THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 7, 1995 TAG: 9508070038
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 141 lines
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The boy kicks the locked metal door of the Roberts Village Boys & Girls Club, jabbing his leg backward like an angry mule. He kicks hard.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
It's hot outside on this July afternoon, blistering hot. A few kids, too old for the Norfolk club's scheduled musical show next door, have been allowed inside the closed gym to play three-on-three basketball with a worn leather ball. The kicker and a friend want in, too. A club worker says sorry, but no. She has her orders.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Hot, bored, frustrated, the boy keeps kicking until, finally, the worker calls the police. The boy leaves, and things quiet. When the gym closes, another dozen hot, bored kids pour out onto the steamy streets of the subsidized-housing project.
They laugh and shout and joke, as kids do anywhere. But like the door-kicker, they aren't just any kids. They're poor; virtually all of their families are on some form of public assistance.
And poor is a dangerous way to grow up, as those who work with children keep finding out. While many in the middle class complain, often correctly, that their lives are fraught with stress, the strain on impoverished kids can be much more destructive.
With the Senate planning to spend this week finalizing its welfare reform plan - which includes funding cuts - some in the field warn that the situation could become worse.
Being poor means physical hardship. Many impoverished kids are hot in the summer, cold in the winter and possibly hungry the whole year; many lack basic immunizations; some must dodge errant bullets in their bedrooms at night.
But poverty hurts kids in ways that are harder to measure. The simple fact that a child is poor also takes its toll.
``It smacks them right in the face,'' says Larry B. Sawyer, senior child and adolescent clinician for Chesapeake's Mental Health Services.
``I've had kids who wouldn't go to school because everybody else had better clothes than they were wearing.''
Sawyer and others who work with poor children see the effects every day:
Dispirited children with low self-esteem, ridiculed by classmates, unable to join the crowd at McDonald's after the big game, having little hope of obtaining the latest Mighty Morphin Power Ranger action figure.
Anxious children worried about crime - becoming victims of it, or being tempted or forced into it by older kids.
Angry children who act out - skipping school, vandalizing, fighting.
Some might even futilely kick a locked door.
In the worst cases, where children are trapped in dangerous neighborhoods with high violent-crime rates, they suffer from the equivalent of post-traumatic stress syndrome - sort of playground battle fatigue.
``It's stressful seeing someone get shot, because you think, `That could be me,' '' says Timothy E. Golfe, a 16-year-old who lives in Norfolk's Park Place and, like many peers, has seen a shooting.
Frightening in its own way is the new research, such as a study last fall by the Children's Defense Fund. It showed that day-to-day poverty and repeated witnessing of violence affects the growing brains of children. It makes it harder for them to learn and leads to long-term behavior problems.
Proposed changes in state and federal welfare programs, if they result in cuts in services, could exacerbate this stress, says the study's author, Arloc Sherman, a CDF researcher.
``What's so important about poverty is that a kid is buffeted from all directions,'' Sherman says. ``There's no respite, no break, no chance to get the `right' messages.''
Dr. Barry S. Zuckerman, a professor and head of pediatrics at Boston City Hospital, sees the psychological problems suffered by poor children as the result of a host of troubles, particularly in low-income working families that don't receive government subsidies. Those troubles include noisy, dangerous neighborhoods; cheap, crowded housing; lead paint, garbage and other toxic material; inadequate food and inadequate health insurance, which results in ignored medical problems.
The stress felt by poor parents - choosing whether to ``heat or eat'' in the winter, having to repeatedly say ``no'' when their children ask for something - is passed on to the children who see the hurt and shame in their parents' faces.
``Each of those things adds together to impair children's ability to learn and develop social relationships,'' Zuckerman says.
None of that surprises professionals in the field, like Chesapeake's Sawyer.
Summers are particularly bad for lower-income children, because of all the idle time.
They usually can't look forward to vacation trips or summer camps. Older kids often have to care for younger siblings if their parents work. Many go unsupervised. Some are afraid to venture outside.
``They're basically raising themselves,'' says John D. Garvin, program director at the Roberts Village Boys & Girls Club. When he took his job in October, he was amazed at the long days and late evenings the local kids spent at his facility.
While often isolated within their neighborhoods - no day trips to the beach or a suburban park - the children still see how the other half lives through television shows and advertising. ``You've got the haves and the have-nots,'' says Kevin J. Yearwood, area director at the Colonial Boys & Girls Club in Norfolk, where children often discuss the stress they feel. ``You've got the kids who see things you can't do. You've got TV. They see Busch Gardens.''
Some face strong moral dilemmas - money for the expensive sneakers someone craves might be had for a quick delivery of illicit goods. Stylish clothes may mean better acceptance by peers. That can be a powerful temptation.
Chesapeake's Sawyer knows one boy about 13, ``basically a good kid,'' who's awaiting trial on charges of stealing a pair of sunglasses. ``He wanted them,'' Sawyer says simply. ``He couldn't afford them.''
It's also common for poor children to become defensive and erect shields against strangers and authority figures, even when complimented.
``It's very hard for them to trust you,'' says Garvin at Roberts Village. ``Because basically everyone has let them down all their life.
``I tell you what, though. There are some wonderful kids. It's so hard to knock them down.''
Often, the children don't see it themselves. A group of teens at the Roberts Village Boys & Girls Club recently shrugged when asked about the stress in their lives. They mentioned only being bored, and how they enjoyed the club as a respite, a place to play games or watch television.
If welfare reform means fewer services for these children - or cutting off services because of their parents' indolence or inadequacies - the psychic toll will rise, the experts warn.
Boston City Hospital's Zuckerman calls services that minimize stress in poor children ``a basic investment.''
He says the United States would do well to look at other developed countries. Most of them, he says, ``protect their children's health - all their children.
``In this country, we protect only some.'' ILLUSTRATION: WELFARE CHANGES
Some changes in welfare programs that may affect children:
The House and Senate have both approved programs that would
reduce spending on food stamp programs. The House has voted to
reduce overall spending on food stamps and child nutrition programs
by $23 billion over five years.
Congress is considering budget cuts and other changes in the
Medicaid program, which provides medical insurance for the poor.
At the state level, welfare reform, which is being phased in over
several years, will eliminate cash benefits for babies born to women
already receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children and cut
off checks to women who fail to identify their children's fathers.
State reform also places a two-year limit on AFDC.
by CNB