place in schools and the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of these strategies. Zero tolerance strategies are some of the most common bully prevention policies used in many schools nation-wide, where students are suspended or expelled for any act of bullying, or in some cases for even drawing violent pictures. However, evidence shows that zero tolerance strategies don't help in stopping crime and violence in schools because it doesn't leave the school any wiggle room to distinguish between genuine threats and innocent mistakes. The APS presenters said the best way to reduce the risk factors of bullying in schools is to focus on interactive teaching, cooperative learning and reducing class sizes.
Moore felt that the collaboration between the two organizations was very beneficial to the members of KDPi. "I hope that now our future educators will take a serious look at delinquency in schools and how to spot warning signs. Also,I hope that this will help us in our future goals of working with other organizations on campus and learning from them as well," said Moore, "We feel that connecting with other groups will help strengthen the feeling of Lancer Pride within us all."
