On March 23rd, Sheriff McNeil gave a report to the Tallahassee City Commission on the Sheriff’s Council on the Status of Men and Boys (the Council). Previously, the City Commission reserved $140,000 from the Law Enforcement Trust Fund for the startup funding of the Council. The Council is an initiative by the Leon County Sheriff’s Department to address the underlying causes of violence by providing services to at-risk men and boys. The Council seeks to reduce homicides and non-fatal shootings.
McNeil noted the Council has made significant progress and that they are currently treating around 200 youth in the community, which he noted was above and beyond the scope of the work they were initially given. However, he explained that the Council ultimately wants to reach up to 500 troubled youth.
McNeil explained that most kids involved in shootings had been suspended from school, or placed in a second chance school. The Council hopes to enter into an agreement with FAMU, so that children will no longer be suspended from schools, but instead, directed to an incubator program at FAMU. McNeil noted that the cost of that FAMU program does work within their current budget but he emphasized that the Council is committed to making sure the program comes to fruition.
McNeil stated, “We believe the data speaks for itself, that 85% of the youth who are involved in shootings were either expelled from school or in second chance schools. So that is the place which we focused on trying to make sure we drive the crime down in our community.”
McNeil also noted, “This isn’t a focus merely on boys. This is a focus on families. That’s what the research tells us. That it’s about families and getting involved in those families, in a way that’s different than we have ever before.”
McNeil went on to say that he didn’t expect the city commission to just approve another financial commitment to the Council, but he hopes for a workshop to explain wat the Council plans to do and how they plan to do it. He continued, “I believe you will find like I have, that we’re on the right track. We can, in fact, do this right here in Tallahassee.”
Sheriff McNeil Provides Update on Council on the Status of Men and Boys added by Tristyn Leigh on
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@ Wakeup TLH & Rosemary = You really should watch the Movie “PUMP UP THE VOLUME” and see the comparisons of what you are talking about. Find it on Youtube nd watch it. Very good Movie in my book. Just know, there is about 2 Minutes of Nudity (girls chest). You will be shocked at the comparisons that you will see.
The problem with the schools is Rocky. Leon county schools allow bullying by both students and teachers. Then you have, unfortunately, racist staff who target students (Primarily black administrators on white students, Raa, Rickards, Godby, Cobb). On top of that, teachers who push their leftist agenda on students (Passing out LGBTQ stickers in class). Students who struggle or don’t fall in line get suspended. Then, even though they have all F’s in class and don’t know the material, they are just pushed on to the next grade.
Many suspensions happen when the school does not identify the signs of someone in trouble when they occur, and/or does, but fails to provide the support and education interventions the student needs; and/or allows bullying by students or teachers with impunity and/or positively reinforces the negative behaviors they seek to extinguish by suspending a student who is struggling in school either academically or socially and hates school instead of requiring they attend longer school days and Saturdays, which would teach them they cannot escape school by bad behavior; and/or by authoritarian adults who leave students feeling unsafe and hopeless in the school environment.
The Baker Acting that schools do (mostly totally not following that law that requires a number of things that schools don’t follow) also contributes to students feeling unsafe. (Students get released only to return to the same environments and the same struggles and thinking habits, aggravated by unfair separation from their touchpoint caregivers and new exposure to dysfunctional teens.)
You can’t beat/punish/berate/shame a human into compliance, and any and all of those things are typically how a student gets to the hopelessness that results in evil. There are now many teens (IME more black than white) who are simply afraid all the time that they could be hurt or killed as they move through life each day in TLH. Lots of the weapons are carried because they desire to protect themselves: not that they are intending harm to anyone. We need to give them practical skills and hope and alternative coping skills. The need is real.
All excellent and substantive comments. Remember the Marxicrat cry, “Always More; Never Enough”. They will always cry for more money/resources, and it will NEVER be enough.
Snidely is right… McNeal is being played. He’s the spigot to taxpayer dollars and he’s loose enough to be manipulated beyond the breaking point. And it seems he’s doing the job that CSC is suppose to do… What gives with that?
Skeptic is dead-nuts-on, and David follows it with a bit more substance… it’s not that they were suspended/expelled from school that is the problem… it WHY they we suspended/expelled. And yes; children of Entitlement Mattresses make up the highest percentage of the problem.
Pat presents straight-up questions that demand an answer… WHAT exactly are you doing to “help” these kids (young adults) and WHY FAMU? Is this a backhanded admission that the problem rests solely within our communities of color, or the surreptitious playing of the race card?
Frank nails it, with a slight shoutout to weed… both the CSC and the CSMB require outside auditors to assure the stewardship integrity of our tax dollars… full stop.
Always More; Never Enough
The Council on the Status of Men and Boys and the Children’s Services Council need outside auditors to come in and take a look rather than have us listen to opinions from those don’t want to have to admit that we may be wasting a lot of $$$.
OMG Tallahassee/Leon we’ve got a hot emergency here. I’ve got to reach out to the only Leon County Commissioner with sense:
Bill Proctor you need to talk to your boy Walt. He’s getting old and surrounded himself with idiots taking advantage of him.
Bill we’ve got parents sending millions upon millions of dollars to FAMU plus many millions being spent on and by students at local Tallahassee/Leon business’ and good Old Walt’s team of advisors has pushed Walt into endagering FAMU faculity, staff, and students by sending convicted gun crime little G’s in training to an incubator on FAMU’s campus.
No Bill #ell to the No Bill.
Talk to ‘ya boy Bill please stop this lunacy before someone in our FAMU communitty is shot dead by these little G’s right there on FAMU’s campus.
Please take whatever action you can to stop it Bill, offical, unoffical, one Black man talking to another Black man whatever you can do. Please dont allow that to happen.
You need to look at all the Pixels before the Picture is complete. Each Pixel tells part of the story of that persons life and how that person got on that Path of Crime. You need to step in Years in advance before the Child thinks of starting a life of crime. When his Mother got Pregnant, was she single, doing Drugs, committing Crimes, living on the Governments Dime? How many Kids does she have, is she working at all, is she spending quality Time with the Child or does she just dump the Child off at her Mothers House? Where is the Father, is he in Prison or running around? Is he in the Childs life at all, being a GOOD Roll Model? Is anyone teaching this Child right from wrong, help him with School? Is this Child eating 3 square meals a day? You need to dive deep into the Childs past and the Backgrounds of the Childs Family members and Friends and see what kind of Life this Kid had and is having. It has been said that “We are the Product of our Environment” so, you must first change the Environment before you can change the Path. How can you change the Environment and not have that Child stay on the same Path?
Let’s watch for this non profit to misuse funds to attend the Greater of Tallahassee Sandestin / Amelia Island junkets. The Sheriff, Mayor, State Attorney, CSC Director, and Police Chief does. And we wonder why we have a crime crisis.
The question should be, how are they helping 200 youth? If they are removed from school or drop out from school, the plan is to send them to college. That makes no sense. And why FAMU?
If Royle King and the Chief are not held accountable for the $1.5 million initial budget and a possible $5 million to reduce guns, by the time we discover the group has failed all the money will have been spent.
Being suspended from school is a symptom, not the cause. Something happened before that expulsion that was egregious enough that administrators expelled the student. Either as a form of punishment or to protect the other children and staff at the school.
FAMU’s incubator program may be the right approach to reaching these kids. But the issues precede the expulsion, perhaps by years.
I’d like to know what percentage of those kids are welfare babies? How many of them have lived most of their lives in a single or multi parent house? How may have been depending upon government assistance for rent, utilities, etc. I suspect that those answers will tell us the root cause, and the root cause MUST be addressed if we’re to make significant long term progress. Applying bandages doesn’t fix it.