School court

PEORIA — Peoria School District 150 Superintendent Grenita Lathan says one key to helping at-risk teens avoid further involvement with the criminal justice system is to involve “village elders.”
“We want to give the 5 percent of the children who need it as much support as we can,” she said recently about a collaboration between the Circuit Court, her district and the Peoria County State’s Attorney’s Office to try to help at-risk teens within District 150. “You know how the saying goes: ‘It takes a village.’”

The program, known as School Challenge, is expected to be announced at a news conference

Wednesday morning and seeks to incorporate many of the concepts found at a school in St. Louis for children who are on probation. The concept is relatively simple: Take about 40 students who are on probation and having problems at school and make it a condition of their probation to participate in weekly or biweekly court hearings.

Currently, 429 children are on probation within Peoria County, according to the county’s probation office, and 290 of them, or 67.6 percent, attend District 150 schools. Yet, court, juveLathan says not all children on probation should be in this program.

She said the program is for students, ages 17 and younger, who are having problems with attendance, grades and behavior.

Research has shown education is a major factor in determining future behavior. According to the county’s probation office, 207 of the 290 District 150 students score in the medium to high risk educational category, which measures attendance, grades and behavior at school.

“What a person does at 14 could prevent them from being hired in the future. They could be 30, have pulled their lives together and be worthy of a second look. We are trying to avoid that problem,” Lathan said.

School Challenge will look and feel similar to the circuit’s other specialty courts, such as drug court, mental health court and veterans court. The participants will meet with Chief Peoria County Circuit Judge Steve Kouri regularly. The judge will then ask questions about how they are doing and either sanction or reward the teen, depending on behavior.

source: Peoria Journal Star