Saturday, November 28, 1998

Jail escapes, toy bears, children's hearts

By Bob Greene

REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio -- You have to ask yourself what the children of this country -- once they are grown -- will think.

What they will make of the society in which they are today growing up. Those of us who are adults work so hard to provide stopgap solutions to the problems -- it's as if we half-believe the work we try to do will erase the children's eventual memories of the problems.

We may wish we could forget. But every instinct you have tells you that for the children, there will be no forgetting. This world we have given them in which to grow up has to be leaving an impression that, even 50 years from now, will continue to affect them.

The specifics of their growing-up world are evident all the time. Sometimes we don't stop to notice. Little things, presented as matter-of-fact:

At the annual statewide conference of the Ohio Library Council recently, workshops were held on some of the topics you'd expect at such a convention: the training of reference librarians, advances in library cataloging techniques.

But there was this workshop:

"Dealing with Gangs. Doug Allen, task force coordinator for the Toledo Police Department, knows that gang membership and activity occur in large cities and small towns. He will show participants ways to identify gang members, members of cults and 'threat' groups. He presents some simple do's and don'ts when individuals suspected of gang activity are in the library, plus tips on observation and documentation."

And this workshop:

"What to Do When You Suspect Child Abuse. Have you ever suspected that one of your young library users is a victim of child abuse? Not known what to do? Afraid of legal ramifications? Billie Jones, of the Franklin County Children's Services Board, will address this compelling topic."

Are the workshops necessary? Evidently yes. Beneficial? Absolutely -- gang members recruiting children inside the public library, beaten and abused children seeking refuge from their torment inside the walls of the local library, show as riveting a need for adult care and vigilance as you can possibly imagine. It is laudable that these troubles are being addressed directly.

But how did we get here? It's good we're trying to repair these awful tears in the social fabric -- yet how did we get to the point where children accept all of this as a regular part of life?

Little things -- little things that are huge:

In Gulfport, Miss. recently, police officers Rick Weaver and Windy Swetman III were praised by the community for the good work they did in protecting the students at Bayou View Elementary School.

An accused murderer named Mario Centobie had escaped from a jail in Gadsden, Ala., and police feared he would come to Bayou View Elementary to harm his former wife, who is a teacher's assistant there, and his son, a student there. The police officers spent every school day with the children at the school, trying to provide a sense of security, a sense that the children would be all right.

Centobie had been sent to prison for 40 years in 1996 for crimes against his wife and son. They thought they could relax and heal when he was locked up. But last June he escaped, allegedly killing a police officer and wounding another before being captured. He was put back into jail in Alabama, and the children at the school thought they could breathe easy.

Until, last month, he broke out of jail for a second time -- allegedly with the help of a female jail guard. So the terror returned to his wife and son, the terror returned to Bayou View Elementary -- until, after 12 days on the run, he was captured again, and the children were told they could feel safe again.

Can we expect them to believe it? For all we try to do, can we expect them to believe their world is placid? Also on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Auxiliary 6731 of the D'Iberville Veterans of Foreign Wars presented a gift to the sheriff's department in Harrison County.

The gift was 88 toy bears, hand-sewn by the women in the auxiliary. The purpose?

For officers to give to children -- including children abused in their homes -- when the officers arrive on the scene. The bears are intended to help the frightened, hurt children feel calm and loved.

It's a wonderful gesture.

How did we get here?

Bob Greene's column regularly runs on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Chicago Tribune