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Darke
County Juvenile Court
Whittaker
featured at Second Annual Juvenile
Justice Issues seminar
On
October 23, the Darke County Juvenile Court
sponsored its second annual Juvenile Justice Issues
Seminar at the
Greenville Elks Lodge. The seminar was attended by
80 local law
enforcement, service providing agencies, and school
officials. The
topics for the seminar included local drug abuse issues, human
trafficking, and
school shooters.
Chief
Deputy Mark Whittaker of the Darke County
Sheriff Department presented on local current trends regarding drug
abuse and
drug trafficking. Chief Deputy Whittaker outlined
how not just
street drugs are at risk for abuse but also medications that are found
in a lot
of medicine cabinets. Chief Deputy Whittaker
encouraged the
attendees to be work cooperatively within our agencies and schools to
find help
for those struggling with drugs.
Lisa
Norris of Arcanum shared the story of her
son, and how he lost his life in a drug related shooting in May
2007. Ms.
Norris presented a firsthand account as to the dangers of drug abuse on
local
families. She talked about the effects of her son’s
death and the
two different trials that went on before her son’s killer was
convicted. Ms.
Norris said she still struggles with know whether what she did to help
her son
was the right thing, but feels Josh’s story shows that drugs can effect
families no matter where they live.
Dr.
Mark Ensalaco from the University of Dayton
presented on the topic of human trafficking and how this leads to other
criminal behaviors as a byproduct. Dr. Ensalaco
identified how
certain segments of the populations may be at more risk to be involved
in or a
victim of human trafficking. Dr. Ensalaco outlined a
number of “red flag”
behaviors for all people to be aware of that may indicate a person is
being
held against their will or having their freedom
deprived. Dr. Ensalaco
encouraged the seminar attendees
to pay attention to their instincts and closely look at situations
where one
person appears to have a great deal of control over
another.
Officer
James Burke of the Ohio Peace Officers
Training Academy (OPOTA) presented the Five Phases of the Active School
Shooters as developed by Dan Marcou. Officer Burke
showed the attendees
how the Columbine and Virginia Tech School shooters left obvious signs
as to
what they were planning to do and how the signs were missed or
misinteruppted
by school or university personnel. Officer Burke
encouraged the
crowd to listen to the students, pay attention to what they say, and to
intervene early.
The
Darke County Juvenile Court would like to
thank all of those that attended the seminar and our presenters.
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