As city leaders, there’s a lot you must know. First, you must have comprehension and understanding. If you cannot comprehend the larger problems at hand, then you will not understand the solutions, even if they were to fall into your lap.
As parents, will you take measures to help your son or daughter without first finding out what they need help with? Did you ever come up with a solution to a problem you were unaware existed? Were you able to realize what you needed until you were forced to go without it?
Regardless of your position as a city leader, you must understand the problems facing this city and be prepared to step up to the plate to provide the needed solutions. It is rare to find people in higher-up positions in New Orleans who genuinely take the time to assess and debunk the issues plaguing the city as a whole, particularly its youth. The rare ones are not making assumptions as to what the solution to these problems could look like. Instead, those special few come to us to ask what we feel we want and need.
After much deliberation, we, The Seven Who Make It Happen, the youth council within the Orleans Parish juvenile jail, believe the two most important issues to be addressed are the lack of opportunities for today’s youth and the ultimate foundation of where most of these problems stem from: at home. Due to the lack of opportunities for youth, we naturally adopt a mindset to go get what it is we need and want on our own.
Lack of opportunity for youth
Understand this: In this city, and for that matter, in the world, there are a multitude of youth incarcerated because they displayed the wrong actions, even though they had the right intentions.
If you understand the complexities of this, as we do, then you will understand that this would not be much of a problem if more opportunities for youth were in place.
We need more jobs, programs, social and non-social activities, and overall positive opportunities. Youth don’t have ways to explore our personal interests in New Orleans. We should have more access to more opportunities, tailored to specific career paths, rather than being categorized and generalized.
The city lacks opportunities for us to explore our personal interests, which nullifies the ability to explore other interests or career paths. This leads to the issue of what goes on in our homes. There is not enough responsibility and accountability among adults and parents in the city of New Orleans.
When looking at a youth’s actions, everyone wants the youth themselves to shoulder the responsibility, accountability and consequences that follow. Why is no one asking who is accountable for said youth? Why are they not asking us why or what was the cause of said action? No one hesitates to penalize the youth, but there is zero to no action taken to penalize parents.
It starts at home
Too often, there is no structure in our homes. Without structure, there is no discipline, proper role models, or loved ones who can genuinely support our decisions. If we experienced homes with structure, we would see what’s right and wrong in our households and we’d understand the difference and impact that structure can create.
Children are often exposed to drugs, violence, and domestic abuse in the household. Some kids can operate firearms as if they were in the military. Others can easily gain access to drugs and the supplies needed to put those drugs to use. To make matters worse, these same children have no one to look up to.
We have kids in homes where essential needs are not being met. They feel they have to do something to help out. But due to lack of opportunity, they believe their best option is to steal.
No one seems to care about the influence that they have on today’s youth. It’s one of the many contributions to the plague of problems affecting us.
Across New Orleans, we have youth growing up in environments that lack structure, where they are exposed to harm, lack opportunities to explore their personal interests, and have no one who inspires or supports them. How can you place a youth in an environment where they have no opportunities to explore their personal interest and have no one to aspire to be and expect them to be fruitful?
This is why we need more accountability and responsibility placed on the parents and adults.
Two other major components that need to be addressed are the operation of the city school system and the mental health crisis in New Orleans.
Failures in the education system
Schools often allow students to proceed to the next grade when they are not academically ready. Many students start a new school year without being properly taught and tested on the previous year’s material.
Many students don’t even understand basic material. Some students aren’t on the correct reading-comprehension level. The dilemma of students moving through school, repeatedly passing each grade without proper teaching, creates bigger problems that the school system is not equipped to deal with.
The relationship between teachers and students should be one of mentorship. Many teachers do not test their students enough or take the time to break down and thoroughly explain the material. They spoon-feed answers to students and don’t explain how the student can get to the answer themselves. The only way some of us receive one-on-one lessons is if we seem to be lacking behind the rest of the group, but certain students work better one on one compared to working in a whole group.
As students, we learn and pick up on the material much quicker when it’s something the students are earnestly interested in. We want to learn about Black history and take electives that can be used later on in life, or something that can become a career or trade. There’s even a growing interest in getting a jump start on college credits and courses.
Our mental health matters
Moving into the next issue: the mental health crisis.
The bleak reality is that no one cares.
Adults and parents alike seem to be too busy to offer check-ins with us. If we were to have some form of guidance and counseling, we would be able to practice more self-control in the things we do to and around others.
Supporting the mental health of the city’s children should be second nature to adults and leaders.
When we do wrong, society is quick to punish us. But rarely does anyone ever stop to advise us and help us learn healthy coping skills that suit us. Without that much-needed advice, slowly and gradually, our minds develop their own version of right and wrong.
If adults in New Orleans made this small effort, it should show us that there are people we can talk to when we feel down. We would learn ways to healthily express anger, happiness, sadness, and grief, rather than bottling our emotions and exploding. Therapy, guidance, counseling, or someone to talk to are ways to remedy this problem.
We are not the narratives you portray
When youth do something good, it’s hardly ever noticed. But time and time again, when children do wrong, it gets broadcasted to the media and on the news. The public is quick to point fingers and criticize us for our actions, but you don’t ask, “Why do they do what they do?”
Too many of the adults in this city are afraid to chastise or correct us out of fear that we will lash out at them. Today’s youth are assigned a stereotype and treated as though the characteristics of that stereotype reflects who that kid is.
We can’t even walk in public with our friends without others suspecting that we’re up to no good. For example, one of our youth council members recalls hearing a person in a nearby car hit the door locks as he walked past with his friends, as if they had intentions to break in or steal the car. Does that not sound stereotypical? To lock your doors when you see a group of young Black men?
If that group of young Black men did break in or steal a car, it would be plastered and broadcast all over social media and the news. But if that same group of young Black men turned out to be young, successful entrepreneurs, no one would pay attention.
After being labeled negatively over and over, eventually, we start to associate ourselves with that narrative. The narrative placed on young Black teenagers contributes to the larger, harmful narratives and problems impacting New Orleans. The spotlight of our city is crime. New Orleans is known for crime. Whether we like it or not, crime is a part of the many issues plaguing New Orleans, but that doesn’t mean that the city should be catching attention because of crime.
Editor’s note: In actuality, only 7% of all arrests (people of all ages) were represented by youth 17 and under, according to the 2024 NOPD Stop and Search Annual Report.
When in court, a young person cannot express themselves. The system only sees us by the crime we are accused of, not as a person outside of said crime. No one wants to hear what the accused youth were doing with themselves beforehand or what plans we have for ourselves in the future.
Our court system also appears to show leniency to females and white youth. Those of us in the juvenile jail have concluded that the court systems – driven by the harmful narratives about New Orleans crime and youth – believe that young Black males cause the most trouble, which explains the lack of leniency. There is not fair judgment across the board.
How would you feel if your child were to be punished to the fullest extent while others of a different race or gender are accused of the same offense, but walk away unscathed?
It takes a village to raise a child
As a city leader, you must realize exactly what you’re signing up for. A plethora of systemic issues have plagued this city for entirely too long. We need city leaders, adults and parents to address the shared lack of responsibility and accountability. We need actual teaching in our schools and structure in our households. We need you to address the lack of resources, opportunities and attention to mental health. We need adults to change the negative perceptions and narratives about Black youth that create biased mindsets.
We believe that if these issues are not addressed, New Orleans as a city and as a people will not advance. Do not think that because a problem does not appear to apply as of now, that it won’t need solving later on.
The negativity in our city is glorified entirely too often. We need to see the media, adults and parents of the city modeling teamwork, highlighting accomplishments rather than negativity, and showing what conflict resolution looks like in a respectful and violence-free manner.
Instead, we need to see promotion of agendas that matter, like job opportunities, and city leaders in our schools and neighborhoods. For example: Why do we have to be arrested to finally meet with our City Councilperson?
Again, as a city leader, you must have comprehension and understanding. But to comprehend the problems impacting the youth, you must speak with us and listen to what we have to say. Until you have those conversations, you will not understand the solutions, even if they were to fall into your lap.
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The contents of this collective essay were developed through storytelling circles between the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights’ Strategic Storyteller, Cierra Chenier, and “The Seven That Make It Happen” youth council in New Orleans’ juvenile jail. The article is Part 2 of the #ItTakesAVillageNOLA campaign led by the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights. The collective essay was edited for length and clarity. Read Part 1: New Orleans was not disposable after Katrina. Its children are not disposable now.
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