Rethink Resources

I really don’t support the idea of trying to scare youth away from the sex trade. It’s ineffective because it doesn’t get at the root of the reasons youth are in the sex trade to begin with and assumes that youth don’t already know or have personal knowledge of dangerous realities in their lives.

It can be tough because sometimes youth suggest scare tactics as a method to reach other youth. For example, a long while back I presented at a high school in Chicago at an amazing youth run anti-violence conference for students. Workshop presenters gathered with the students in the library before breaking into the classrooms.

I realized as I walked into the library there was a full size coffin inside the library, lent for the day from a local funeral home to the conference organizers to shock students about the realities of gun-related violence, gang members killing each other and killing other community members. I was a little surprised and asked whose idea it was to bring in the coffin. And the reply was the youth.

Of course thinking back, I remember freaking out my family by taking a whole course in high school on death and dying (a religion elective as I went to a Catholic high school and had religion all four years - at least they got creative about it). I mean you don’t have to be emo as a teen to be curious or wanting to know more about death (especially if you’ve lost people close to you whether they lived a long life or were taken away far too soon).

What I find puzzling though is that what youth might be dealing with or thinking about is not necessarily what people hope will result from trying to scare youth. Many youth in that room had already been to funerals of people they knew who died from gun violence, from gangs, from the police, from people who fell ill from environmental racism/poisoning. It was a room full of people who knew with a deep personal knowledge about violence.

I think, if anything, the coffin was more of a reminder, an altar, a way of acknowledging that loss.

In some communities it’s common to bring in women in the thirties and forties to speak to teens about prostitution and warn them away by sharing serious stories of violence, addiction, loss, and poverty. I’ve heard people say that they want to teens to hear these stories so they can stop before they get involved. But again what I’ve witnessed so many times, is not youth connecting the grown women’s experiences with their own but with that of their older relatives.

A teen sees a woman talking about leaving her kids behind to get high or choosing an intimate partner over her child and the teen isn’t necessarily thinking - “that could me”, she’s often thinking “that’s like my mother” or my auntie or my older sister. Not necessarily a bad thing to think about and express your feelings about - but not the purpose behind the talk.

Another example would be jail tours which can be as simple as a youth group taking a quick tour and hearing a prepared presentation from detained people inside the jail and correctional officers or as elaborate a drama as short boot camp experiences with youth being screamed at, terrorized, humiliated, and re-traumatized. Let me be clear about that last word - re- traumatized. I never understood why anyone would think it’s a good idea to scream at someone who’s had a history of being abused, which the youth who go through these experiences most often share.

In this case maybe it does have the effect adults are seeking. It shuts youth down from feeling like they can be bold and strong about their opinion. Youth break down and cry. Instead of giving youth the tools to fight a system that incarcerates more people per capita than any other country in the world, adults tell them it’ll happen to you too if you don’t do what we say.

I think what youth want is change. I think they hope for understanding of why the world is the way it is. I think they want to make sense of their experiences. I don’t think they want to be shut down, broken down, and crushed; but that’s what happens with scare tactics.