Sunday, February 15, 1998

Sentencing teens to Sunday school

By Steve Ray

Fourteen-year-old Zack Smith struck a blow for separation of church and state earlier this year.

It didn't get a lot of publicity, and while the teen-ager may have had firm legal footing, he didn't do himself or a whole lot of other troubled teens any favors.

At issue was an innovative program by a Dallas judge who sentenced defendants to attend church or Sunday school when they couldn't come up with the money to pay their fines.

Smith got sentenced to eight weeks in church after a fight at school landed him in the court of Justice of the Peace Bruce McDougal.

The teen-ager said he was an atheist and enlisted the support of the American Civil Liberties Union to combat the sentence.

McDougal gave in. And now Smith will spend his time doing community service for the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department.

Across the state, judges like McDougal are trying to help troubled kids learn about responsibility by having them perform community service as part of their punishment.

McDougal carried his ideas a little bit further. He wanted them to get an ethics lesson on behavior so they could turn their lives around.

Legally he may have stepped over the line. Morally he did what was right.

The danger in doing the right thing in this case is that government shouldn't be involved in putting kids in church.

But churches or synagogues or mosques are about the only places that many kids get a chance to learn about differences between right and wrong.

Many parents aren't taking them there. And at home, they aren't teaching the kids the right rules about what should and shouldn't be done.

That's one of the reasons Texas prisons are overflowing. Somewhere, someone failed to show these people there was a better way of living.

It's also the reason that many faith-based programs are proving successful in keeping convicts from going back to prison.

And while mixing church and religion may not be right legally, it is an example of the frustration many folks feel over society's inability to reach troubled teens.

I am a strong believer in separation of church and state. I don't want anyone telling my kids how to pray or when to pray in school. On the other hand, I don't want anyone telling them they can't pray at all.

Neither do I want a judge telling them they have to go to church because they did something wrong. Going to church is something I want them to do because they need to learn how to best live their lives.

On the other hand, many troubled teens don't have that option. Doing community service is all fine and good, but it doesn't teach kids a code of conduct for better living.

There needs to be a combination of punishment and a changing of attitude.

That means judges need the ability to sentence kids in trouble to a program that will help them set their goals and change their priorities -- whether it be in a church or in a secular setting.

Maybe a faith-based group could develop a program that would help teach these troubled teens how to overcome their anger and solve their problems without violence or resorting to theft or burglary.

It could even use Biblical principles without trying to change anyone's views on religion.

The judge could sentence them to community service and to attend the program, which would be held in a secular place to satisfy those who worry about the separation of church and state.

Zach Smith did what was right when he challenged a judge's ability to sentence him to go to Sunday school.

Now his parents should do what is right -- and make him go anyway.

Steve Ray is chief of the Scripps Howard Austin Bureau.