Youth

Students at Youth's Benefit Elementary School in Fallston received a big surprise Thursday morning when they learned their school was the grand prize winner of $25,000 in the Scott Shared Values Box Tops for Education Sweepstakes. Scott Brand and General Mills, two companies that have made supporting education a key element of their businesses, announced the prize during a special assembly at the school. Youth's Benefit will be awarded 250,000 eBoxTops valued at $25,000 to be used toward educational needs.

A 35-year-old Street man, who had once served as a youth pastor at a Bel Air church, pleaded guilty earlier this week to a single third degree sex offense in connection with an incident involving a teenage girl. Walter Harrison Yocum entered the guilty plea on Wednesday before Circuit Court Judge M. Elizabeth Bowen, according to court records. Yocum is scheduled to be sentenced by Bowen on May 30 at 9 a.m., according to court records. Yocum was charged last August with five counts of sex abuse of a minor, one count of third degree sex offense and two counts of fourth degree sex offense.

The Bel Air Police Explorer Program is hosting a one-week Youth Police Camp this summer for children who are interested in the law enforcement profession. Campers will participate in classroom and hands-on activities with the many different officers from various units within the Bel Air Police Department, including a daily regimen of physical training. There will be demonstrations from the police K-9 unit and the Harford County Sheriff's Office Marine Unit and Motorcycle Unit. The campers will be required to wear a uniform consisting of a T-shirts with camp logo and a baseball cap. The cost to attend the camp is $40 per child.

In Howard County, we are determined to provide an open forum of discussion on bullying so that no teen has to suffer in silence. With the Council's passage of Resolution 16-2013 designating Voices for Change Youth Coalition as the designated organization to facilitate discussion among youth coupled with the county's anti-bullying task force, we are already beginning to see progress.  For those not already aware, the students members of Voices for...

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has named an advocate for youth justice reform as the new director of Baltimore's crime policy office. Angela Johnese, an attorney who has served as juvenile justice policy director for Advocates for Children and Youth, will lead the Mayor's Office on Criminal Justice, coordinating criminal justice efforts across different agencies as well as administering state and federal grant money. In a statement, Rawlings-Blake said Johnese's "commitment to developing alternatives and solutions for young people will support our efforts to create long-term reductions in crime.

Jonathon Rondeau, who recently ran an Upper Malboro training center for people with disabilities, has taken the reins at the Family League of Baltimore. Rondeau, who worked most recently as the chief program officer at Melwood Horticultural Training Center, said his initial goals include better using data to measure the effectiveness of the league's work. The nonprofit works to enhance the well being of the city's children, youth and families. "I look forward to working with Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, public agencies and the Family League partners to ensure that children, youth and families have equal opportunities to live, learn and grow equipped with the tools and resources they need to go on to college, career and successful lives," Rondeau said in a statement.

The independent watchdog agency that oversees Maryland's Department of Juvenile Services recently released a report showing the state made important progress last year toward improving conditions for youths held in its three largest juvenile detention facilities. That's good news given the years of problems the system has encountered with overcrowding, incidents of violence, high staff turnover and aging facilities. Now the state needs to build on those gains by replicating the successful programs at its largest institutions in smaller facilities statewide.

Anne Arundel County police and Broadneck High School officials say they are cracking down on "the pit," an area near the school in Cape St. Claire where residents have complained of loitering, fights and illegal drug use. More than a dozen people, mostly teenagers under age 18, have been charged or issued citations so far in February, police said. Following a videotaped fight after school dismissal on Feb. 8 in which police say one teenager acted as the referee, four juveniles were charged.

The rate of youth confinement in Maryland declined by nearly half over a 13-year period, outpacing the national average amid a "sea change" in the approach toward dealing with young people who break the law, according to a report released by a national youth advocacy group. From 1997 to 2010, the rate of youth incarceration dropped 37 percent, according to the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation. The group noted that the United States leads the industrialized world in locking up young people, and said that the majority of incarcerated youths are held for nonviolent offenses such as truancy and low-level property crime.

Howard Thomas "Has" Sachs, a retired Crown Cork and Seal manager and a coach, died of Alzheimer's disease complications Feb. 24 at Anne Arundel Medical Center. He was 77 and lived in Pasadena. Born in Baltimore and raised on Sidney Avenue in Westport, he was a 1953 graduate of Southern High School, where he earned varsity letters in baseball, football and basketball. Family said he played on the same team as Al Kaline, a Westport friend who went on to play for the Detroit Tigers and is in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.