‘Crusaders’ Hear Cry for Help

Two Southern California educators have traveled the country, visiting 50 cities to ask children and teenagers: “Why do kids kill kids?”

The answers--from rich kids in the suburbs to poor ones surviving in crime-ridden tenements; from New England kids in aluminum-sided Colonials to Mennonite kids working on Pennsylvania hog farms--were remarkably similar.

Kids are angry, kids are violent and kids become killers, they say, because parents are doing a lousy job. Not just their own parents, but everyone else’s too.

Compelled by school shootings to seek out the roots of youth violence, Howard Haas, 49, and Alex Aitcheson, 48, set out last month on a self-styled “Children’s Crusade.”

Now back from visits to teen centers and public parks, inner-city projects and suburban malls, Haas, of Mission Viejo, and Aitcheson, of Riverside, say they heard the same message everywhere they stopped:

* Teenagers need more time with their parents and more guidance from them.

* They want their parents to listen to them, to ask their opinions, to set guidelines and require them to adhere to rules. Mothers, many said, are their heroes; fathers--often described as emotionally or physically absent--are not.

Haas, the former principal of La Mirada High School, and Aitcheson, a former administrator at Valverde Unified School District in Riverside County, are editing the 80 hours of filmed interviews.

“What we found was there’s a desert out there--kids are just dying to talk and don’t have anyone to talk to,” Haas said.

“When we didn’t have scheduled interviews, we’d ask, ‘What’s the toughest street in the city?’ and we’d go there,” he said. “You’d have 20 or 30 little children come running to us because they have nowhere to play and nothing else to do.”

The men’s interest in finding answers began with the shootings in Pearl, Miss.; West Paducah, Ky.; Jonesboro, Ark.; and Edinboro, Penn. Then in April, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris stormed Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., killing 12 students, a teacher and themselves.

Aitcheson and Haas decided to quit their jobs and launched their crusade. Both of their school districts promised to rehire them.

They asked children: Who are your heroes? Does poverty make someone inclined to be violent? Does media violence influence children? Does easy access to guns create violence? Can government help, and does belief in God diminish violence?

Answers varied. A Mennonite girl said, “The snake came and tempted Eve, Eve tempted Adam with an apple and it’s gone downhill since.”

Many teenagers said jealousy, anger over harassment for being different, gangs and peer pressure were contributing causes of violence. And an indictment of parents surfaced in almost every interview.

“Why are kids killing kids? I think in society parents are the ones supposed to be accused. I think parents are what the problem is,” said Francia Maestas, 18, Glendale, Utah.

“Violence is not something you just pick up. . . . You don’t get an urge to kill someone for no reason. It all comes back to the family,” said Tara Grove, 17, of Cleveland.

And from a teenager in Woodbury, Conn.: “Parents have to instill their values on their kids. How could these Columbine kids have a shotgun in their top drawers? It’s ridiculous! Where were the parents?”

Also, from the smallest hamlet of 1,000 to New York City, teenagers said illegal drugs are ever present.

“There wasn’t a community we visited that didn’t have drugs, and the kids didn’t think the government could do much about it,” Haas said. “Many also felt that way about gun control too. It’s so widespread they think guns will be pretty difficult to curb.”

Haas said he feared children had become numb to violence, “that they just didn’t care anymore.” What they found instead, he said, was “the kids aren’t numb, but we adults have grown numb.

“We see kids playing outside in a grass field filled with dog manure and glass and we don’t do anything about it--nobody’s taking care of them,” Haas said.

The men were jolted by the poverty and crime endured by children in the nation’s slums and ghettos.

“I think it has radicalized me about the work that needs to be done in the inner cities,” Haas said.

“There was very little change from when I saw those cities 30 years ago,” Aitcheson said. “Neighborhoods filled with trash, drug dealing going on out in the open. . . . Kids in Newark explained that cars come by with weapons for sale as if they were ice cream trucks.”

They hope their film will be used by educators and elected officials, community groups and agencies working with youths.

The Kiwanis club donated $10,000 and housed the two men in members’ homes along the route. General Motors donated use of a van and Pacific Bell gave them $750 worth of gas. The trip cost about $60,000, and they are paying for the rest themselves.

The project is not over. Haas and Aitcheson saved interviews of California children for last.

After those are completed, they want to bring together the teenagers they interviewed, along with their parents, for a summit on teenage violence.

“My generation is the one that needs to remember,” Haas said. “It’s time now for people to see we can make a difference. We have to make a difference.”