A Community Problem
Suburban living has always presented more of a quagmire than it appears superficially. Families move into spacious homes in cloned neighborhoods to raise children away from inner-city influences perceived as scary and dangerous.
These houses, each a slightly different shade of brown, cost a lot to buy and maintain. The penance for this is two-income parents leaving the neighborhood each morning in commutes to jobs closer to the city. Junior comes home from school to an empty house or MTV or Jerry Springer.
Some of the kids in Elk Grove, one of the region's fastest-growing new cities, go to the skate park next to the Barbara Morse Wackford Community Center instead.
It's a cool place, right next to the teen center. Parents, city officials and community members have been involved in its nurturing - addressing, among other things, safety. The skate park was built largely on the vision of one dad, Dyric Ramirez. He wanted to decriminalize skaters, who've pretty much been banned from most sidewalks, parks, school grounds and anywhere else they might have a little fun and actually stay out of trouble.
Ramirez sees himself as just a dad - to all of them.
''I love these kids; they aren't at all the troublemakers people make them out to be,'' Ramirez said of the skaters. ''They need something positive to do. A place to have fun. Adults who care. That's what the park's all about.''
I'd never heard of this place until a couple of parents contacted me about an assault there Thursday. Multiple sources say a group of 20 to 30 youngsters not registered with the teen center and skate park - everyone who uses it registers first - came onto the grounds to stir up trouble. A fight involving this same group had broken out earlier at a nearby school, and officials there stopped it, pushing the anger and conflict out onto the street and beyond.
The trouble arrived at the skate park about 5:30 p.m., where a 6-foot-5-inch security guard was on duty. But even one hulking security guard is no match for 20 to 30 gang wannabes who've decided to bust it up that day. Before it was over, a 13-year-old was viciously assaulted by at least two older boys. They shattered his eye socket in two places and busted a rib. Bone fragments from the socket are wedged in his eye, which he may lose.
Teen center staff called the police right away; they arrived just as the attack was stopped. ''My son and others ran to the police and identified the two that did the beating,'' one of the kids' dads said. He asked to remain unnamed because he fears for his son's safety. The police detained them and put them in the cruiser while taking statements. The boy who was beaten eventually was taken to the hospital.
That dad and others are now upset because the police let the alleged suspects go.
Police said the victim initially underplayed his injuries.
Ramirez said the police were out in full force the next day looking for the attackers after they'd had a chance to interview the victim and others. The assault is now a felony incident, and one of two suspects is in custody.
It's the third and worst assault at the park since the skate area opened in January, although none of the ''bad apples'' in any of the incidents were skaters, Ramirez said. Ramirez wants the community to note that.
He visited the victim and his family at the hospital Thursday night. ''I'm a broken man; I'm just sick about this,'' he said. ''Kids need more of these places. I wish I knew what the kids who did this need.''
But he can't save the city's youths alone. In Elk Grove, kids rule in sheer numbers, comprising 55 percent of the population. That's a lot of kids with a lot of needs.
''It's about parents getting off the couch and playing with their kids and their kids' friends and turning this around,'' Ramirez said. ''This is not a skate park problem or a teen center problem. It's a community problem.''
By Diana Griego Erwin
Suburban living has always presented more of a quagmire than it appears superficially. Families move into spacious homes in cloned neighborhoods to raise children away from inner-city influences perceived as scary and dangerous.
These houses, each a slightly different shade of brown, cost a lot to buy and maintain. The penance for this is two-income parents leaving the neighborhood each morning in commutes to jobs closer to the city. Junior comes home from school to an empty house or MTV or Jerry Springer.
Some of the kids in Elk Grove, one of the region's fastest-growing new cities, go to the skate park next to the Barbara Morse Wackford Community Center instead.
It's a cool place, right next to the teen center. Parents, city officials and community members have been involved in its nurturing - addressing, among other things, safety. The skate park was built largely on the vision of one dad, Dyric Ramirez. He wanted to decriminalize skaters, who've pretty much been banned from most sidewalks, parks, school grounds and anywhere else they might have a little fun and actually stay out of trouble.
Ramirez sees himself as just a dad - to all of them.
''I love these kids; they aren't at all the troublemakers people make them out to be,'' Ramirez said of the skaters. ''They need something positive to do. A place to have fun. Adults who care. That's what the park's all about.''
I'd never heard of this place until a couple of parents contacted me about an assault there Thursday. Multiple sources say a group of 20 to 30 youngsters not registered with the teen center and skate park - everyone who uses it registers first - came onto the grounds to stir up trouble. A fight involving this same group had broken out earlier at a nearby school, and officials there stopped it, pushing the anger and conflict out onto the street and beyond.
The trouble arrived at the skate park about 5:30 p.m., where a 6-foot-5-inch security guard was on duty. But even one hulking security guard is no match for 20 to 30 gang wannabes who've decided to bust it up that day. Before it was over, a 13-year-old was viciously assaulted by at least two older boys. They shattered his eye socket in two places and busted a rib. Bone fragments from the socket are wedged in his eye, which he may lose.
Teen center staff called the police right away; they arrived just as the attack was stopped. ''My son and others ran to the police and identified the two that did the beating,'' one of the kids' dads said. He asked to remain unnamed because he fears for his son's safety. The police detained them and put them in the cruiser while taking statements. The boy who was beaten eventually was taken to the hospital.
That dad and others are now upset because the police let the alleged suspects go.
Police said the victim initially underplayed his injuries.
Ramirez said the police were out in full force the next day looking for the attackers after they'd had a chance to interview the victim and others. The assault is now a felony incident, and one of two suspects is in custody.
It's the third and worst assault at the park since the skate area opened in January, although none of the ''bad apples'' in any of the incidents were skaters, Ramirez said. Ramirez wants the community to note that.
He visited the victim and his family at the hospital Thursday night. ''I'm a broken man; I'm just sick about this,'' he said. ''Kids need more of these places. I wish I knew what the kids who did this need.''
But he can't save the city's youths alone. In Elk Grove, kids rule in sheer numbers, comprising 55 percent of the population. That's a lot of kids with a lot of needs.
''It's about parents getting off the couch and playing with their kids and their kids' friends and turning this around,'' Ramirez said. ''This is not a skate park problem or a teen center problem. It's a community problem.''
By Diana Griego Erwin
