Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Youth At Risk, Faulty Diagnosed and Callous Cures focuses on as you may problem guess, the ridiculous and misrepresented risk that American youth faced in the late 1900s. The first sub-section related to adolescent suicide. A statistic given by the Times stated that "teen and young adult suicides nearly tripled between 1952 and 1992, to 1847 in 1992."(54) This report is tragic but," the numbers pale beside statistics for other threats faced by teens." says Glassner.(54) As usual, Glassner brings up the point about guns and lack of control, this time about how they are causing an increase in successful suicide attempts. After this, the next point is on a similarly misleading problem teen gambling. Teen gambling is used to further the previous example of teen suicide. Next, we get a refresher from the last chapter on cyberporn. This example is used to show how small problems that are blown out of proportion can be used to pass different laws. The case in point being the Communication Decency Act in 1996 which was still overturned by the Supreme Court the next year.  It is also used to show once again how media outlets can use problems to bring up older problems. Moving on we get into the missing children sub-section. This is a lengthy example of how the media can blow up a non-existent problem and how that problem can be debunked and still cause problems due to how widespread it has become. Making Money, the next subsection shows the reader how companies made to assist people actually use misleading statistics to line their own pockets. After this Glassner cover how the media makes an overall image of killer kids and how they can be anyone anywhere. The next subsection relates to policy tricks used by private prison companies. These tricks include how rehabilitation services are "in name only."(72) " Are fear grows, I suggest, proportionate to our unacknowledged guilt." claims Glassner. This is a claim I support fully. In the next to sections, we cover the two theories used by parents to justify the fear of children and the mistreatment of them by us. These theories would be, "the world is worse than it ever was"...."kids are just defective." The first theory is debunked because we have always had juvenile delinquents. Along with this, we get to see how schools are wasting funds on unnecessary security instead of needed safety equipment and textbooks. The second theory focuses on youth with ADHD and similar medical afflictions that simply relate to hyperactive bodies and minds. The parents of these children would instead of actually fixing the problem used medication that acted as an out of sight out of mind remedy.

Article Points That Relate in One Way or Another:

The article I pick was written on May 30th, 2017 by Lara Korte in the USA Today Network and focuses on a rise in teen suicides relating to internet and schools which is much like chapter 3. The statistic about youths with suicidal thoughts or actions given at the beginning of the article is that "hospital admissions for patients 5 to 17 years old for such thoughts or actions more than doubled from 2008 to 2015." The information was gathered from 32 hospitals using data from the Pediatric Health Information System. The things that are considered by doctors before admitting a patient for suicidal thoughts and actions is their "family history, worldview, and social environment." According to Dr. Dan Nelson of the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, "schools are becoming much more difficult." He is referring to bullying and the use of weapons in schools. In Hamilton County where Cincinnati is located, the number of suicides has varied year to year. In 2014 there were 18, in 2015 only 5, while 2016 had 13 and so far there has been 7 this year.  Another study done by Vanderbilt University followed the wake of the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention report from November which found that "suicide rates for children 10 to 14 had doubled from 2007 to 2014" it also "overtook motor vehicle accidents as a cause of death in that age group the report says." The Vanderbilt study found that "children hospitals saw higher rates of suicide in the Spring and Fall, but not during the Summer." When I see a trend like this I instantly ask why? I assume they give some explanation for it in the full study but it is not mentioned in the article itself. The next section of the article focuses on graphic median but then goes into cyberbullying extremely quickly. Cincinnati Children physicians work with youths to develop individual coping methods and safety plans. As Vanderbilt's Plemmons states " Schools are important, parents are important." He is referring to the process of stabilizing children that have suicidal thoughts or children that have acted on those thoughts.