kidslaw

A Girl's Nude Photo and Altered Lives - New York Times March 27,2011

Sexting is an ever increasing activity among adolescents. Today's New York Times features an article about an example where one girl circulated a semi-nude photo of herself to a boy she liked. The boy then forwarded it on to several others who then circulated to everyone they could think of with the word HO plastered on the front. This lead to the arrest of these 8th graders for child pornography, potential time in a juvenile detention center and registration as sexual offenders.

The prevalence of under-age sexting is unclear and can often depend on the culture of a particular school or circle of students. An internet poll conducted for the Associated Press and MTV by Knowledge Networks in September 2009 indicated that 24 percent of 14 to 17 year olds had been involved in some type of naked sexting,either by cellphone or on the Internet. A December 2009 telephone poll from the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project found that 5 percent of 14-17 year olds had sent naked or nearly naked photos or videos by cellphone, and that 18 percent had recieved them.

    Adults in positions of authority have been debating how to respond. Many school districts have banned sexting and now authorize principals to search cell phones. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, at least 26 states have tried to pass some form of sexting legislation.

    Many of the kids I see in my office have no idea that sexting is illegal ( it is a misdeamenor in Illinois) and don't understand the risk for widespread distribution or the impact on their reputations.

Juvenile Law: Young Adults and Substance Abuse

One lf the most common reasons parents and young adults seek out our services is for legal problems associated with substance use or abuse, for example, traffic violations, possession and/or sale of illicit drugs, theft or injurious behavior. The first thing we do is to assess the seriousness of the drug or alcohol abuse. This may require the involvement of an outside professional experienced in this area. The initial goal is to assure that the problem is being addressed if needed. One million teenagers need drug and alcohol treatment. Only one in ten receives it. Not everyone who comes into our office needs intensive treatment, but many do.

The legal needs of adolescents and young adults requires a different approach. That approach, by definition, will involve a multi-disciplinary, multi-system intervention. The goal in all criminal cases, but particularly in this age group, is to prevent further problems and to reduce the long term, life long consequences associated with arrest and court involvement. While we deal with the legal issues, one of our roles in representing and advocating for our client is to assure that they get the needed assistance. This is something the court looks for in most cases and we help navigate through this process. Sometimes convincing parents and their young adult or teen that they need assistance is the first step.

As a person and a lawyer who typically tries to find opportunity in situations, I stress to parents and kids who may be minimizing use or the negative consequences, that brain development is under way and continuing to engage in using will impact that development negatively. The HBO website on Addiction is a great website with links to many other informative and helpful links. They list the 5 things to know about adolescent brain development and drug use:

1. The brain's front end, the part above the eyes, exists to slow us down or stop our impulsive behaviors. It considers the risks and benefits of our actions, and it hits the brakes when we consider doing things that are too risky.
2. The front part of the brain is still developing connections to the rest of the brain until adulthood, so adolescents' brains lack some of the wiring that carries brake or stop messages to the rest of the brain.
3. Drugs of abuse are often available to adolescents. These drugs feel good, but they can be very harmful. Lacking some of the wiring for the "stop" message, adolescent brains may not fully weigh the risk of the drug use.
4. The two drugs that cause the most deaths are also the most available drugs: tobacco and alcohol. Late adolescence, before the brain is fully matured, is the peak time for developing dependence on these (and other drugs).
5. Heavy drug use during times of critical brain development may cause permanent changes in the way the brain works and responds to rewards and consequences. Therefore, it is important to begin to address a developing substance abuse problem as soon as possible.

HBO Addiction 2011

Substance abuse and brain development

Juvenile Law/ Young Adults and Substance Abuse

            One of the most common reasons parents and young adults seek out our services is for legal problems associated with substance use or abuse.( e.g. traffic violations, possession and or sale of illicit drugs, theft, injurious behavior) The first thing we do is to assess the seriousness of the drug or alcohol abuse. This may require the involvement of an outside professional experienced in this area. The initial goal is to assure that the problem is being addressed if needed. One million teenagers need drug and alcohol treatment. Only one in ten receives it. Not everyone who comes into our office needs intensive treatment but many do.

             The legal needs of adolescents and young adults require a different approach. That approach by definition will involve a multi-disciplinary, multi-system intervention. The goal in all criminal cases, but particularly in this age group is to prevent further problems and to reduce the long term life long consequences associated with arrest and court involvement. While we deal with the legal issues one of our roles in representing and advocating for our client is to assure that they get the needed assistance. This is something the court looks for in most cases and we help navigate through this process. Sometimes convincing parents and their young adult or teen that they need assistance is the first step.

             As a person and a lawyer who typically tries to find opportunity in situations I stress to parents and kids who may be minimizing use or the negative  consequences that brain development is under way and continuing to engage in using will impact that development negatively.  The HBO website on Addiction is a great website with links to many other informative and helpful links. They list the 5 things to Know about adolescent’s brain development and use:

1. The brain’s front end, “ the part above the eyes, exists to slow us down or stop  our impulsive behaviors. It considers the risks and benefits of our actions, and it hits the brakes when we consider doing things that are too risky.
2. The front part of the brain is still developing connections to the rest of the brain until adulthood, so adolescents’ brains lack some of the wiring that carries brake or stop messages to the rest of the brain.
3. Drugs of abuse are often available to adolescents. These drugs feel good, but they can be very harmful. Lacking some of the wiring for the “stop” message, adolescent brains may not fully weigh the risk of the drug use.
4. The two drugs that cause the most deaths are also the most available drugs: tobacco and alcohol. Late adolescence, before the brain is fully matured is the peak time for developing dependence on these ( and other drugs).
5. Heavy drug use during times of critical brain development may cause permanent changes in the way the brain works and responds to rewards and consequences. Therefore, it is important to begin to address a developing substance abuse problem as soon as possible.

www. hbo.com/addiction/adolescent _addiction . ( 2011)

                                   

 

 

 

Accessing Mental Health Care

Several times per month I get a call from a family with a young adult or adolescent who is exhibiting symptoms of a mental health problem. They are looking for guidance on how to begin the process of getting help. This is not a simple process and is often overwhelming. Very often it is a crisis that prompts the call. (e.g. violent behavior, an arrest, self-injurious behavior). Although I am an attorney, many of our clients have mental health issues and we have developed experience in navigating the system. First, I explain that doing nothing is not an option. Safety of everyone involved is paramount. While each case is different there are a few things we have learned.

• Determine as a family what will trigger a call to emergency services ( police, ambulance). Outline a crisis plan. Dangerous and life threatening language or behavior that needs to be taken seriously.
• Optimally, you will have a contact with a mental health professional that can guide you through some of the choice points.
• In advance of a crisis identify a hospital or treatment facility. Determine the criterion for admisssion and any payment options ( e.g. insurance, government benefits).
• Develop a written crisis plan. Keep it short and accessible.
• Call your local police department. Some departments have specially trained crisis intervention officers who are skilled at working with mentally ill individuals in a crisis.

Mental Health Reaching Out before a tragedy

Special Education and Evaluations

This school year and last I have had at least a half a dozen cases of high school students who had not been evaluated by the school district and who were failing or struggling mightily to pass classes . A few had IEP's, one had a 504 Plan and others were at risk of dropping out of high school because of repeated failures in their classes. The students with the IEP's - one a junior and two seniors - had not been formally evaluated since middle school. Their 3 year re-evaluations consisted of a records review. Regrettably, the high school was reluctant to evaluate the students and in two cases the principal suggested that the student consider dropping out of high school and get a GED. The parents hired a lawyer.

In each of the cases, the school reluctantly agreed to evaluate the student, using a combination of private evaluators and school based psychological and related service personnel. The results of the evaluations allowed everyone to identify the problem accurately, design interventions and appropriate transition services. It shouldn't have required an attorney to make it happen.

Advice for Parents:

Insist on data based evaluations for your child.

The evaluations are critical to thoughtful accurate educational and transition planning.

Request an independent evaluation if the school won't or can't do the evaluation.

If you can afford to do so, hire an independent evaluator (e.g. psychologist, speech therapist, psychiatrist ) to evaluate your child.

Share the results with the school.

Put your request for an evaluation in writing to the school.

 

Access to Mental Health Care

I rarely weigh in on media issues but after this week's shooting in Arizona, I feel compelled to write about the lack of access to mental health care for many in this country. This is a particularly troubing issue for young adults who may in fact live at home, or on their own, but may be barely functioning and suffering from serious mental illness. Parents will call seeking a "safety net" and are faced with few good alternatives. Parents access to information for this young adult is often limited or restricted.  They ask if they should try to have their young adult arrested as a desperate attempt to get help and what would be triggered by such a response. They may be terrified of the costs of an uninsured hospital stay or the reaction of their child to being hospitalized against their will. Some have attempted to hospitalize their severely ill family member only to be told that at that moment they are not a danger to themselves or others. Other parents live in fear of upsetting this person and triggering a violent or unpredictable outburst. Of all the families I work with, this situation is the most difficult to identify a good or easily available solution. So what do I tell parents in this situation. Here are a few thoughts:

• Safety is paramount. Assuring that no one gets hurt is the most important issue.
• Talk to your local police social worker. Determine whether they have crisis intervention trained police who are experienced with intervening with adults with mental illness.
• Mental illness is a medical emergency. Waiting for it to go away will in all likelihood make things worse.
• Seek help from a qualified professional. (e.g. psychiatrist, social worker, psychologist)
• Call NAMI. (National Association of Mental Illness)
• Don't wait if you believe that your young adult is deteriorating. Explore hospitalization.
• Involuntary committment may be an option. It may save your child's life and someone elses.
• Remove firearms from the house and prevent access. ( this increases the risk of suicide and homicide)

Twenty-Somethings: An Emerging and Expanding Practice

In the past fifteen years of my practice there has been a subtle shift in the age of the clients we represent. Initially, there was a clearer demarcation. Once an adolescent reached 18 and they needed legal help, (eg. arrest, mental health advocacy) they would be referred to an adult/criminal attorney. Not anymore. There are several reasons for the shift. The factors that have changed mirror what seems to be happening on a larger scale in American society.

In our office, we have been working with families long enough that many children we represented early on are now young adults. Our practice areas have expanded in response to the changing needs of our clients. We now have a substantial criminal law practice. We represent older adolescents (as well as younger) in the areas of internet crimes, alcohol and substance abuse related legal problems, sexually based offenses and traffic related offenses to name a few areas we deal with in our office.

Representing young adults requires us to be not only mindful of the law but to take a multidisciplinary view of the developmental issues related to their age. The law generally takes a black and white approach to youth over a certain age convicted of crimes. At 18 you are an adult and held accountable as an adult. Our clients seldom are fully formed adults and for most of them the idea of consequences or the long term implications of their actions are not part of their decision making process. They aren't quite as immature as our young juvenile clients but most are far from developing the maturity and judgment needed to function as competent adults. The term used in the social science literature refers to this group as "emerging adulthood." This rethinking has ben aided by neuroscience. In a recent article in the New York Times, What is it about 20-Somethings?,(New York Times, August 18, 2010), "Neuroscientists once thought that the brain stops growing shortly after puberty, but they know it keeps maturing well into the 20s."

It is our job to educate the courts and others about our client, assist in identifying treatment resources and to focus on minimizing penalties and maximizing interventions. The assumption that change is not only possible but can and will likely occur with the right interventions is an overriding premise of our legal representation. This is informed by the science and psychological research available about this age group. The term "emerging adulthood" was coined by the psychologist Dr. Jeffrey Arnett. Dr. Arnett is the author of Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from Late Teens Through the Twenties. (2004, Oxford University Press).

This message is also good news to parents who are despairing of their twenty-something ever "getting it" and moving on in a positive healthy direction.    

For many young adults this movement in the right direction will not come without significant intervention. In the Chicago area we are fortunate to have a program dedicated to the needs of emerging young adults. The Yellowbrick program is located in Evanston, Illinois.

Selected Resources:

Jeffrey Arnett, Ph.D.

Yellowbrick

Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood

School Refusal/School Anxiety

It is all too common in my office for a frantic parent to make an appointment because their student is refusing to go to school or is frequently absent due to feigned illness or depression. Consulting an attorney for this issue may seem perplexing but for many parents the consequences of school refusal are what brings them to our office. Schools will often respond that it is up to the parents to get the student to school. This is a theoretically easier task for a grade school age parent. For the parents of high school or even middle school students it simply isn't physically possible to get them out the door, into the car and to school. Threatening, bribery and other extreme measures often don't produce the desired result - school attendance.

Grades begin to tumble, homework accumulates and students are at risk of losing needed credits. A recent Wall Street Journal article entitled, "I Hate School" Extreme Edition, reported that in two-thirds of the cases of school refusal, a psychiatric problem, most commonly an anxiety disorder, is the cause. The same article reported the following:

    "People who experience school refusal behavior and anxiety disorders in childhood may face serious ramifications in adulthood, psychologists say and studies show:

• Depression: Young people ages 14 to 24 who had social anxiety were almost three times as likely to develop depression later on than those without the anxiety disorder.
• Psychiatric treatment: A study of school refusing kids showed that about 20 to 29 years later they received more psychiatric treatment than the general population.
• Alcohol, drug use: A study of children ages 9 to 13 with an anxiety disorder showed that those who still had the disorder seven years after treatment drank alcohol more often and were more likely to use marijuana than those whose disorders had resolved.
• Different life choices: Psychologists say that they've seen young adults with persistent anxiety make fear-fueled choices that can have long term effects; such as selecting a less rigorous college or career."

What should parents do?

• Consult a mental health professional.
• Don't wait for the problem to go away. Seek treatment quickly.
• Meet with the school to discuss a plan to deal with the school refusal. [the longer this goes on the more difficult it will be to deal with]
• Seek out a program for school refusal and anxiety disorders in your area.

 

Quinn signs anti-bullying legislation

I frequently recieve calls form parents of children who are victims of bullying. The parents are concerned about the effect on their child and frequently complain that the school is turning a blind eye toward the situation. In late June governor Quinn signed a new law that defines bullying to include electronic harassment through social networking sites - that's whether students are subject to taunting based on race, gender, religion, physical disability and now sexual orientation. This law also requires Illinois schools to have gang-prevention training and creates a 15-member School Bullying Prevention task force. The task force must prepare a report for the Illinois governor by March 1.

Supreme Court Rules that Life Sentences without Parole for Juveniles are Unconstitutional

The United States Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment does not permit the imposition of a life sentence without the possibility of parole for juveniles who commit non- homicide offenses.

 In the case of Graham v. Florida, Terrance Jamar Graham violated his parole at age 17 by assisting in robbing a Jacksonville restaurant and was sentenced, without a trial to life without parole. Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority noted that life without parole, a particularly severe sentence that takes away the most basic of liberties with almost no hope of restoring them, is especially harsh for juveniles. He wrote that under this sentence a juvenile offender will on average spend more years and a greater percentage of his life in prison than an adult offender.

Justice Kennedy stated that 37 of the 50 states, Washington D. C. and the federal government all allowed sentences of life without parole for a juvenile non-homicide offender in some circumstances.

Kennedy further stated that while a state would not be required to eventually release a juvenile offender it must give a meaningful opportunity for the defendant to be released from prison based on factors such as maturity and rehabilitation.

There are currently 129 people who are serving life sentences without parole after being convicted as minors.