October 27, 2011. The Courier-Journal.
Members of a city-wide interfaith group gathered Thursday to get updates on progress on chosen community issues, including bullying in schools, affordable housing and keeping students out of the court system.
About 300 members of CLOUT — Citizens of Louisville Organized and United Together — heard from Jefferson District Court Judge Angela McCormick Bisig, Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell and Jack Jacobs, Jefferson County Public Schools executive director of student assignment, health and safety, at St. Pius X Catholic Church.
The group consists of members from nearly 20 churches across the city.
Bisig told the group, which is made up of members from nearly 20 churches, about the Restorative Justice Project, which helps deal with juvenile crimes more effectively.
She told the crowd the courts have made “significant progress.”
The project works to keep students out of the court system and looks to offer reform in ways other than sending them to youth detention centers or in some instances jail.
O’Connell added that in 2010 there were 20 school-related cases, in which students committed a crime, that were diverted from the courts, but with the help of the project that number jumped to nearly 100 in 2011.
“We’re working with the schools to divert as many cases as we can to keep students out of the court system,” O’Connell said.
The discussion also touched on minimizing school bullying. “The sad reality is students are terrorized by bullying,” said Dr. Chris Kolb, a CLOUT member.
Jacobs said bullying is down this year and told the crowd how the school district recently trained about 1,200 school officials — from principals to youth services coordinators to bus drivers — on bullying prevention. “The last thing we would want in any school system is a student getting hurt,” Jacobs said. “We want all of our children to have a great experience.”
He followed Tammy Jeffries’ testimonial, which told the story of her granddaughter who was subjected to constant bullying on the bus before some students were suspended. Others told stories highlighting the problems that CLOUT members want to see addressed and eventually fixed.
Kiya Cleveland talked about her nephew who was a troubled youth who bounced in and out of different schools and how there was a sense of no one to help.
Patricia McQueen described how she works full-time as a store clerk making minimum wage to provide for her three boys, ages 10, 6 and 19 months, and has been waiting to receive affordable housing for months.
“I’m asking the mayor to find more ways to afford more housing for families like us,” McQueen said.
CLOUT has met with Mayor Greg Fischer within the last several months to talk about the issues discussed at Thursdays meeting, but he was not present Thursday night, despite telling the group at their April meeting he would join them for the October meeting.
“I’m puzzled that he chose not to join us tonight,” CLOUT member and Catholic Charities executive director Steve Bogus said. “It’s clear the community needs his leadership.”
Chris Poynter, a spokesman for the mayor, said Fischer plans to continue to work with CLOUT leaders. “He thinks the group does really important work, he agrees with a lot of the objectives they are working on,” Poynter said.
As a proxy, Fischer sent a letter to CLOUT co-president David Dutschke explaining what his administration is working on and striving to accomplish.
In the letter, which Bogus talked about, Fischer explained about wanting to increase funds for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund up to $10 million and how the Bank On Louisville program, which helps individuals with bad credit get bank accounts, will help more than 7,000 residents.
But CLOUT members were still unsettled at Fischer’s no-show.
“I missed hearing from him tonight,” Bogus said.
