The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "at-risk youths" ...
-
Omaha in Black and White
One out of every three high school freshman in Omaha fail to graduate in four years, and the dropout problem is even worse for black youths. Findings include: graduation rates slide sharply as attendance drops; middle school grades track closely with graduation rates; students with poor test scores in elementary school are significantly less likely to graduate; few students who enter high school with both poor attendance and poor grades in 8th grade are successful, only 20% graduate on time
Tags: education; dropout rates; graduation rates; at-risk youth; Omaha Public Schools; longitudinal data;
-
Rough Love
Tranquility Bay, a "behavior modification school" in Jamaica, is a boarding school where parents send their troubled teenagers. But what parents get for their $40,000 yearly tuition is often overly harsh discipline that results in the children being injured and abused. The reported conditions include "no running water, beatings by staff, and being forced to lie in silence, face-down on the floor for hours at a time - over a period of several months." At least six other schools which like Tranquility Bay are affiliated with the Utah-based World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools "have been raided and/or closed during the past decade, following allegations of abuse or questionable practices."
Tags: Tranquility Bay; boarding schools; at-risk youths; troubled teens; child abuse; inmate abuse; World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools
-
The Tragic Secrets of Crater School
This story is about how State of Oregon officials lacked the resources to adequately check and regulate outdoor schools and programs for at-risk youth. In this example, someone who had promised never to run such a program again in California, after a tragic incident there, was able to come to Oregon and run such a program in this state.
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT troubled teens; Crater Lake School; boarding school; assaults; case workers; marijuana; camp; toxicology report; Chiloquin; Klamath County sheriff
-
Youth at Risk
The Great Falls Tribune's four-month, 13-part series of stories examines "the increasing number of teenagers with emotional or mental disorders, the reasons for their illnesses, and ways to make life less troubling for our teens."
Tags: teenagers; mental disorders; mental health care; troubled teens; Ritalin; hyperactivity; family dysfunction; Great Falls Juvenile Detention Center; child abuse
-
It's A Crime: How Mentally Ill Teens Are Trapped in Lockups
A Post-Gazette four-part investigative series documents "how teens with serious mental illnesses are being warehoused in juvenile detention and corrections facilities because states have closed their adolescent mental hospital units and no one else will take them." The reporter finds that the system is "more punitive than therapeutic," and that "shoddy record keeping, room confinement for minor rules infractions, and lengthy incarcerations all place at-risk teens in greater danger of seriously hurting or killing themselves." The findings are supported by a survey of directors of detention centers across the country. The 172 responses received by the newspaper have confirmed that mentally ill teens face severe problems in juvenile lockups.
Tags: teenagers; children; juvenile detention; adolescents; suicide; sexual assault victims; abuse; psychiatric disorders; crime; youth; group homes
-
A Question of Intent: A Great American Battle with a Deadly Industry
Kessler's book depicts the investigation undertaken by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) into the tobacco industry. The author, former FDA commissioner in the early 90s, uncovers "historical evidence that the tobacco companies orchestrated the greatest conspiracy ever undertaken to put the nation's health at risk." The book follows step by step the disclosure of scientific information and documents that proved the tobacco companies awareness that nicotine is an addictive drug. Kessler looks at the money and politics strings that tobacco industry has been controlling over the past decades.
Tags: cigarettes; nicotine; drugs; Phillip Morris; lobbying; public health; cancer; children; youth; schools; advertising image; tobacco regulations; Congress; legislature
-
Net Loss
In a special report, the New Times reports on gangs and the programs that are in place (or not in place) to prevent them. Rising gang membership and the decline in after-school and summer programs for kids in poor neighborhoods seem to go hand in hand. This four-part series deals with programs that target at-risk kids, the importation of gangs to Phoenix, and problems faced by sports programs and church groups that are trying to make a difference.
Tags: gangs; violence; youth programs; after-school programs; little league; church programs
-
The First Step
"'The First Step' is about a program for at-risk students at a Denver charter school called P.S.1.; it's offered by a nonprofit organizational housed in the school called Colorado Youth at Risk. Some teachers and administrators at P.S.1. discovered that the Steps Ahead program appeared to be based on a controversial adult self-help course offered by the Landmark Education Corporation ... a 1970s-era program that many of its graduates accused of leaving them psychologically damaged. ... And yet all of the administrators denied that Steps Ahead was a kiddie version of the Landmark Forum."
Tags: school; The First Step; P.S.1.; Landmark Forum; psychology
-
King County's Foster Care Crisis
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer investigates King County's "critical shortage" of foster homes and "its impact on foster children." The investigation found that the county has seen an almost "30 percent drop in the number of foster homes over the last five years.... As needs grow and the number of available homes drops sharply, the state's stopgap measures leave abused children at risk of being abused all over again."
Tags: Child Protective Services CPS child-welfare youths homeless shelters juvenile detention
-
No title (id: 12602)
The Record dissected a little understood agency empowered by the state to assume broad responsiblity for guarding the welfare of children at risk of abuse and neglect. The investigation revealed an antiquated system ill-equipped to deal with the harsh realities of today's most dysfunctional families. (June 11, 12, 13, 25, 26, 27, 28, Aug. 4, Sept. 8, 26 & Dec. 17, 1995)