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At a regional forum titled “Safe From the Start,” sponsored by the office of California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, parents, educators and health and social services professionals drew battle plans Tuesday to combat youth violence.  

Meeting at the Claremont Hotel, attendees drew up strategies for programs such as early intervention, community and parental involvement, home visits by social service representatives, and parent training courses.  

Many of the conference attendees expressed concern at what seemed to be an escalating number of incidences involving children and violence. “We’ve had instances like a 4-year-old who said: ‘Don’t make me have to hurt you,’ when he was told to pick up his toys, or a 3-year-old who said to his mother, ‘I’m going to tell dad to come over and kill you,’” Alicia Lieberman, director of the Child Trauma Research Project at the University of California San Francisco said. 

The conference sought to address what speakers identified as a “root cause” of youth violence: witnessing violence at an early age. “The way to be predisposed to violent behavior is to be exposed to such behavior early on,” noted former “All in the Family” star Rob Reiner, chair of the California Children and Families Commission. The commission is partially responsible for implementing Proposition 10, a tobacco tax earmarked for early childhood development programs.  

“To keep the schools safe, we have to realize that incidences of violence can happen anywhere and we all have to work together to lower the risk,” said Marjorie Alvord, a Malcom X High School parent who attended the conference. 

Joining her were parent Lisa Cullen and therapist Leni Siegal, who coordinates a program at Malcom X called Healthy Start, which brings mental health  

professionals, parents and students together to combat children’s exposure to violence.  

“I want to learn how to recognize and how to inform other parents about the kinds of situations that cause violence, and how to stop it from happening,” Alvord said. 

Siegal discussed a method of intervention she had been using to try to stop violence from occurring: working with students to settle long-standing feuds. “These problems can last for years. They can start in kindergarten and it’s still a problem in the fourth grade. Sometimes they can expand to older brothers or sisters who are also in the system.”  

Siegal gets the children to work out an agreement, which she writes into a document that both parties sign. Even if the agreement doesn’t stick, Siegal said she becomes a confidante whom the children turn to for help in resolving the dispute, rather than attempting to settle it violently. 

Nikki Williams, director of Berkeley Youth Alternatives, said the conference helped her affirm the importance of her organization’s strategy for bringing social service professionals directly into the home.  

“The discussion really brought home that you have to be careful it doesn’t add anxiety for the family. There is a stigma in poor communities for this kind of thing. You have to be extremely culturally sensitive and careful you don’t give the aspect of judging the family.”  

BYA Director of Development and Policy Kevin Williams said, “These families have to be able to trust you. They have to know you are going to be there when they need you the most.” 

Williams also discussed a plan to begin offering parent training courses next year, in which they will teach parents about the physical and psychological damage exposing children can have upon them, and help them set boundaries for their children. 

Barbara Staggers, director of Adolescent Medicine at the Oakland Children’s Hospital, stressed the importance of providing guidance to youth who are acting out violently. “Teenagers may look like adults, but they are not adults. They are looking to us for guidance and for love. And they are saying to us, ‘If you don’t give it to me, I’m going to go out and get attention – and you are not going to like it. It’s going to be very, very ugly.’”  

Staggers has first-hand experience in providing children who have been exposed to violence at home with role models and “community activities that can make them feel like human beings.” That can help break the negative cycle, she said.  

“Dr. Staggers gave me the tools to navigate the situations I was facing at home,” Alameda County Behavioral Health Care supervisor Kimberly McDaniel said. As a child, McDaniel was exposed to frequent episodes of violence in her home. “It saved my life to have somebody who really listened. Somebody who really cared. And seeing a black woman in a position of power and respect really captivated me. Dr. Staggers gave me the skills and resources to be resilient, and to deal with my situation so that I didn’t become violent. I played basketball instead.” She was also motivated to follow in Dr. Staggers footsteps to attend the University of California at Berkeley and, in doing so, became the first person in her family to earn a college degree.