Suzanne Rodriguez knows how important it is to keep her 14-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son busy — and surrounded by mentors and teachers.
“A lot of the kids his age … I see them outside. They’re already into smoking,” Rodriguez said. “Keeping them active gives them less time to be around other kids already involved in those kind of things.”
As crime rates among 10- to 17-year-olds in Bexar County are on the rise, local community organizations are working together to provide opportunities for kids to get involved in after-school and mentorship programs and, hopefully, turn the tide.
Rodriguez, whose family lives near Windcrest in zip code 78218, said she didn’t know about programs that are available for her kids until a staffer from Southwest Key Programs knocked on her door. Since then, her children have attended the Community Youth Development program once a week. Rodriguez said her children focus on skills like drawing and writing — while getting individual attention, which is rare in a classroom setting.
“You’re at school, but teachers are more on a schedule and they have multiple children they work with,” she said.
Rodriguez credited mentors for empowering her daughter’s interest in art by keeping photos of her drawings on their phones and reminding her how much they like her art.
“Whenever [kids] have a mentor, it’s somebody outside their circle. The mentor is going to have a feel of what is their behavior,” Rodriguez said. “Where’s it coming from? What is the real issue?”
Easy access to guns in San Antonio has fueled the rise in juvenile crime rates, said Jill Mata, chief juvenile probation officer for the Bexar County Juvenile Probation Department.
“Weapons are really easy to obtain and are everywhere in our communities,” Mata said, adding children get guns from unlocked cars and homes. “That’s a very dangerous combination to have young people who are [emotionally] dysregulated and not supervised well and then have access to weapons.”
The latest data from the 436th Juvenile District Court in Bexar County shows most in the juvenile probation system are males between 15 and 16 years old. Felony case referrals are up 42% this year. Crimes among juveniles that were up so far in 2023 include murders, aggravated assaults, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, drug offenses, evading arrest on foot and possession of marijuana.
To start turning those numbers around, the community needs to come together, according to Judge William “Cruz” Shaw III, who presides over the court.
“We definitely have to come together as a community with the church, nonprofits, for-profits and really do what we can to make sure we keep these kids busy,” Shaw said. “Keep them productive and [know] what’s going on at all times in our neighborhoods.”
It’s the entire community’s responsibility to address rising juvenile crime rates at an earlier point in a young person’s development, starting with strong family units and mentorship, said Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai.
“We need to ensure that all children and young adults have opportunities for education and, eventually, job training and fulfilling careers,” Sakai said. “We also need a deeper dive into the data to get a more complete view of what’s really going on.”
When kids fail, it’s because the adults in their lives have failed them, said Denise Barkhurst, CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Texas.
“The single most critical factor that determines if a child stays out of trouble, makes good choices and grows up successfully is whether or not they have a strong, positive, consistent, caring adult role model in their lives,” Barkhurst said.
Southwest Key Programs, which partners with Bexar County to offer youth and family services through community-based programs and operates a Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Program, is one of the groups focused on bringing the crime stats down in targeted areas.
For one of its programs in San Antonio, the focus areas are in 78218 on the Northeast Side and 78239 near Windcrest, in high-crime, high-poverty areas, according to Cynthia Leon, the organization’s regional executive director of youth and family services.
To ensure the program’s success, the nonprofit meets quarterly with the Community Collaborative Coalition, which gathers community members, churches and organizations to coordinate and share resources. The current goal is to increase program enrollment in the area, Leon said.
One way of turning the tide is to educate kids on the legal consequences of risky conduct and knowing how to interact with police. On Wednesday, the San Antonio Area Foundation hosted a Juvenile Justice Jeopardy event at Marshall Law and Medical Services Magnet School and engaged more than 20 high school seniors in a series of questions on risky behaviors as well as how to interact with officers.
“We’re trying to reduce crime, anything having to do with potential tension or arrests,” said Hernán Rozemberg, executive director of marketing and communications for the San Antonio Area Foundation, adding that the exercise educated youths on various aspects of the law.
Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert, whose Precinct 4 includes zip codes 78218 and 78239, said access to free or low-cost after-school programs and scholarships to cover fees for extracurricular activities could help reduce crime.
“Parents cannot afford to have their children in extracurricular activities,” Calvert said. “If we take that financial burden away and allow young people to experience the world and flourish in their passions, then we can turn around juvenile crime.”
“In our adverse population of children, there are more children struggling with mental health issues,” Mata said. “Children who have mental health needs that are unmet because they’re not identified, they’re not connected to easily accessible and affordable services.”
While there is no primary reason juvenile crime rates are up this year, Shaw said social media and delayed interventions by parents affect kids’ behavior.
Leon said peer pressure, gang activity, kids wanting to belong and mental health disorders contribute to the rising crime rates.
The closure of schools and after-school organizations during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic also had an impact on violence among children, which has soared across the country since the pandemic began, Mata added.
“In the life of a child, that’s a long time,” she said. “Kids missed out on supported services that helped [them] regulate and be successful. … It takes a little bit of time to regain that ground.”
Having an active community willing to support kids in positive ways, like organizing activities for children and finding ways to connect kids to services they need, may be the key, Mata said.
“If people are committed to mentoring and surrounding children with pro-social activities and positive adult role models, that is shown to be very effective in diverting children from criminal activity and from behavior that will lead to involvement in the criminal justice system,” she said.
