GUEST VIEWPOINT: County must do more for at-risk girls

The Register-Guard, op-ed
By Liz Humphrey

The police are called to a home where residents heard suspicious noises outside. When officers arrive they find two intoxicated teenagers - a boy and a girl - attempting to steal the owners' car.

The youths are brought to the Lane County Department of Youth Services.

The teenagers are placed in holding cells while county workers evaluate them and decide whether to release them to their families or to schedule them for a court hearing.

Both teens are known to police and social workers as street kids who hang out with a rough crowd, but neither has a criminal record.

Both come from homes rife with crime, drugs and abuse. Both fled these unsafe homes, preferring to take their chances on the streets. Both are addicted to drugs and alcohol.

While this is their first offense, the crime is serious. Plus, the two have admitted to problems with alcohol and other drugs that contribute to their delinquency.

The parents, who supplied the teens with alcohol on the night of the attempted theft, are incapable of providing the support the children need, so release to their homes isn't a good option.

The decision is made to send both offenders before the judge, who determines the best course of action to protect the community and help steer these young lives in a positive direction.

And this is where the two teens' paths diverge.

The teenage boy is referred to a residential program for alcohol and drug treatment. He is able to remain outside the county's secure lockup facilities while he learns to overcome his addictions.

The teenage girl needs the same treatment, but Lane County has no similar service for girls.

Her options are either to be held in a jaillike facility or to be released back to the streets.

Because the county has no beds available and the girl is perceived to be less of a threat than those who already are locked up, she is released with no help or support in sight.

Instead, what awaits her is more drugs, the risk of sexual assault, possible pregnancy and little hope.

This disparity seems like a throwback to a less enlightened time, but it happens right here, right now in Lane County.

The culprit is funding, and there is no question that Lane County lacks sufficient funds to adequately address the needs of kids.

But there's another culprit: collective community apathy and lack of political will.

We intend to change that.

March 8 is International Women's Day, and at Zonta International we are using this occasion to draw attention to the plight of girls in our community.

Zonta is a global organization working to advance the status of women.

As women, we decry the funding decisions that have put girls - our daughters and sisters, the mothers of the next generation - in jeopardy.

Along with other concerned community groups and individuals, we are declaring 2007 the Year of the Girl - the year we stand up for girls at risk in our community and insist that we achieve equity in social services.

No matter how we try to explain it away, the dearth of services available to girls with drug, alcohol and behavior problems is shocking and un- acceptable.

At the same time that girls are going without services, crimes committed by girls are on the rise.

In 2000, 25 percent of all juvenile crimes in Lane County were committed by girls. By 2006, that rate had jumped to 35 percent.

Of the county's nearly 2,000 juvenile offenders in that year, 686 were girls.

Yet these girls have no county-funded alcohol and drug treatment.

These girls have no county-funded shelter care beds for those who need a place to stay but who don't need secure lockup.

With girls, the choice is either jail or nothing.

For girls who don't warrant secure lockup, we literally show them the door back to life on the streets, where they are vulnerable to rape, violence, pregnancy, drugs and crime.

We are acutely aware of the county's budget problems.

We estimate that it will require $843,000 to bring services for girls up to the same level as is available for boys.

If the county can't fund equitable services through existing revenue streams or the new income tax, we urge the commissioners to put a modest operating levy on the ballot. We will work hard for its passage.

Zonta is not alone.

Girl Scouts, Looking Glass, Ophelia's Place, United Way, Planned Parenthood, Womenspace and many others are all part of the Year of the Girl effort.

This is a community problem, and it will take a community response.

To join us, please go to www .yearofthegirl.org and sign up. Together, we can take better care of girls at risk in our own community.

We have to. Our girls are counting on us.

Liz Humphrey, a financial consultant with A.G. Edwards, is president of the Zonta Club of Eugene.