Three months ago, Ashford High School student Daniel Widner’s life was a bit of a mess.
He was constantly getting into trouble, prone to violent outbursts and facing court appearances.
After graduating Thursday night from the Alfred Saliba Family Services Center’s Positive Action class, however, the future is looking bright.
“It works, and I’ve learned a lot of stuff since I’ve been here,” said Widner, 16, who was one of 21 kids graduating Thursday.
The troubled children’s parents also graduated Thursday night, wrapping up the 10-week Parent Project designed at helping parents deal with strong-willed or otherwise problematic kids.
“The parents and kids went through 10-week courses to get here,” said Lawrence Keener, community career development center coordinator for Alfred Saliba Family Services. “Judge Lori Collier Ingram, Judge Butch Binford and Chief Probation Officer Angela Underwood sent referrals to try to give the parents and the young adults some training and skills to be able to cope with one another. The program is meant as a deterrent, and it feels good if possibly we could save a child from incarceration and background problems.”
Jeannie Morris is one of the parents referred by the courts to take the class, and she said any reservations she had were quickly washed away.
“It's been really great,” she said. “It's not what you expect it to be. They make it fun and very interesting to learn different things about your children. You've got to respect each other, that's the utmost important thing. (Teenagers) go through stages of life like we do, and it teaches you different ways to deal with that. They go through so many emotions and are exposed to so many different things, and (the class) teaches us how to handle that better.”
Widner encouraged his peers and their parents to go through the program if they’re dealing with similar problems.
“When they first put me here, I thought it was a waste of time,” he said. “Ten weeks later, it's helped me a lot. I used to be really violent and quick to hit somebody. Talking to (Keener), I learned how to control myself, what to say no to, what to say yes to and how to have a future in life.”
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