Weapons, greed sidetracked teen

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NAME — Stephanie Hull
AGE — 22
GRADE —

WEAPONS, GREED SIDETRACKED TEEN

February 23, 2003

Timothy, 18, describes how guns and greed put him in the Pendleton Juvenile Correctional Facility. Originally from Elkhart, he was paroled on Dec. 30 and now lives in Marshall County:

"When I was like 5, I was woken up by someone banging on my door, and I answered the door, and it was a black guy (who) used to live next door to me, and he was shot in the chest and in his back. He wanted me to call the cops, but I just shut the door and went back to sleep. I was scared.

"I was shot when I was 9 in the chest by a .22. The bullet wasn't meant for me. I got shot when I was walking through the projects. It made me want to (retaliate) . . . .

"I had my first gun when I was, I think, 12. It was a .38, and I got that from one of my friends. . . . I ain't never had to use it on nobody. . . .

"I started off selling drugs. You gotta have protection, so you start carrying a gun. When you start carrying guns, you're gonna get in fights, and then the guns get pulled out, people get shot, stray bullets fly. . . .

"I'm a parole violator. I was on my parole from Plainfield. I had a count of burglary, and I had a gun on me then, but it got dropped 'cause they didn't find the gun on me. The person I robbed set me up. And then I went for theft, which was a federal offense 'cause I robbed mailboxes 'cause people said that they were supposed to be getting like $5,000 in the mail, so we robbed some mailboxes. We never got what we was looking for, but we got Class B felonies out of it.

"(I also was charged with) possession of a controlled substance within a thousand feet of a school. I went into Plainfield, and I did 13 months locked up there. Then I got out, and I came back for violating my house arrest and not going to school. So that's why I'm here.

"I don't think it's fair. I skipped school for two days, but that's 'cause my dad was using drugs. I'm getting a longer sentence here than I did for robbing a house with a gun, stealing out of people's mailboxes and having a controlled substance.

"You're a teenager, this is the best years of your life, and you're behind these fences. You ain't got nothing to do. . . . It just ain't worth it."

Gun violence put youths on path to prison
	By Stephanie Hull, 17 Over the course of a year, more children and teens die from gunfire than from cancer, pneumonia, influenza, asthma, and HIV/AIDS combined, according to the Children's Defense Fund. In 2000, 3,042 youths ages 19 and younger were killed by firearms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Y-Press went to the Pendleton Juvenile Correctional Facility to talk to four teens about th
Inmates say rap's not to blame
	By Stephanie Hull, 17 The influence of rap music is everywhere, from Grammy winners OutKast and Beyonce to Baby Phat and Sean John clothing brands. Search for "rap music" on Google, and you'll get more than 550,000 hits. But can rap's influence extend to an individual's character and decisions, as one study suggests? Teens at the Indianapolis Juvenile Correctional Facility say "no." Most of the girls listen to rap dail
Study: Rap videos linked to behavior
	By Stephanie Hull, 17 Parents and concerned adults have long worried about rap music's effects on children, with its sexual and sometimes violent imagery and lyrics. Now, one study of teen girls has linked large amounts of rap video viewing to risky or violent behavior. Last year, researchers from Emory University in Atlanta and the University of Alabama at Birmingham reported on a study involving 522 black females enr
Trench coat, 'scary poetry' led to student's expulsion
	By Stephanie Hull, 17 "My name is Darrell Ford. I'm 16 years old. Up until last April, I was a student at Lawrence Central High School. I was expelled late April, and after an arduous battle to get my credits so I could in fact become a junior, I went to the Indiana Academy, where I am now." In the aftermath of the shootings at Columbine High School, school administrators worked to prevent a similar incident. In the pr
Media can be a force for both good and evil
	By Stephanie Hull, 17 From violent video games and R-rated movies to Jerry Springer TV shows and inappropriate rap lyrics, adults often point to the negative influences of the media on kids. But what do kids think about the influence of media on their lives? Y-Press spoke with 10 Girl Scouts, some of whom recently completed badges dealing with the media, about this subject. They are Brandy Bledsoe, 15; Myra Bledsoe, 16
What do you thing?
	By Stephanie Hull, 17 "I would feel safer, because you never know what could happen if some kid brought a gun." Lindsey Karnes, 11 Miami East School Casstown, Ohio "I'd probably be a little bit scared because then people might want to try to bring a gun into school just to break a rule." Karl Bedwell, 13 St. Jude Elementary School Indianapolis "I would take it, because too many people get hurt with gu
Prosecutor backs programs to cut juvenile crime
	By Stephanie Hull, 17 "Criminals have a choice -- victims don't." This slogan was the dominant theme of Carl Brizzi's successful campaign for Marion County prosecutor last year. Y-Press interviewed Brizzi late last year and again recently to see how these few words are being put into action. "As simple as those words are to say, it really means a lot more in terms of how the office is actually run," Brizzi said in Dece
Volunteer-staffed Teen Court offers the offender justice with understanding
	By Stephanie Hull, 17 "Court is now in session." There is a judge behind the bench, a panel of jurors off to the side and two attorneys representing the defense and prosecution. But the judge is the only adult in the proceedings. This is Teen Court, where kids ages 12 to 17 determine the fate of their peers. Recently, Y-Press interviewed volunteers Brittany Brown, 14; Crystal Brown, 15; Bryan Sanders, 14; Katie Anderso
Teens tackle issue of violence
	By Stephanie Hull, 17 While youth of all backgrounds are victims of violence, black youth seem to be at the epicenter of Indianapolis's rising crime rate. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention list homicide as the leading cause of death for blacks nationwide from ages 10 to 24. Indiana had the third-highest rate of black homicides among all states in 2006, according to a study by the Violence Policy Center, a