Birmingham summit offers frank discussion of risks, opportunities facing youth

If you're hanging out with folks and they don't seem to want anything out of life, that's a liability," Birmingham City Councilwoman Lashunda Scales
scales in class.jpg Birmingham City Councilwoman Lashunda Scales addresses a group of students at Huffman High School ( / Jeremy Gray)  

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Birmingham police officer Silburn Smith pulled out a pair of handcuffs and showed a group of students, ranging in age from kindergarteners to fifth graders, that the cuffs were small enough to fit around their wrists.

Smith, who moments earlier had laughed and joked with the students, was trying to warn them of the dangers bad decisions bring.

"Some of ya'll know gang-bangers. If ya'll join a gang, you're going to see Officer Smith," he said. "I can talk in here, but in the street I gotta police."

The talk was part of a youth/parent summit hosted tonight by Birmingham City Councilwoman Lashunda Scales. About 50 people attended the Huffman High School event.

Down the hall from where Smith spoke, Dwayne Thompson, a civilian police employee who works with the community, warned their parents of the dangers lurking on the internet and reaching their kids through their cellphones. Thompson said the parents should know what their children are doing with their phones and computers.

"It's not so much about them. It's the manipulators and freaks who are predators," Thompson said. "The extreme exists."

A group of middle schoolers, mostly girls, received a similar warning from social worker Lee Watkins, who told them human trafficking is a very real danger, citing a recent news story of a Georgia traffic stop leading to the discovery of a Birmingham teen having been used as a sex slave for several years.

"You get angry with your parents and you think you're going down the street, but kidnappings happen anywhere, day and night," Watkins said. "Your parents might seem strict, but they are looking out for your best interests."

Next door, Scales. addressing herself as "Mama Scales," spoke with a group of ninth through 12th graders about the need for a plan of action as they prepare to leave high school.

"If you're hanging out with folks and they don't seem to want anything out of life, that's a liability," Scales said. "We've got to have a plan of action. How are we going to get to where we want to go? What are you going to do when you get there?"