many parents let the kids have a lot more freedom, because they want to be the good guy.”
For many teenagers who end up in the “system,” they started their downward spiral by failing classes and ditching school. Then they turn to drugs, which inevitably leads to criminal charges that land them face to face with judges like Davis.
“Maybe a teacher told them, ‘there’s no way you’re going to pass this class, your going to fail,” Davis said. “And I think maybe the kids internalize that and begin to see themselves as failures.”
Most bench officers who work in the court will oversee the kids’ grades and attendance in school.
“If you look at the prisons, most criminals, the ones that commit heavy duty crimes, they started out by ditching school,” Davis said. “It was way back then that they became failures in school.”
“If you look at the prisons, most criminals, the ones that commit heavy duty crimes, they started out by ditching school.” — — PAM DAVIS Santa Monica juvenile judge
Those messages can breed low self-esteem which leads many kids to stealing, drugs and alcohol or joining gangs.
The spiral can end in tragedy like the case of Deanna Maran, a Santa Monica High School sophomore who was killed at a party last November in Westwood after her altercation with another 15-year-old got out of hand.
The 15-year-old’s half sister, Katrina Sarkissian, 17, reportedly stabbed Maran while dozens of onlookers watched the girls fight. According to teenagers at the party, the 15-year-old, Sarkissian and a Santa Monica High School senior pinned Maran down, beat her and then stabbed her. The incident started after Maran told the 15-year-old to stop destroying property at the house.
Sarkissian died the next day while in police custody from an overdose. Her sister was charged with battery, a misdemeanor. She’ll likely walk away from the charge this week when she faces a juvenile judge in Inglewood.
What’s perplexing to Maran’s mother, Harriet Maran, is how parents can raise such violent individuals. The girls involved in the murder are from upscale Brentwood families and attended multiple private schools. (See letter to editor, page 4.) Harriet Maran hasn’t heard from the parents of the girls accused of playing a role in her daughter’s murder, or the parents of the 15-year-old boy who hosted the party.
The teenagers who appear in Davis’ court for traffic and misdemeanor charges range from poor to affluent families. Although she expects parents to be involved, more often than not, she says they don’t.
And if the parents won’t step in and intervene in the child’s life, inevitably the court will.
“Kids don’t have consequences; they have to be accountable for their actions and I think that’s where we come in.” Davis said. “A lot of times 16 or 17 year olds, when you try and make them accountable from a court like this, where we’re not holding detention in a youth authority over their head,” Davis explains, “they’re like ‘whatever.’”
One place Davis sends troubled teenagers is “A-SAP,” a parent-teen counseling program at Santa Monica High School.
“Society usually considers growing up in a family of privilege, a privilege,” said Susie Spain, an addiction specialist who works at A-SAP. “Self esteem has nothing to do with whether you’re rich or poor.”
The Informal Juvenile Court, developed in 1985, acts as a point of early intervention and focuses on rehabilitation. It’s part of what Davis calls a “tag team approach,” where law enforcement, courts, parents and schools work together for the benefit of the kids.
Consequences range from community service, AA meetings and parent-teen counseling to the LA County Sheriff’s Vital Intervention Directional Alternatives program, which is the most stringent of programs assigned.
It’s designed to breakdown teens’ negative behavior and rebuild them into socially acceptable citizens.
It’s an intense boot-camp training for seven consecutive Saturdays. But there is a pay-off — the last part of the program involves field trips to museums, hikes and admission to Lakers games.
“If you ask most kids who complete (the program) they say what they liked the most was the discipline, the working out and the tough rules,” Davis said.
Sgt. Mike Griffin, the program’s supervisor, said most teens in the program come from parents who don’t participate in their child’s life.
“In fact, most of the time the parents would have been (in the program) when they were little, Griffin said, “but the program wasn’t in place. We’re hoping they’re getting as much out of the program as the kids are and sometimes more.”
The police in Culver City have a similar program, said Lt. Steve Williams.
“We show kids that there are people out there who care about them,” he said. “Kids respond to listening to what they have to say.
“More common than not the kids in our program come from single families … and yes, some do resent the fact that parents aren’t around,” he added.
Statistics have shown that if a family works together, the child gets cleaned up a lot quicker.
“We believe that an addiction problem in a child is a family problem, not a child problem,” A-SAP’s Spain said. “Like in the movie ‘Traffic,’ it’s about the family, it’s not just about the girl.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 24, 2002. Read the original PDF.