'They are being robbed of their childhood'
KIDS 'NEED RECESS' | Students in violent neighborhoods should have physical, artistic and social outlets to help them cope with the trauma of their everyday lives, experts say
Maybe kids do know best.
For a social studies project this year, fifth-graders at Little Village Academy plotted a cost-free way to counter the guns and gangs that plague their neighborhood:
(Brian Jackson/Sun-Times file)
PHOTO GALLERY
Violence through children's eyes
The Sun-Times surveyed nearly 500 students at three public elementary schools, interviewed children and examined their artwork to assess the effects of violence.
Tuesday: What We Found | Half of middle-grade students know a friend or relative who has been shot at. A third know a friend or relative who has been shot to death. Half said their "greatest fear'' was gun-related.
Wednesday: What It Means | Violence is robbing many kids of their childhood and leaving them feeling trapped in their homes. That can have academic, social, behavioral and emotional repercussions.
Today: Ways to Heal | Arts, crafts, sports and the like aren't just fun. They could be a balm to help kids heal from the effects of violence.
They asked parents to volunteer to lead after-school programs in drawing, painting, handcrafts, dancing, sports, cheerleading and chess.
"Kids would be interested in after-school programs and it would keep their minds off gangs," explained Marissa Juarez, 11. "It would keep them inside and safe."
The fifth-graders also may have hit on just what they need to help them heal from the effects of urban violence.
The physical, social and artistic outlets kids urged are among the coping mechanisms experts recommend for those touched by violence. Similar activities are used with children in war-torn countries.
In the first two days of "Schooled in Fear," the Chicago Sun-Times reported how kids at public elementary schools in three areas of the city -- Little Village Academy, Sexton Elementary in Woodlawn and Talcott Elementary in West Town -- have been affected by violence.
Students reported being afraid to run to the store, walk to the library, play freely outside their homes, and even play with other kids on their block.
"I'm saddened" by the Sun-Times' findings, said Sexton Principal Ginger Bryant. "I'm a little angry because I feel my children are being cheated of really experiencing life. . . . They are being robbed of their childhood.''
The same kids who say they can't play freely outside their homes due to violence don't get much relief during school, either.
Not one of the three schools the Sun-Times surveyed offers recess. Most kids in all three get gym only once a week.
Only one school has an art teacher. All three offer optional after-school activities, but kids said they could use more.
Only a third of all Chicago public elementary schools have regularly scheduled recess, officials say. Some kids figure lack of recess is just another message from adults that it's not safe to be outside.
"Maybe [we don't have recess] because they are afraid of what will happen to us,'' said one Little Village fifth-grader.
The kind of child-led "free play" kids enjoy on playgrounds "is one way they process trauma," said James Garbarino, director of the Center for the Human Rights of Children at Loyola University Chicago.
Art, recess and physical activity benefit all children, but "kids with difficult lives need them more than other kids,'' he said. "It's a nasty irony that they are less likely to have these things.''
Garbarino likened the Sun-Times survey responses to those of children in war zones and said they are "a call to action.''
At Sexton, 12-year-old Terry Barry used to play basketball at a court across the street from his house, but he hasn't been there much since one gang opened fire on another there in September. Now, his main form of exercise is the martial arts class he takes for protection.
The fifth-grader said kids could use more exercise; he wants daily gym and recess. He says he can tell the difference in kids after their weekly gym class.
"After gym, people are all happy,'' Terry said. Afterward, in class, "They don't get out of their seats. They sit and pay attention. They are more calm.''
The Community Stress Prevention Center in Kiryat Shmona, Israel, recommends physical exercise, art and social activities for traumatized children in war-ravaged countries, but the methods work with kids in other situations, said Frank Zenere, a national child crisis expert and school psychologist for the Miami-Dade County public schools
Physical activity and organized sports are not only "diversions, but they are also ways of healing,'' Zenere said. "It gives people a mental break and builds endurance."
Sports also provide a chance for kids to socialize and gather strength from others, Zenere said.
In war-torn areas, Zenere said, psychologists using the Kiryat Shmona model also will stock a tent with artists materials and "kids will be drawn to it like magnets," covering the walls with drawings of what they've experienced.
"Not everybody is comfortable sitting down and chatting. But given another way, [kids will] come forth and tell you what their concerns are," Zenere said.
On the South Side, one second-grade teacher at Sexton asked kids to draw violence they'd seen and was surprised at some of the results. A little boy drew himself watching from a window as one man shot another man in the stomach. A classmate drew her aunt being "car-jacked" at gunpoint.
But with pressure to produce specific math and reading scores in the wake of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, arts have fallen by the wayside at some schools, to the detriment of the "whole child," said Barbara Radner, director of DePaul University's Center for Urban Education.
"We need to give kids what they need. They need recess. They need arts. And they need it built into the regular day. Kids who face all these challenges need all this the most,'' Radner said. "You've identified a serious problem.''
Chicago elementary schools have the 12th-shortest instructional day among the hundreds of elementary school districts in Illinois, only 308 minutes, state data indicates. At Sexton, like many CPS schools, most kids get gym, library and music once a week.
"Our feet are held to the fire with this testing," Sexton's Bryant said. "Realistically, the school day needs to be extended." Even an hour more would help, she said.
Bryant said she'd love to offer recess, but she would need extra money for the personnel -- perhaps parents paid a stipend -- to monitor it. Those extra bodies could help in the classroom as well, she said.
As a school on academic probation, Sexton replaced its art teacher with "another position that would help us . . . academically," Bryant said. And although Sexton has a part-time social worker, the results of the Sun-Times surveys suggest a full-time one would be helpful, she said.
"We really don't know what [kids] have gone through a lot of times," Bryant said. "Kids really internalize and look at things differently than adults. They are more afraid."
Sexton students reported the most exposure to violence of any surveyed. Among Sexton fifth- through eighth-graders, 98 percent have heard gunshots in their neighborhood; 85 percent know a friend or relative who has been shot at, and more than three-quarters have lost a friend or relative to gunfire.
According to an African proverb, it takes a village to raise a child, but when children report they fear associating with people on their own block, "we have lost the village,'' DePaul's Radner said.
Until the core problem of safety on the streets is solved, schools must address the needs of children who walk in their doors, scarred by violence, Radner said.
"These kids are victims of the bullets. They are not being shot, but they are being hurt,'' Radner said.
"The collateral damage is emotional, which means the school has to provide an astonishing amount of support.
"The school has to be the village for these kids."
Contributing: Art Golab