ST. LOUIS – Following the chaos of this past weekend’s shooting in downtown St. Louis that saw one teenager dead and 10 others injured, Mayor Tishaura Jones pointed an accusatory finger at parents and others responsible for caring for kids. But one of those helping troubled youngsters says the problem goes much deeper than that.
“Downtown is not a 1 a.m. destination for your 15-year-old. It’s a rule I make very clear in my own household, and it’s not a place to drop your children off unsupervised,” Jones said.
Dr. Kendra Homes, president and CEO of Affinia Health, says there’s also another side to the story that’s even more concerning. Parental guidance is part of the problem.
“Many of these children don’t have parents, they don’t have structure, they don’t have individuals to tell them that is not the right thing to do,” she said. “Also, what we need to do is we need to prevent. We need to provide resources and support and mental health services to prevent those kids from going down that road.”
Holmes says part of the problem was the severe effects of the COVID pandemic on the African American community.
“I think the thing that we do need to considered is how COVID influenced our children’s mental health and also their caregivers. So, particularly the underserved community, the Black community, we lost a lot of seniors. Those were caregivers for a lot of children,” she said. “We lost a lot of grandparents and those were caregivers providing that structure, that support and discipline that children need, where many of those were lost due to COVID-19.
“We’re seeing an increase of those children in the foster care system. The foster care system in Missouri is really under distress. They’re understaffed and they’ve not been able to case manage those children, so a lot of these children that we see committing these crimes in St. Louis and across the state are foster care children.”
Affinia provides programs to assist troubled youngsters, as well as meals and help for emotional and mental issues that can lead to violence. She’s not stunned by the dramatic video of teen fighting night after night.
“No, I’m not shocked, because I can’t state the importance of mental health with COVID and how it has impacted our children,” Holmes said. “And, you know, children don’t have the capacity to make adult decisions as it is, put that on top of mental illness, alcohol, drugs, and guns, and it’s a recipe for disaster.”
Is stronger law enforcement the answer? Dr. Holmes says it’s not that simple.
“Well, we’ve prosecuted our way, and we’ve incarcerated our way to this point, and it’s not effective,” she said. “So, we absolutely have to support law enforcement, but we also need to address the root causes of this violence.”