Boyd: If youth in Indy are our future, we must do more to protect them from themselves

Oseye Boyd, Indianapolis Star
·4 min read

I’ll turn a year older in a few weeks. I’d like to think with age, I’ve become more mature, learned a few life lessons and have some perspective.

While I don’t want to be one of those old people (old to young people, that is) always talking about the “good old days” or how everything was better “back in my day,” I can’t help but think the fact that I didn’t have so much avoidably tragic death around me made it better in some ways.

Investigators are on the scene after a Whiteland High School student was shot and killed at a bus stop on Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022, in Whiteland Ind.
Investigators are on the scene after a Whiteland High School student was shot and killed at a bus stop on Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022, in Whiteland Ind.

I definitely don’t remember so many teen homicides in the 1980s and '90s, and memorials of stuffed animals and candlelight vigils in the spot someone was killed weren't part of my childhood. I won’t say teen homicides are commonplace now, but shooting deaths of teens seem to happen with much more regularity. For too many of our youth, this is their reality.

IndyStar reporter Sarah Nelson recently reported we’ve lost 12 young people to gun violence in 2022. That’s 12 young people and all their potential gone. Parents, family members and friends are left to endure the pain that comes with a life cut short as it’s just getting started. The hopes and dreams parents have for their child are dashed. The life of the perpetrator also is completely altered. I think very few parents hold their newborn baby and envision a life that involves killing someone and a prison sentence. The lives of everyone involved are forever changed. Even those of us who don’t know any of the parties involved are changed, as we become a little colder, a little more cautious and a little more overprotective of our own children. Truly, this is a societal problem — whether we want to admit it or not.

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How many children killed annually are innocent bystanders? How many are the result of petty squabbles? Sadly, many of these incidents stem from decisions that are made when you’re, as the old saying goes, “young and dumb,” meaning young people often make foolish decisions because their information is limited and their brain isn’t fully developed. It’s so sad that so many lives are ended because of silly beefs that are literally life and death to a teen but barely a blip on the radar of a 40-year-old. Youth often major in the minors. I can look back on incidents or situations that made me so angry as a teen and young adult that I now wonder how I allowed something so insignificant to get me so worked up. My perspective changed thanks to maturity and experience.

What has changed in our culture that makes it more acceptable to shoot and kill someone? Or was it always acceptable, but guns weren’t as prevalent and accessible then as they are today? Are we desensitized to violence and believe some lives are unworthy of our concern? People who are more experienced than me are trying to answer to these questions and others and coming up short.

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Social media plays a huge role in the lives of teens and young adults and is often where the seeds of discord are first sown. If some adults get into full-fledged arguments online — often with people they don’t know — why should we think teens won’t? Throw in bad judgment, peer pressure and any number of other issues happening in someone’s life, and you often have a powder keg waiting to explode.

In the arguments to ban abortion, a consistent theme was life is precious. I fully agree, which is why we must create a culture where we truly value all life and not just provide lip service. We can’t pick and choose which children are valuable based on the socioeconomic status and sins of their parents. We have to invest in programs for children in our city and state. There’s a price to pay one way or another when we determine who’s valuable and who isn’t. Do we want to pay on the front end or back end?

A memorial for 7-year-old Sevion Sanford grows at the corner of 21st and Yorkshire Court in Indianapolis on Sunday, March 20, 2022. Sanford was fatally hit by two vehicles at the intersection while waiting for the school bus on Friday morning, March, 18, 2022. IMPD says the crash is being investigated as a hit-and-run, as one of the vehicles fled the scene.

Thankfully, Indianapolis has resources for youth, and that investment is already happening. Our city has youth-serving organizations such as the Boys and Girls Club of Indianapolis, Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Central Indiana, Indiana Youth Institute and McCoy, just to name a few. Teens and young adults in need of employment can turn to Project Indy, an initiative comprised of community organizations and businesses offering jobs, training and skills development.

While participation in any of these programs isn’t a panacea and won’t guarantee the path of a young person, teens and young adults who feel loved and wanted and are involved in positive activities, tend to lead positive lives. We should all want that for the youth of Indianapolis, and beyond.

Contact IndyStar Public Engagement Editor Oseye Boyd at oboyd@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @oseyetboyd.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Too many Indianapolis youth are dying for senseless reasons