The Observer Newspapers |Children Are Not the Enemy

August 1 , 2008

Children Are Not the Enemy

To the editor:

Former Mayor Carol Bruce's reply to my recent criticism of the treatment skateboarders receive ("Officer Bullies Skateboarding Children," July 18) was, sadly, expected and is typical of many adults in this community. Teenagers are seen as a menace and when boisterous boys with skateboards are visibly traversing the town, looking for a spot to skate they are accused of violating the rules, behaving badly and stealing.

I suspect this is because they are not playing an organized sport, regulated and overseen by adults, but rather creating their own recreation as children have done, without adult intervention, for millennia.

Let me address each accusation one at a time: What rule is in place that prohibits the free movement of children across a community? Which specific behavior is bad? Talking loudly, laughing and generally enjoying themselves? And finally, McDonald's has a refill policy, so the boys refilled their sodas. I wouldn't label that as stealing. A skateboard park has been in the planning stage as long as I have lived in Herndon, which is over five years. When is the Town Council going to make this a priority instead of criminalizing kids for being kids?

The former mayor also makes many assumptions about the parenting skills of skateboarders' mothers and fathers-labeling my son and his friends as unlawful and disrespectful. We are teachers, nurses and engineers. We are your neighbors. I spend every working day with adolescents. In my capacity as an educator, it is part of my professional responsibility to imbue children with a healthy respect to family and community.

Respect flows two ways. When my son and his friends are chased by a police car with flashing lights for riding their boards along a sidewalk, or made to stand in the blazing sun for over an hour so that an officer can thoroughly intimidate them, I can understand their disrespect.

Perhaps the former mayor would benefit from spending some time with adolescents so that she could better understand them, rather than labeling them. Once again, the elders of the Herndon community have proved my point. Children are not the enemy!

Susan Brittle

Herndon