VALPARAISO | Many young people think they know more about the law than they really do, which results in too many of them winding up behind bars or worse following encounters with police, according to Steve O'Reilly of the Massachusetts-based Strategies for Youth.
O'Reilly was in town Thursday and Friday in hopes of changing this trend locally by showing youth advocates and legal officials a unique way of educating young people about their rights and responsibilities when interacting with police and other officials.
The approach is based on the popular "Jeopardy" television game show and has proven to be very successful, he said. Most of the young people take part thinking they know it all and yet a large percentage comment at the end that much of what they learned was new to them.
"We're here to help you stay out of the system," O'Reilly said, referring to the key message of the Juvenile Justice Jeopardy game.
Participating young people are divided into two teams and are challenged to respond to questions falling into various related topics, just like the popular TV show, he said. There are both street and school versions of the game.
Sample questions included:
"Are school resource officers 'real' police officers?" (Yes).
"Kyle has a prescription for Xanax. Kyle gives you one to try. What could happen?" (You could get arrested and kicked off your sports team).
"Can a teacher ever put their hands on you?" (Yes, but only to stop you from hurting somebody else).
"Your principal reads on your Facebook page that you brought a BB gun to school. Does he need a search warrant to open your locker?" (No).
The young people are receiving their inaccurate impressions from such "fountains of misinformation" as peers, music and the media, O'Reilly said.
Young people are also impulsive, self-centered and resist authority because of where they are with brain development, he said. Police, in turn, receive, very little training in how to handle juveniles.
"Because of this, they're (youth) really at risk," O'Reilly said.
O'Reilly said he is straight forward with the young participants.
"Do you want to go to jail or do you want to go home?" he said.