City Copes With More Violence
By David HennesseyArticle Launched: 06/20/2008 09:41:59 AM EDT
Norwalk Citizen News
"I find it very disturbing that this is happening again after what we have been through in January. I was hoping that the violence would stop with all the outreach myself and others have been trying to do, but it seems as if more needs to be done to reach out to the teens and those who are committing these crimes," said former councilwoman Joanne Romano earlier this week after two youths were stabbed in Norwalk last Friday, June 13.
One of the youths, Vonterrell George, 20, of 1800 Seaview Ave., Bridgeport, died as a result of his injuries.
Romano is one of the founders of Norwalk Neighbors Helping Our Teens, a group formed by city leaders and residents earlier this year to help local parents and teens take advantage of the city's resources, address personal dilemmas and find alternatives to gangs and violence.
George, a former Norwalk High student, was on probation from a 2006 Norwalk drug conviction when he was killed, court records showed. George's charges included possession of narcotics, possession of narcotics with intent to sell, possession of narcotics within 1,500 feet of a school and possession of narcotics with intent to sell within 1,500 feet of a school.
An off-duty police officer reported shots fired near Woodward Avenue shortly after 11 p.m. last Friday evening. Reports indicated that George was stabbed in the vicinity of Woodward, retaliated with gunfire, and made it to Burritt Avenue before succumbing to his injuries. At press time, no arrests had been made in the incident.
A 19-year old Norwalk male was also stabbed that same day, around 11 a.m., on or near Woodward Avenue. The victim was treated and released from Norwalk Hospital.
Both crimes occurred in the wake of the death of Tykwan Hunt, the 17-year-old former Norwalk resident stabbed to death in January.
"I know the police are doing everything they can but something needs to bring understanding to these kids to make them aware that once they get involved in gangs and crime, the path only leads to jail, or worse, as was the case with the stabbing on Friday night," Romano said.
"It is such a shame that they are killing themselves and wiping out future generations. Hopefully those of us that are trying to reach out to them can make a difference," she added.
Norwalk Neighbors Helping Our Teens, http://nnhtkids.org, meets on the first Wednesday of the month at different city locations. The purpose of the organization is to reach out to teens that otherwise might not attend similar meetings, Romano said, because they are often attached with a stigma.
"We have discussed many things that affect the teens, from violence to personal problems," Romano explained. "The teens have been able to interact with members of the police department and to get a dialogue going that can be very beneficial."
Still, with the recent rash of violent crimes involving youths, there is no clear-cut answer to the problem. But communication, Romano testified, can be paramount to deterring at least some of the young, impressionable youths that may be prone to engaging in dangerous activity.
"We feel that allowing [local youths] their time will bring out more feelings and ideas that we can take to the table to address. We have been able to get communication going between several teens and their parents that was not happening before. This is because we allow them to tell their parents what they feel, and we encourage the parents to listen without repercussion," Romano said. "We allow the kids to speak their minds."
Investigation into both stabbings continued at press time.
Summer youth jobs, funding in demand
Despite leftover dollars, the city has plenty more fundraising to do to employ roughly 200 young Norwalkers as part of the Mayor's 2008 Summer Youth Employment Program.
As of Tuesday -- the deadline for applying for the annual jobs program -- the city had received more than 400 applications. At the same time, it had landed only $20,000 in private donations, according to city officials running the program.
Under the program, Norwalk residents aged 14 to 18 are employed at locations ranging from City Hall to summer camp
to the Merritt 7 office complex. The program runs from July 1 through mid-August.
Donations and openings for work fuel the annual jobs program. Each job costs approximately $1,200 to create. As such, the number of jobs created depends upon donations.
Mayor Richard A. Moccia blamed the downturned economy for the donation pace thus far. At the same time, he expressed hope that the city will land more donations and can apply dollars left over in the jobs program account from last year.
"I think the economy has made a difference, as far as getting companies to hire and contribute," Moccia said. But, "We have funds that we had budgeted last year that we didn't have to touch. We've got $75,000 that we hopefully can utilize. We want to (be able to pay for) a minimum of 175 jobs."
Meanwhile, Moccia said companies have committed themselves to providing
30 jobs and "that's like money."
"If we look at the 30 jobs that we have locked-in committed, we need to figure out a way to get enough money for roughly 145 jobs," Moccia said.
At $1,200 per job, that translates to $79,000 in additional fundraising needed after applying the $20,000 raised thus far and the $75,000 left over in the jobs program account.
In early March, the city began gearing up for the annual jobs program by making applications available at the front of the mayor's office.
Since then, the applications have been picked up, filled out and returned at a brisk pace, according to Darlene Young, assistant city clerk and program coordinator.
"We have over 400 (applications returned). I think this is the most we've
(ever) got," Young said Wednesday. "The issue, at this point, would be getting enough jobs and money to support 220 young people working this summer."
Ideally, the city would like to employ 220 young people -- compared to 200 employed last year.
To donate to the program, call Young at (203) 854-7704.
 Hour photo/BEN GANCSOS
Ashleigh Osterhout picks up litter Sunday during the Flax Hill Park cleanup that
Joanne Romano, Rick McQuaid and Marybeth Becker of Norwalk Neighbors Helping Our Teens organized. Park was cleaned, but
short on teens
NORWALK
BY JARED NEWMAN A park cleanup event intended for teenagers drew mostly adults Sunday, but Joanne Romano isn't discouraged.
The former city councilwoman created Norwalk Neighbors Helping Our Teens in February to give kids an alternative to gang violence, and she believes that if the group keeps pressing on, the kids will come. The group's first event, a cleanup of Flax Hill Park, drew roughly a dozen people, a few of them teenagers.
"The more we get the word out, the more we'll be able to get something going with this," Romano said.
For three hours, volunteers gathered garbage, which included empty beverage containers and more unusual items, such as dirty daipers, "empty nickel bags" and even a car tire, Romano said.
"That is bizarre, for a park where kids have to go play, or be able to go play," Romano said of the strange litter.
When the group finished, they left behind roughly 60 bags of trash in Flax Hill's parking lot. Romano said the city's Recreation and Parks department cannot do the job itself. The city maintains the parks, she said, "but if people are down there just throwing stuff around, they'd have to be there every day."
Romano has her eye on a cleanup of Ryan Park next, but she said the key to bringing out more teens will be the group's monthly meetings, where they can share feelings and vent frustrations.
A meeting in March drew roughly 50 people, she said, and the discussions aren't always centered on violence or gangs. Conversations range from peer pressure to anger management and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
"This isn't just about violence, because kids are not all about violence, but teens do have their own problems," she said.
Following the stabbing death in Norwalk of 17-year old Tykwan Hunt of Bridgeport, several groups emerged to tackle the issue of gang violence. While some residents say this kind of activity often emerges after a teenager is violently murdered, Romano insists Norwalk Neighbors Helping Our Teens will be different. Monthly meetings will continue, and more events are in the works.
"I don't want this to be one that goes away," Romano said. "I want this one to thrive."
Ultimately, she'd like the city to have a teen center, but admits that the cost to building one is high. In the future, she at least wants to hold some dances and encourage kids to garden at Fodor Farm.
"Kids really want a place to go," she said. "They want something to do. They don't want to hang out in the street, they want some place to go."
Teens push for probation reform in wake of murder
By Zach Lowe
Staff Writer
Published March 14 2008
STAMFORD - Several dozen teens from area high schools urged state officials yesterday to make sure the October murder of Layla Banks spurs a change in the way probation officers track down violators.
Banks, 21, was stabbed to death early on Oct. 13 near the Sheraton Hotel lobby after a raucous party there. Banks' ex-boyfriend, 21-year-old Juan Botello, reportedly confessed to the murder after
Teens from the Stamford Mayor's Youth Leadership Council - and peers from Greenwich and Norwalk - told officials visiting from Hartford they were frustrated when they learned Botello had been wanted for violating probation for nearly a year before Banks murder.
"It was less than comforting to find out that a violent ex-offender who had violated probation could elude officials for such a long time," council member Alexa Peterson, a Stamford High School junior, told a group that included state Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford; state Rep. Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven; William Carbone, head of the state's Court Services Support Services Division; and John Lahda, executive director of the state Board of Pardons and Parole.
McDonald helped organize the event after meeting with the council about the issues.
State officials have said they do not have enough probation officers to track down the more than 6,500 offenders wanted for violating probation statewide, including about 450 in the Stamford-Norwalk judicial district.
There are 17 probation officers who track down wanted violators; each is responsible for about 400 arrest warrants, some of which are more than a year old, Carbone told the crowd at Stamford Government Center last night.
Many offenders, including Botello, are difficult to find because they move around to several addresses, officials said.
"It is a huge effort," Carbone told students from Stamford, Greenwich and Brien McMahon High Schools. "It takes a lot of detective work."
Botello's probation officer deemed him in violation of his probation on Oct. 24, 2006, just more than two months after he was released from prison after serving nine months for stabbing a friend.
In the two months after his release, Botello missed seven appointments with his probation officer, tested positive for marijuana twice and falsely claimed to have a job, according to an arrest affidavit.
Probation officers persuaded Botello to meet with them three times after they wrote an arrest warrant affidavit. They planned to arrest Botello when he showed up, said Trevor Johnson, a regional manager for adult probation and bail for the Court Support Services Division.
But Botello missed the appointments, and officials lost track of him. There is no record that police or probation officers looked for Botello after Nov. 3, 2006, the last of his missed appointments, officials have said.
"Our best work isn't going to stop some tragedies," Johnson told the group. "But the fact that you are upset and want to get involved is wonderful."
Carbone told the crowd he needs more officers devoted to executing arrest warrants and will push for a regional squad of probation and police officers devoted to that effort.
Gov. M. Jodi Rell has asked the legislature to fund spots for nine additional probation officers who would manage the warrant caseload, Carbone said.
If approved, it would be the first increase since Carbone took over the division in 1999, he said.
Lawlor and McDonald, who are co-chairmen of the legislature's Judiciary Committee, said they would support such increased supervision and funding for programs that would help ex-prisoners transition smoothly back into society.
They urged the teens to write to Rell and their legislators and continue agitating about criminal justice issues.
Bob Kocienda, the council's director, said the group was planning a trip to Hartford to protest the shortage of probation officers.
Alexa Peterson of Stamford High said the event helped the teens understand how difficult it is for officials to supervise so many offenders.
"I don't think any of us understood that it was so complex," she said.
| Center for Youth Leadership
Why wait for someone else to make a difference?
CYL Alert
Voices of Immigrant Parents Program
“There are a lot of things I look forward to with the Peace Project,” said Lorena Martinez. “There’s the teen dating violence activities, our work with day laborers, and the information we distribute about human trafficking. But one of my favorite activities is the Voices of Immigrant Parents Program. I get to help people understand the ins and outs of school – who to talk to, what papers are important, and how to advocate for a student. It’s important because school policies and procedures are a mystery to many of these parents.”
As noted in the New York Times, the Voices of Immigrant Parents Program at Brien McMahon High School “…helps immigrant families navigate their way through the Norwalk school system.”
“These are hard working people,” said Carla Calderon of the Peace Project. “They work all day and then come to program meetings in the evening. And the discussions are lively. The parents really want the best for their children, but they have so much to learn – what questions to ask, who to ask, and when to ask them.”
A grant from the United Way of Norwalk & Wilton helped jumpstart the program in January 2008. “The principal and teachers from the World Languages Department were very supportive,” said Paulina Hernandez of the Peace Project. “We presented them with a plan, they gave us the go ahead to raise money, and they helped us recruit parents for the group. It was a smooth process because everyone wanted to see this happen.”
See below for an article about the Voices of Immigrant Parents Program. It appeared in the June 22 edition of the New York Times.
Breaking Down Barriers to Get Parents Involved
by Margaret Farley Steele
New York Times, June 22, 2008
“In this era of hovering parents, the principal of Brien McMahon High School noticed one group conspicuously on the sidelines: immigrant parents.
They care very much about their young, but some of them don’t understand the American system, Suzanne Brown Koroshetz discovered last summer when she became McMahon’s principal. She made it a priority to reach out to this sizable community.
At McMahon, one of the three public high schools in Norwalk, about 27 percent of its 1,617 students are Hispanic, officials said, and almost a third come from non-English-speaking homes.
With money from the United Way of Norwalk and Wilton, the Voices of Immigrant Parents Program was formed under Ms. Koroshetz’s stewardship. At twice-monthly meetings, its 14 members developed strategies to help immigrant families navigate their way through the school system. The organization is managed by the Peace Project, a program of the Center for Youth Leadership at McMahon.
A bilingual open house and three evening workshops, all translated into Spanish, and sometimes French for the school’s Haitian families, grew out of those meetings. The first workshop — on academics, report cards and standardized testing — drew nearly 300 parents.
‘I explained how to read report cards,’ Ms. Koroshetz said. ‘Their kids were telling them, ‘It doesn’t matter, you don’t need to look at this.’ The group has also held a workshop on gangs and parental rights, and another on guidance and sports. ‘I took it for granted that they knew a lot of this information,’ Ms. Koroshetz said. ‘They have things to learn that people who grew up here take for granted.’
For the coming school year, the group plans a special orientation session in Spanish for parents of incoming freshmen. The annual open house will also have a session in Spanish and French.
Cultural and language barriers prevent many immigrant parents from making use of traditional sources of information, some educators said.
‘They need to know how to work the system,’ said Bob Kocienda, executive director of the Center for Youth Leadership. ‘If they were to call a teacher and get told, ‘I don’t have time to talk to you now,’ out of respect they would wait for a return phone call. They don’t know to say, ‘I’d like to talk to your boss or the chairman of the department.’
‘We’re walking them through step by step; start with the teacher, then the guidance counselor, then the house master and then the principal. You don’t start with the principal because she’ll just bump you back to the teacher.’
Parents said they appreciated the program. ‘I learned new things,’ said Anna Alamilla, a native of Mexico, whose 15-year-old daughter is a freshman. Before a session on guidance counseling, she said, she did not know the name of her daughter’s counselor — or why she should know it. ‘If she needs help, she can go,’ Ms. Alamilla said she learned. ‘Even me, I can call them.’
Some parents said that the translators made it easier for them to participate. ‘I understand English and write it, but I’m uncomfortable speaking in public,’ said Rosa Lopez, from Colombia, the mother of two McMahon students.
Some children of immigrants navigate the system on their own. ‘It’s not hard to figure out the system,’ said Lorena Martinez, 16, a junior at McMahon, whose parents are Colombian.
A member of the Peace Project, Lorena sometimes translates for Ms. Koroshetz at committee meetings. She attended the May workshop herself, because her parents were working. ‘I tell my parents everything,’ she said. ‘I advocate for myself.’
But Ms. Koroshetz wants to help more immigrant parents help their children. ‘The more parents are involved,’ she said, ‘the more successful their kids will be.’ “
~ ~ ~
For more information, please contact:
Center for Youth Leadership at Brien McMahon High School
300 Highland Avenue, Norwalk, Connecticut 06854
203/852-9488
CYL Alert 23
June 24, 2008
Get answers to these and other crime-related questions by joining in the discussion.
The forum will take place on Wednesday, May 14 from 7:30 to 9 PM at Norwalk City Hall Room 333. For more information call 855-7668 or visit the ENNA website at http://eastnorwalk.org
Travel P.E. lets kids make points with non-traditional sports
A tennis ball whizzed through the air to Nathan Hale Middle School student Kevin Kerr at the Fitness & Tennis Club one recent afternoon.
Bouncing slightly from side to side, Kerr gripped his racquet tighter and swung. The loud thud meant he'd hit his target squarely and Kerr grinned as he ran across the court.
"I never played tennis before," Kerr said. "I love the fast pace and hitting a ball. I found out I'm really good."
Kerr was one of the students participating in "Travel P.E.," a free after-school program designed by Vince Diaco, physical education teacher at Nathan Hale.
The program is true to its name. Each month, a group of students from all grades in Nathan Hale, including special education students, travel to different locations in Norwalk to participate in a sport not offered in the regular physical education curriculum.
"The idea started when one of my students came to me and said he really wanted to learn to box," Diaco said. "I thought maybe I can make his dream come true."
Diaco took interested students to a boxing lesson after school. That soon followed with lessons in golf, karate and other physical activities offered at various sports centers in Norwalk.
The program is an independent professional growth opportunity for teachers who have distinguished themselves through their professionalism and by encouraging outstanding student achievement. The opportunity is given to teachers so they can enhance curriculum in a creative way. Diaco has taught P.E. at Nathan Hale for seven years and Travel P.E. will continue into the 2008-09 school year.
"The kids are fired up," Diaco said. "Maybe they can do something they don't normally have the opportunity to try. You can see kids of all backgrounds here."
The sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students at Wednesday's tennis lesson practiced hitting a ball, techniques and learnt the rules of the game. Special education students also participated with the help of aide Carmen Suarez.
"So many kids really need these kinds of programs," Suarez said. "My kids are playing and participating. They're having fun with the sports. And they are part of the rest, they can participate."
Suarez and Joseph Brigante, a substitute teacher at Nathan Hale, both volunteered their time to help Diaco co-ordinate the program. Parents shouted words of encouragement from the sidelines.
"You can try different things and if you don't like it there is no pressure to participate," said Debbie Poruban, whose son Justin participated in the tennis clinic. "It's nice to be so personalized."
Brigante sees another advantage to the program that most physical education classes may not support.
"This is a new stereotype because children are really wanted when playing, regardless of their level," he said. "They can be mediocre or great, but everyone is treated as a human being."
Brigante explained that gym classes are usually where the good players are separated from the bad in popular sports, and the pressure to perform can cause anxiety in a student. But in the Travel P.E. class, students may find they are best at nontraditional sports like fishing or water polo.
Kerr agreed and said he hopes to join the cricket team at Norwalk High School in his freshman year. Many of the students said they really enjoyed tennis and the program was their first time participating in a game.
"I learn technique, scoring and basic skills in these classes," said sixth-grade student Max Helfand. "It's really nice to have an opportunity to do something different each month."
Diaco sees his program as the great equalizer.
Students who are typically motivated toward a certain sport — maybe basketball in the streets, sailing in the suburbs — explore other options regardless of socio-economic background.
"At the end of the day, I want to know that I was a great teacher and coach," he said. "I can't believe how may people have gotten behind this program and how all the students are participating in sports they really enjoy. I've gotten great response from parents, teachers, the community and most important, the students."
Staff writer Nina Sen covers education. She may be reached at (203) 354-1005 or nsen@thehour.com.
Protecting children: City Hall display shines spotlight on abuse By Patrick McNamee
Special Correspondent
Published March 19 2008
NORWALK - Visitors walking into Norwalk City Hall yesterday morning were greeted by the sight of 1,342 paper bags, each representing a victim of child abuse last year in Fairfield County.
Students in Brien McMahon High School's Senators Community Foundation launched the campaign to raise awareness of child abuse in the community. "A lot of people have come and asked questions about it so far," senior Sarah Minnerly said. "They seemed surprised by the number."
April is Child Abuse Awareness Month, and yesterday's event was a precursor to a bigger showing at the state Capitol in Hartford. On April 1, the group plans to go with 9,422 bags to represent all victims of abuse last year throughout Connecticut, with 242 of those children from Norwalk.
Students began working on the project in late January, making 30 to 40 bags per day. Each bag was given the name and age of a victim under 12.
"The kids are great, they do all this at school or at night, and it's part of an ongoing campaign," said Bob Kocienda, director of the Center for Youth Leadership which works with the Senators Community Foundation. Though students focused on child abuse for this project, the group works on a variety of causes.
The students arrived at City Hall at about 8 a.m. and began placing the bags, which were filled with sand, along the entrance. They expected to be there until at least 12:30 p.m., prepared to answer questions from passers-by.
"Doing this at City Hall is great because a lot of people come through here," senior Kara Mackay said. "It's a chance for us to tell people just how many people are affected."
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