It’s A Gray Area:

Sometimes the court system doesn’t do what the community expects, and even has a right to expect. For example, it would seem to be fundamental that the Juvenile Court would try to gather as much information as it could about the conditions of its juvenile subjects so that it could address their medical, psychological and behavioral problems before they resulted in serious threats to the child’s future.

But this has not been the situation.

In my view, we should test for everything that might reasonably be a factor in non-performance the very first time a child enters the juvenile court system. That means we should research and test for things like dyslexia, vision and hearing problems, domestic violence, school truancy, physical handicaps, substance abuse, gang involvement, sexual abuse, past disciplinary problems, and anything that might be adversely affecting the kids’ positive and beneficial development.

Why? Because the earlier we can diagnosis problems in children, the earlier we can address them and keep them from becoming permanent impediments to their future. For example, most juvenile court officers agree that at least 15% of the children that enter the juvenile court system suffer from dyslexia. That means that the kids naturally start to think that they are mentally slow, or worse.

So what happens then? The kids start sitting in the back of the school classroom and not paying attention to their studies. They develop the syndrome that “they can’t learn anyway, so why bother?” So soon they start getting into minor troubles at school and elsewhere, and eventually that broadens into more serious difficulties.

But once their dyslexia is diagnosed they learn that they really are not dumb or slow after all. Instead they see they have a medical condition that can be addressed and overcome without much difficulty. And then good things start to happen.

The earlier we diagnose these various conditions, the fewer problems the children will have, and the safer the rest of us will be. Under a program of early diagnosis and treatment, everyone wins. As such, the phrase “A stitch in time saves nine” is undeniably true with children.