As more and more low-income families move into neighborhoods that once served the middle or upper class, one must be vigilant about their own personal safety and report any criminal activity that occurs in their environment. Crime is everywhere in these neighborhoods where children find too much free time after school hours or after the school year is over.

What also contributes to the crime rate in those places? Is it just a lack of money for low-income families? Sometimes the crime can be attributed to a lack of education on the part of the perpetrator or their families.

It is a statistical fact that the crime rate is inversely proportional to the level of education of the culprit. Children who grow up in families that do not emphasize the importance of getting an education are more likely to live on the streets, do drugs, join gangs, or end up in prison.

Sometimes the parents raising these children grew up in similar conditions when they were young. Nothing has changed. Education should be the most important thing in the minds of parents when raising their children. In fact, education is the key to getting out of poverty. As the old saying goes, “The way out of the gutter is with a book and not with a basketball.”

Children who don’t have a good education in school are more likely to have a hard time finding work, getting into college, or avoiding trouble with the law. They often have family problems that are attributed to the loss of a parent at a young age due to death or incarceration.

Children from single parent households are at risk of growing up as “at risk” children. This is due to the fact that the parent must work to provide food and shelter for the child, and the absence of the other parent does not provide leadership and guidance for a growing mind. A parent who is incarcerated will definitely not be there to guide the child to get good grades in school.

What kind of message does an incarcerated parent send to a child? Is it okay to be dumb and stupid and end up in jail like your dad? Like father Like Son. Correct? Is it okay to skip school and join a gang like your dad did?

The truth of the matter is that children who drop out of school will face difficulties in their lives as they grow up. Lack of education on your part means lack of money to support a family. Lack of money translates to robbing a bank or a convenience store.

Every day we hear on the news about a robbery taking place in our city or elsewhere. Or maybe a shooting by the perpetrator that brought an innocent life to an abrupt halt.

What are children doing today? How can we prevent our own children from becoming troubled kids? On the one hand, a parent should be a good role model and emphasize the importance of a good education. That means that parents must play an active role in their children’s education by controlling how much television the child can watch and taking charge of knowing the kinds of friends their child associates with. Also, this means maintaining communication with your teachers at school and reviewing your report card regularly.

A child with poor academic performance may indicate that something is wrong at school. You may not like school due to outside influences; ie bullying, difficult teachers, teasing from other students, or peer pressure.

It is best to catch the child’s problem as early as possible before it reaches the point that the child is absent from school, or worse, manifests his frustration which is reflected in another similar massacre at Virginia Tech.

A child should like his studies and should show interest in his school work. You should be taught that good grades will help you get a good education so that you can land a well-paying job and be a productive member of society after graduation.

Teach your child that involvement in gangs, violence, drugs, and / or extortion will get him nowhere other than jail. Once a person ends up serving a life sentence, there is no second chance. There is no freedom for him. There is no television, no video games, no music, nothing! Not even the chance to get an education behind bars. If there is a school in prison, the education is very limited.

If you are raising a child, ask your child what is going on at school if he shows academic difficulties. Have a good time with him / her. Help them with their homework if possible. Remember, you are not just your friend, you are your parents. You are the first role model that a child looks at from infancy. So be good and teach him what is right by staying in school.

There is a story in Austin, Texas, a few years ago. It was about a troubled 17-year-old boy, Manuel Cortez, a high school dropout, who went out with his friends in a stolen car one sunny afternoon and shot another student, Christopher Briseno, whom he didn’t even know because he allegedly Briseño was joking with the sister of Manuel’s friend. Manuel Cortez is now serving a life sentence because he made a stupid decision. Now the families of the victim and the perpetrator are suffering two losses from society. All why? Why did Mr. Cortez choose to drop out of school and associate with gangs and / or violence? Did you choose to give up the possibility of an education so you could run around the gangs? Or did you not have the proper support and guidance from your parents?