The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, March 20, 1978, Image 6

Texas A&M Newspaper Collection

The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, March 20, 1978, Image 6

Newspaper Page TextPage 6 THE BATTALION MONDAY, MARCH 20, 1978 Brazos County’s runaways Their reasons may vary, but 'sometimes it has to be done By JEANNE LOPEZ Brazos County is not immune to the problem of runaway children. Police brought 109 runaways last year to the Brazos county juvenile authorities, an increase of 10 over to 1976. The Health, Education, and Wel fare Department estimated that be tween two and six million children run away from their homes every year. Their reasons for leaving in cluded: pressures from the family’s economic situation, divorce be tween the parents, drug problems, school problems and pregnancy. “Some don’t get along with their parents for some reason,’’ said Er nest Montoya, juvenile detective for the Bryan Police Department. “Their parents are too strict, or they may think that their parents are too strict. Sometimes the child just wants more freedom,” he said. The average runaway is 14 years of age and female, seventy-nine of the 109 reported Brazos County runaways were girls. No one seems to offer an explanation for this. “I would guess that there is much more open conflict during the teen- MSC CAMERA COMMITTEE invites you to view the prints from Salon ’78. They will be in the MSC Gallery through March 25. age years between the mother and daughter than the father and son,” said John Godfrey, chief county probation officer. He said that he had never read a study listing spe cific reasons for children running away. Some run to escape an undesir able family life. “My father sometimes drank too much at first,” said a young man who ran away from home as a teen ager. “His drinking got worse and when it finally hit him hard, that’s when he’d start putting me down. Everything I did was never enough for him. He’d chew me out, but only when he drank, We were good friends before he drank a lot, but after that, I had to split.” “The cops would pick me up, my father would come to take me home and swear it wouldn’t happen again, but it always did,” he said. Authorities estimate about half of the kids who do run from home are going for the adventure of it. “They want to find out what it’s like to be out on their own,” said a local police department juvenile officer. Many leave only to return to their families. “I tried being ‘out in the world’ but decided to come back to my family,” said a 16-year-old girl. “I managed OK for a while, but I knew my parents would feel better if I showed up again. Besides, things were easier at home. Mainly I learned a lot about myself, limits. What I could really do ... or not do,” she said. She has recently re turned home after a two and a half month absence. Once a police report is out on a runaway in the Brazos area and he is picked up by police, the parent or guardian may arrive at the station to bring him home. Otherwise the runaway may be placed in the de tention ward at the county jail or he may be taken to Bridge House. Bridge House, located at 1506 S. College Avenue in Biyan, is a fed eral and county funded non-secure foster group home. There are no fences surrounding the two-stor brick house nor are there bars on the windows. Bridge House was es tablished primarily for Children in Need of Supervision (CHINS) and MUSIC MAN th 779-3988 Bryan GIBSON 3202-A TEXAS AVE. “Your Guitar Specialiat” TAKAMINE runaways fall into that category. The foster home can accommo date a maximum of 10 children, ages 10-17, for stays up to 90 days. “Some may stay for only 24 hours or several weeks, depending on their situation. Some of the runaways stay until they can resolve problems at home,” said John David. David and his wife Jerri are the live-in house parents at Bridge House. “Our main objective is to establish a hassle-free family environment and to make the child aware of his situation now and in the future,” he said. Whatever the reasons, teenapl are continuing to run frond homes. Some come from heal stable environments, othersdos™ .. i According to one teenager, “Huff ^ my parents went through heUwiilL ^ ing for me, but sometimes its" thing that just has to be done,” MIDNIGHT MADNESS All The Buttermilk Pancakes You Can Eat $-|49 or 5 for 99c WED. ONLY 10 P.M.-2 A.M. InlenutkxuJ House of Pancakes International , w w international f w-* « House of Pancakes. Welcome back to the Restaurant! 103 COLLEGE political forum presents Hotline gives peace of mint ‘AUSTIN TRIP” Meet with representatives, senators, and other administrators. Thursday, March 30 Applications Available March 9-10 and March 20-22 at the Student Programs Office Apply Early if Possible By JEANNE LOPEZ Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, the Operation Peace of Mind hotline is open to receive calls from runaways across the nation. The Peace of Mind hotline is a service for runaways. Kids may call the number for referral to a runaway shelter or to talk over problems with one of the volunteer operators. Messages to parents are also relayed by Peace of Mind. Callers to the hotline are not reported to the au thorities or to their parents. All calls are confidential. The toll-free number, 1-800- 392-3352, is accessible from any where in the United States except Alaska and Hawaii. The operation is based in Houston and is housed in the downtown Holiday Inn motel. There are five out-of-state WATS lines and one Texas WATS line. Peace of Mind is one of two such hotlines in the Country. The other is based in Chicago, Illinois. “We receive between 4,000 and 5,000 calls from runaways a month and relay about 300 or 400 calls to parents per month," said Marilyn Davidson, unit coordinator for the Peace of Mind project in Houston. There are some parents who call and ask if any messages have been left for them by their runaway child,” she said. Most of the runaways (65 percent) who call the hotline are female. “We were surprised. We had stereotyped a runaway as male, said Roy May, the program’s project director. There are only two paid staff members, Davidson and her assis tant, Peggy McGrath. The remain ing 65 staff members are volunteers. Before answering the calls during the usual four-hour shifts, the vol unteers are put through an orienta tion which lasts between two and three hours. After observingani f.); 111 perienced worker for four hoursa I. ai then working two shifts with I®* 11 ' 1 the Operation Peace of MindvolJj |‘ l teer is ready for the switchboard!^ Operation Peace of Mind was■f 0 ’ tablished by Texas Governor DM" 16 Briscoe in September 1973aftei®l a 5 bodies of 27 young boys werefosM^J 1 buried in the Houston area that. gust. All the boys were repoitK 1, runaways. ■roa The project is funded by ay» es t grant of $149,000 from theCrkiphe Justice Division of the eoverrlpfi office. The grant covers alTexper§ unt f related to the operation, saidSlfh boo This includes posters and ^ publicizing the hodine, as \vellip an personnel salaries, WATS lines,« ance rent to the motel. Ip5 Television and radio timel| m tai newspaper space are donated M' an public service to publicize Opi® evs v tion Peace of Mind. ai! s I tin sh< m £ McDonald's DRIVE-THRU WINDOW MCDONALD’S INTRAMURAL HIGHLIGHTS AA g McDonald's et Si tfat Mifo ro-d; Isday |3p. BREAKFAST EVERY 1 p. MORNING |Min Teeing on the green Double your skill, double your fun with golf doubles. Entries open today, March 20 and will close March 28. Entry forms are available in the IM Office in De- Ware Fieldhouse. The qualifying round will be held Sunday morn ing, April 9. Rainout date is April 16. Each team will consist of two people, a men’s, women’s, or co-rec team and will play a qualify ing round of 18 holes. Scoring will be medalist (stroke) system. The top 8 to 16 teams in each class (A, B, or C) will go into the 9-hole playoff rounds. The single elimina tion tournament rounds may be played on the TAMU or city golf courses. Green fees will be $2 on week days and $2.50 on weekends for students. Faculty and staff will pay $2.50 for weekdays and $3.50 for weekends. All TAMU students, faculty, and staff are eligible to enter if they meet the require ments set in the IM Handbook. We strongly encourage the golf couples to come out to compete. Three skill classifications for A — highly skilled, B — moderately skilled, and C — casual skill level are available in all divisions. IM t-shirts are awarded to all university champs in men’s, wo men’s, and co-rec. Rated MM* Over the hill after 35? Pshaw — anyone knows that’s not true. Want to prove it? IM is sponsoring the Master’s Mile in its annual track events. The Master’s Mile is for individuals over 35 years old, men and women. So come on out and show your prowess. Entries will remain open until Friday, March 31. The TAMU rules and the IM rules will apply. A copy is available in the Intramural Office. Schedules will be posted on Thursday, March 30. To practice, teams must arrive at least 15 min utes ahead of the scheduled tee off time. Teams will forfeit their match if not prepared to tee off at their assigned time. IM Picks Well, at last the weather has lightened up and flickerball has now reached the playoff stage. Playoffs will begin Tuesday, March 21. Our wise man of sports has decided to try his luck at pre dictions even though there are many teams he hasn’t seen play. So, here it is — our IM picks: CLASS A — MEN’S The Infinity Machine F-l Utay Longnecks CLASS B — MEN’S F-l Sigma Chi The Scrubs Basketball is now into the playoffs. Shown here is a member of Young Life going up in a crowd to make a shot. Young Life and their oppon ents Baseline Bums, are both Co-Rec teams in class B competi tion. J Sport Shorts FOR THE RINGERS CALLING ALL BRIDGE PLAYERS! Today is semifinals day for horse shoe doubles at 5:00 in the horse shoe pits. Finals will be March 23, Wednesday, at 5:00. Last year’s All-university Champs were Ronny Stevens and Jim Calle. Check by the Intramural Office today for the bridge tournament schedules. Play will begin this week and will be Swiss team play in a round robin tournament. THE END IS NEAR Don’t forget — this may be your chance for an IM t-shirt. WET REMINDER Guess what today is handball players? The handball semifinals at DeWare Fieldhouse handball courts at 6:00. The finals will be held Wednesday, March 22. Last year’s All-University Champs were Jeff Brown son and Don Johnson. Water Polo and Innertube Water Polo are starting play to morrow, March 21. Play will be on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sun days at 6:00. Both the indoor and outdoor pools will be used. Check your schedules and come out swimming. FOR THE DOUBLE SWINGERS Netting for three What’s more exciting than court full of volleyball players? court with only six volleyb: players, of course. Three-man v leyball entries open today, 20, and close March 28. Playw begin April 3. In three-man volleyball a rej lar size volleyball court is cove: by three team members. Then are no front or back row player(t signations and all members rt spike or block. Play will be in m Rollie White. Games are playetH 15 points. Teams will be men’s, women* and co-rec. A co-rec team mi have at least one female membtf Play options are class A powerbi which goes by strict USVBAnili and class B jungleball whit excludes o\ erhand serves, 0: ' one member of the Aggie Vd leyball team may play on a tea® So, come spike and block \w your two most favorite bumpi® partners. It’s a wild and era!* game. Acknowledgments This ad is sponsored by McDonald’s on University Drive and Manor East Mall and under the direction of the IM Office with stories by Michelle Wolstein and photos by Corey Gaskill. That time is here for all you ten nis doubles swingers. Check your schedules because March 23 is the day playoffs begin. There were 362 tennis doubles entries this year with many returning faces paired with new partners. For the record, last year’s all-university champs were Mike Green and Steve Pon der men’s champs; Kim Bellamy and Chironne Tebo women’s champs; Eddie Janek and Susan Ingram co-rec champs. Good luck and don’t forget your match time. “I SPY’S” PARTICIPANT OF THE WEEK Dan Jordan warms up with his handball partner, Phil Tibbs, in preparation for their doubles game. They represent Crocker Dorm in class B. Dan should come by the IM Office to pick up his “Be Our Guest” card to be redeemed for free food at your local McDonald’s Restaurants. Our apologies (IM Free Play) DON’T FORGET! (Can You Canoe?) NOTICE TO ALL TRACKSTERS Entries Open Golf Doubles — March 20-March 28 3-Man Volleyball March 20 - March 28 Meetings Sports Club: Wednesday, March 22, room 231, G. Rollie White, at 6:30 p.m. Unit Team Manager’s Meeting Monday, March 20, 5:15 p.m.; room to be announced. Hear ye, hear ye — all track persons take heed and notice. All field events will begin at 5:00 p.m. on the day scheduled. Field events for men’s and women’s dorms and men’s and women’s independent entrants will be Monday, April 3. Corps and fish will participate in field events on April 4. The Co-Rec relay events will accept entries until March 31. Tie a string around your finger so that you don’t forget the canoe race this Saturday, March 25. The five-mile race will be held on the Brazos River, ending at the Highway 60 bridge. Aluminum and fiberglass canoes may be used. The tournament will begin at 8:30 a.m. Men’s and women’s races will be at 10:00 a.m.; the co-rec race will be at 2:00 p.m. See you there! Sorry for inconveniencing an) one who came for IM free pl j ! over the spring break. Free play will begin operate this weekend. Friday from 6^ p.m.-12:00 midnight badminl® and volleyball can be play? 1 Saturdays times have be® changed from that stated in o' previous issues. Table tennis fl be played Saturdays from 6:fl p.m. - 10:00 p.m. Free play is s»! ject to cancellation if G. Roll White must close. To make sm free play will be held, watch fa signs in DeWare or G. White or call the IM Office- 845-7826. Come recreate, brins date — it’s great!

Texas A&M Newspaper Collection

Texas A&M Newspaper Collection

The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, March 20, 1978, Image 6

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