Today’s Agenda

Teens and sex. The Lakewood High School “Spur Posse” incident came as a shock to lots of people, but not to most high-school students. One-night stands? “Point” systems? Pre-teen sex? No news there, unfortunately. As one senior from Fontana puts it, “I think the majority of the guys at my high school look at the body first, before the type of person you are.”

This week’s Youth opinion column turns to what might be done--how some respect can be returned to relations between the sexes. Students from Lakewood and a range of Southern California schools tell us about media pressures that reinforce a double standard and the need for stronger values in families.

Some students, both boys and girls, say it’s up to girls to demand respect--that if they don’t, they can expect sex-object treatment. Others say the most important thing is for men and women to be friends before considering intimacy.

A n elderly mother has bro ken her hip and needs constant care. A child has to stay home with chicken pox. Since the passage of the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, working families faced with these problems have choices beyond lying to employers or leaving the work force. In Platform, workers and employers talk about what the new law might personally mean to them. Some employers are upset about government interference, but the L.A. Department of Water and Power sees it this way: “Strong families are going to pay off for us in the end.”

Payoffs--of the dollar variety--are also the goal of the family support division of the Orange County district attorney’s office. Every county tries to collect delinquent child support payments, but Orange County has been more successful than most. Its program, profiled in Making a Difference, not only improves the lives of children, it saves taxpayer money by getting and keeping families off public assistance.

The Los Angeles Crittenton Center has a similar positive mission: helping pregnant, often abused teen-agers. In Testimony, Executive Director Sharrell Blakeley angrily disputes the idea that teens become pregnant just to go on welfare. And, she says, they want to give their babies better lives, but don’t know how to go about it. “All of their lives there was no structure, no discipline, no ability to resolve conflict.” The center works to make them knowledgeable mothers and productive citizens.

Driving out of an alley after running an errand, a woman finds her way blocked by a gaggle of teen-age boys. She’s impatient. They’re rude. And she’s white, they’re black, Karen Proft writes in Community Essay.

Afterward, her stomach churning, she wonders what really went on--how much was a result of stereotyping--and returns to the scene to talk to them.

The mayor of Moreno Valley would like state help in taking the town’s aggressive anti-graffiti program a step further. In Modest Proposal, Cynthia Crothers proposes that taggers who are caught be barred from holding a drivers license until they’re 18 or 21. Drastic, yes. But she bets it would work.