Jefferson County’s Juvenile Division has received a grant that will help the agency deal with the problem of bullying in schools.
The County Council voted Feb. 14 to accept a $15,760 grant from the Missouri Department of Public Safety to help address the problem.
Mark Akins, the chief juvenile officer, said the money largely will be used to cover the cost of counseling for children identified as bullies – and their families.
“Our No. 1 goal is to get kids and their families some help, which in turn will divert these kids from the juvenile justice system,” he said. “Counseling will help them handle what are basically anger issues.”
Akins said the Juvenile Division has been involved in anti-bullying initiatives for some time.
“At least 10 years,” he said. “We’ve been working with all of the schools in the county closely, getting referrals from the schools for this type of behavior. The idea is to stay ahead of the curve and offer services to these kids before they end up in the juvenile system.”
Akins said the agency already had been providing funds for about 25 to 30 students per year to get counseling through the system, and with the grant, he hopes more can be helped.
“The need is definitely there,” he said. “And it’s about an even split between boys and girls. Girls tend to bully more through social media, while with boys it’s more of a physical presence.”
Children who are referred to counseling typically come from school recommendations, although Akins said at times, the process starts once a child enters the division as an offender.
“It doesn’t matter how they get there; we just want to divert them away from the (juvenile justice) system any way we can,” he said.
At first, he said, the grant mainly will be used to get counseling for children in the Hillsboro R-3 School District. He and his staff have been working closely with the district’s Alternative Education Program, which helps at-risk students with educational and behavioral issues.
“We hope to branch out and apply for more grants as we see success in one place,” Akins said. “We definitely want to continue reaching out to other schools as well.”
The division contracts with Atlas Counseling Services, which is in the Festus area.
Akins said getting families involved in counseling is key.
“That type of behavior is indicative that there are some kind of issues going on at home, so it helps to get the families involved,” he said. “We get a lot of kids in junior high and middle school, and they need help dealing with their issues. We’ve been going at this for some time, whether we’ve thought of it as anger management or something else.
“But offering this kind of help doesn’t just divert kids from the juvenile system – which is why we’re involved – but it betters their lives.
“I think what we’ve been doing to try to divert these kids out of the system has been very successful for us through the years,” Akins said.