Survey details gun use, assaults
More than 40 percent of male high school students in Boston say they have carried a knife and more than 40 percent of all students believe it would be easy to get a gun, according to a new public health survey.
One in five students has witnessed a shooting and does not feel safe in his or her neighborhood, the survey found.
The report, which surveyed more than 1,200 students in 18 Boston public high schools in the spring of 2006, found that two-thirds of students said they had witnessed violence in the year before the survey, and one-third had been involved in a fight themselves. Nearly 40 percent of male students had been assaulted, and 28 percent said they did not feel safe on the bus or train.
The report, which city officials are releasing today to launch a series of community meetings on teenage health, highlights the pervasive exposure to violence among city teenagers and the fear it can generate.
"This is a call to action for everyone who works with young people," said Barbara Ferrer, executive director of the Boston Public Health Commission.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino, public health officials, and some 80 high school leaders will present and discuss the findings at an afternoon meeting in Codman Square. The meetings are designed to solicit ideas and opinions from teenagers on strategies to curb gun and gang violence.
Ferrer said the prevalence of violence and its psychological impact on teenagers are distressing.
"The impact of such exposure to violence is trauma," she said. "It can't be treated lightly, and it can't be dismissed."
The report, however, found several areas of improvement compared with a similar youth survey two years ago. More students said they felt safe on the bus or train, in their neighborhood, and on the way to and from school. Fewer students were shot at or attacked with a weapon other than a gun, and far fewer witnessed an attack. Students were more likely to trust the police.
In 2004, there were 64 homicides in Boston, the most since 1995, and up from 41 in 2003. There were 74 and 75 homicides in 2005 and 2006, and there have been 58 so far this year.
The survey was conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health. Half of the surveyed students were black, 28 percent Hispanic, 12 percent white, and 6 percent Asian.
Ferrer said she had anticipated most of the findings but was dismayed by the number of students who reported feelings of depression and had not received help. Almost half of female students and 28 percent of males experienced such symptoms, and more than 60 percent of those students who witnessed or were victimized by violence. Only a small fraction received counseling, the survey found.
"This really documents some problems related to emotional well-being," she said. "We have to ask whether we are doing enough to help kids cope with strong feelings that things aren't going well for them."
The survey's finding of widespread fistfights - more than one-third of male and female students reported having hit, punched, kicked, or choked someone in the past month - was also disturbing, Ferrer said. Such violence can easily intensify to weapon use, she said.
"We're missing the precursor to more serious violence, which is a lot of aggressive behavior," she said. "We need to give our students some skills on how to resolve conflict before it escalates."
Marcus Peterson, a member of a youth antiviolence group called Operation Greensboro said public apathy contributes to the persistent violence.
"It's not really an issue anymore," he said. "It's just accepted."
Operation Greensboro has launched an Internet campaign to enlist high school and college students and is urging Governor Deval Patrick to take steps to reducing inner-city crime.
Peterson, 16, said the threat of violence in the city's most dangerous neighborhoods takes a mental toll on young residents.
"You always have to watch out," he said. "You could get in trouble for wearing the wrong hat or the wrong color."
Six percent of students reported carrying a gun, primarily because they felt unsafe in their neighborhood or because someone threatened to hurt them. Half of those reporting they carried guns said they belonged to gangs and reported far greater drug and alcohol use than non-gun carriers.
More than one-quarter of students said they would not report a crime for fear of reprisal or being labeled a snitch. Menino and law enforcement officials have denounced the antisnitching culture and urged witnesses to come forward and identify perpetrators.
Fatimah Mahdee, a 17-year-old from Dorchester who works with the Boston Area Health Education Center, said she hoped the survey results and the youth meetings would make confronting the culture of gangs and guns a higher priority.
"We're trying to show people how serious this is," she said. "If you talk directly to the students, maybe they'll understand what's really going on."
Mahdee said many teenagers can't walk down the street without looking over their shoulder and are frightened by the prospect of random violence around any corner. She mentioned Steven Odom, the 13-year-old shot and killed earlier this month on his way home from playing basketball.
"It's just crazy what's happening," she said. "Of course you are scared, because anything can happen."
Harry Harding, a family mentor who estimates that three-quarters of his Boston clients have been affected by violence, said children are at once preoccupied and desensitized to violence.
"Both are kinds of trauma," he said. "Instead of cotton candy and recess, they are asking about who got shot. But it's also just part of their vernacular. They don't seem to realize they are talking about death."
