Lawmaker: Shock ninth-graders with prison trips

By JANESE HEAVIN of the Tribune’s staff
Columbia Tribune
Feb. 06, 2007

A Missouri lawmaker wants to scare teenagers out of committing crimes by making all ninth-grade students tour a state prison.

Sen. Tim Green, D-St. Louis, has proposed legislation that would require schools to take all ninth- graders to a state correctional center before their sophomore year starting in the 2009-10 school year.

Superintendents or principals who fail to comply with the law would have their contracts terminated under the proposal.

The goal is to "show them that crime doesn’t pay," Green said. "We have a lot of forks in the road in our lives. One bad decision can ruin a young person’s entire life. Showing them the consequences might be enough to deter them from taking that wrong turn."

But not all students need that type of wake-up call, said Lynn Barnett, assistant superintendent of student services for Columbia Public Schools.

"We would certainly look very closely at a requirement like that," she said. "I think it should not be mandated for all students. I don’t think that would be appropriate for our curriculum."

The Columbia school district already has a system that allows counselors to take a student or student groups on after-school prison tours with parental consent, Barnett added.

The Missouri School Boards’ Association also opposes the mandate, spokesman Brent Ghan said.

"While visiting a correctional facility would probably be a very interesting education experience for a lot of kids, requiring it would infringe upon very precious instructional time," he said. "It would be an eye-opening experience, but we can’t afford to make it mandatory and give up that instructional time."

The Missouri Department of Corrections has not determined the bill’s impact on the state’s 20 correctional centers, spokesman Brian Hauswirth said.

Barnett also questioned how much it would cost to transport all ninth graders - about 1,300 in Columbia this year - to state prisons.

Green said that’s the most common concern he has heard about the proposal.

"School people are wondering who would bear the costs," he said. "Schools are already under a tight crunch for money as it is to provide education. Added costs that will probably be the biggest deterrent in passage of the bill."

Green stopped short of saying the bill wouldn’t be signed into law this session.

"You never know," he said. "But by bringing up issues, you get people talking about them. That’s the first step."