No Safe Havens for Youth

As an educational therapist working with a wide range of learning differences, my primary commitment is to teach children strategies that will help them cope and achieve school success. I provide academic enrichment and emotional support to meet the needs of students.

However, with the rising rate of crimes occurring in the San Fernando Valley, stress reduction and stress management have become an integral and necessary part of therapy. Children and adolescents have a great deal of difficulty dealing with the stress and trauma of daily living. Drive-by shootings, gang-related crimes, weapons at school, drugs, worry over what is safe to wear and where it is safe to be are just a few of their concerns. They don’t teach survival skills and street smarts at school.

I am angry and concerned for our students. There are no safe havens. They are scared and frightened, and not enough is being done to remedy the situation.

MICHELLE PECK

Northridge