It was the last in a series of forums to find ways to improve Baltimore's juvenile justice system - in other words, get kids to stop killing other kids - and participants broke into groups to come up with ideas.
Western High School's Chante Bonner, 16, told the school system's police chief: "We have one officer and she is always in the office or sitting somewhere."
On the other side of the auditorium at the University of Maryland's biotech park, Jonathan Hanna, 17, told a top city schools official and the city's top prosecutor that he had stopped showing up at New Era Academy just six months shy of graduation.
"I don't know why I'm not interested in coming to school every day," he told Patricia C. Jessamy, the state's attorney, and Jonathan T. Brice, director of student support for the school system. "The teachers aren't as engaging as they once were. My days are gray, not bright."
Christian Bailey, 17, who also attends New Era, agreed with Chante about police and later added his thoughts about truancy.
"School is important, but sometimes what we learn is not important," he said about a class he's taking on the Middle East. "I don't think it's important for my future."
Brice implored - "Even with the Gaza Strip, Iraq and Iran?"
Jessamy concluded: "We have to reassess how we sell schools to our kids."
The forums on juvenile issues raised many questions and got parents in the same room with both troubled and promising kids; with police officers and social workers; with the secretary of the state Department of Juvenile Services, Donald W. DeVore; and with Jessamy.
The theme at last week's meeting: "Community Engagement: Ideas for the Future."
Christian is part of a group called Community Law in Action, which prepares children to be leaders. He was dragged there many months ago by a friend who promised him free pizza, and he never left. After he was born, his brother "blessed" him into the Bloods gang. Christian told us he grew up fighting to prove he was worthy of the violent organization, but he got out after a person he had beaten up burned down his house.
It matters that Christian wants to learn but doesn't relate to the material.
It matters that young Jonathan has lost interest in school so close to finishing.
It matters that the police officer assigned to Chante's school doesn't seem to do her job.
