Spark explores the acts of, reasons behind, and solutions to public disruption from teens and young adults in the area.

Her phone rang again. On her day off, Zumiez Liberty Center Store Manager Ash George did not expect so many calls from work. She knew it was one of her staff members calling again, but she could not have imagined what they were about to tell her.

“[The mall] wasn’t feeling like a safe place for people to shop or enjoy themselves, and something had to be done,” George told Spark. “Management wasn’t really doing it fast enough, so I did what I could to force their hand.”

George petitioned to increase policy at Liberty Center in hopes of curbing youth disruptions, leading the mall to implement their curfew for minors, who are not allowed to be in the mall after 6 p.m. without an adult over the age of 21.

She said that the frequency of fights at Liberty Center had been becoming increasingly worse leading up to this incident. This fight in particular had forced her store to close early, and inspired her petition.

“There was a big riot of at least 100 people fighting down by the elevator, and security got jumped, with some of them being hospitalized,” said George.

This is a common sight according to a Spark survey of 50 stores at Liberty Center, with 67.3% of store representatives who that said they had experienced violence and/or outbursts from teens in or around their establishments.

On a larger scale, non-profit organizations like the National Urban League (NUL), Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. (3CDC), and Talbert House are fighting to combat youth disturbances in public places like downtown Cincinnati.

“Most of them are sudden disputes, which means that the intention may not have been to come and do something that day, but something happens in that space to where there’s disrespect, and then all of a sudden you have an incident,” NUL community outreach advocate Derrick Rogers told Spark. “That’s a lot of what we’ve seen on Government Square.”

In February 2024, a series of disputes among youth in Government Square in downtown Cincinnati sparked the attention of activist Iris Roley and other groups that aim to support teens who need it.

The NUL and other non-profits built relationships with teens downtown and offered them summer jobs and programs to keep them busy when school is not in session.

According to Rogers, members of the NUL were also downtown Mondays through Fridays, from February 1 to May 31 of 2023, during the school year to provide aid to kids and teens.

Aside from this physical fighting, the NUL and other non-profits downtown aim to reduce youth violence, even to the level of homicide.

“I had a cousin who was like a brother to me; he was gunned down and was a victim of gun violence,” said Rogers. “That struck me near and dear to my heart. Doing this type of work, and just seeing all the mothers and fathers that go through the pain of losing a loved one has kind of inspired me to continue this work.”

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), each year there are over 176,000 homicides among youth 15–29 years of age, making up 37% of the number of homicides each year globally.

“The overall goal of the [NUL] is really to get rid of or eliminate generational poverty within the minority communities and those communities that have been having a problem with generational poverty for a long time in the city of Cincinnati,” Rogers said.

Homicide is the third leading cause of death for people aged 10-24, and the leading cause of death for African American youth, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Closer to East, physical fighting remains a problem where George works and other public places.

According to the Spark student survey, 77.4% of the 237 students surveyed said that they had seen a fight in public before, and 87.7% of students said that they had seen a fight in school.

Similarly to George, Deputy Batdorf has seen public fights and other disruptions at Liberty Center among other places near East.

“It tends to be junior high kids and those in the early years of high school,” Batdorf told Spark. “They are kind of living in their own little world and really doing whatever they please.”

The first thing to be done when faced with a public fight would be to separate the two teens, then contact their parents or guardians, according to Batdorf. After that, the property manager of wherever the physical fight took place will usually want to take action, such as barring the offenders from the property.

Teens then contact their parents or guardians, according to Batdorf. After that, the property manager of wherever the physical fight took place will usually want to take action, such as barring the offenders from the property.

With new standards in place for minors at Liberty Center, Kings Island, and numerous other public spaces, the effectiveness of the policies have come into question by some of those working there.

53.1% of store representatives surveyed in the Spark survey of 50 stores at Liberty Center said that the policies put into place were ineffective.

“A lot of minors don’t care about the rules at all, but honestly, it is up to security to hold people to those rules,” said George. “If I have kids in here being crazy, and if they want to start wilding out and they’re not trying to listen to me, then it’s like: ‘here are the rules, and I can have you removed from the premises.”

While George sees the effectiveness of the new policies, she said it was more about the character of the teens themselves than the policies in place when preventing youth outbursts.

“Rules only do so much. It’s a piece of paper that tells you what you can’t do, and I hate to say it, but nobody likes being told what to do. So, it’s only gonna be effective for kids that are afraid of the repercussions,” said George. “If somebody is instilling morals in you, the rules are already what you agree with, or something that you at least can wrap your head around.”

According to Batdorf and George, fighting and other youth outbursts have decreased since Liberty Center enacted their new minor curfew.

“The general public and [law enforcement] are not babysitters. We are here to protect life and property, not babysit kids,” said Batdorf. “I would say parents need to be more on-top of their kids and aware of what they are doing or what they are going to do.”

What Batdorf calls a “general disrespect for the public,” can also be translated into schools. East AP US History and CP American History teacher Samantha Miller said that there are discrepancies between the misbehaviors of AP classes versus general education classes.

“When I did teach more CP/General Ed, you’re dealing with more of those behavioral issues, kids not paying attention, not turning in work, that stuff,” Miller told Spark. “Then in AP, you deal with more academic dishonesty.”

East Junior Emily, who chose not to provide a last name, told Spark that she sees disrespect at school on a daily basis.

“I don’t think too much of [the disrespect] just because it has become so normal,” Emily told Spark It’s awful that it has become a normal thing, but I always try to react with positivity instead of adding to the negative.” West Main Campus school resource officer Jeff Newman from the West Chester Police Department said that he sees more fights and disrespect at West Freshman when compared to West Main Campus. “You still have [disruptions and disrespect], but it’s just that maturity that kids go through [between freshman and sophomore year] that causes those problems to not be as prevalent once you get over to main campus,” Newman told Spark.

This is supported by an Ohio Data survey that said 29.0% of 9th graders and 21.6% of 10th graders reported being in one or more physical fights in Ohio in 2019, compared to 13.0% of 11th graders and 10.6% of 12th graders.

Experts like psychologist Lora LeMay point to numerous factors as to why adolescents act out in public and at school to the point of physical altercations, including but not limited to: normal brain changes, home environment, social media, peer pressure, and high stress.

The brain does not fully develop until around the age of 25 according to LeMay, meaning that the decision making part of the brain, known as the frontal lobe, is not fully developed in adolescence. LeMay said that this explains the likelihood of risky behavior and decision making in teens and young adults.

Another factor that contributes heavily to adolescent behavior is home life, according to Pediatrician Ronna Schneider PHD.

“If [parents] show any stress in the home, which it’s hard not to show that you are under stress, and if the child senses that all the time, there is a great chance that they could have some sort of behavioral issues like acting out, trying to gain attention, and then this can also bleed over to school, daycare, and other environments,” Schneider told Spark.

Both LeMay and Schneider said that social media, a newer form of external pressure on youth, inflames conflict between adolescents.

“[With social media] we can hide behind a veil, and that makes us a bit more brave when it comes to how we interact. We may say things [on social media] that we wouldn’t say to somebody face to face, and that can cause its own problems,” said LeMay.

As a teen, Emily agrees with this statement.

“Through social media,” said Emily, “you can’t tell someone’s tone of voice, body language, or how they really feel about something because all you are seeing is blank words on a screen, so a lot of times things get taken the wrong way.”

Emily, an AP and Honors student, finds ways to manage her stress with a busy schedule, which can be a cause of outbursts in school and in public according to LeMay.

“[Teens] are managing themselves to the point of exhaustion because there are so many things that they are involved in,” said LeMay. “They have to try to get into college, they have to hold a job, they have to get a driver’s license, manage family life, and be in sports and all kinds of things.”

These various factors contribute to the way that teenagers can behave, including in ways that would be considered disruptive to a public space or a learning environment.

At East, Miller said that she doesn’t witness fights very often.

“I think that’s because most of the time [fights] happen either after school or around lunch, and I am not near the cafeteria during lunch, so I don’t physically see them,” said Miller. “The amount of fights that I have heard about though, I feel like have increased.”

This perceived increase in disruption and fighting among teens was also noted by LeMay.

“There has been an increase [in disruptions in schools] because, while I haven’t seen it personally in terms of being out in public, I did notice an uptick in schools, where there were a lot more issues in regards to not following rules or being disrespectful,” said LeMay.

West Freshman school resource officer Patrick Eilerman from the West Chester Police Department noticed a recent difference in youth misbehavior, rather than an increase in the amount of misbehavior.

“When I first started in the schools, I had more of what I would call criminal incidents, where kids are doing actual criminal things, to where now the incidents and things that I deal with are more of maturity issues,” Eilerman told Spark.

Similarly, according to Batdorf, youth altercations are not on a steady incline.

“I’d say it’s just an up and down roller coaster,” said Batdorf. “You can go months and months and months without having a confrontation involving juveniles, or you can go two days back-to-back, and there’ll be two different confrontations.”

This is supported by a survey done by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) that stated 22% of students in grades 9-12 reported being in a physical fight in 2019, a decrease from the 31% of U.S. students in fights in 2009.

Hamilton Juvenile court records also show an approximate 41% decrease in complaints about delinquencies and unruly behavior among youth from 2013 to 2023.

With some seeing an increase in outbursts among youth, and statistics showing otherwise, East Freshman school counselor Kira Murphy attributes this discrepancy to the visibility of youth disruptions through social media outlets.

“[Social media] can cause more conflict because there’s a lot more damage that can be done in a shorter period of time. If you get a disagreement with somebody, that person can then spread that like wildfire, whereas before, you might have told two or three people,” said Murphy. “Also, some of the functions of some of these social media platforms, like location sharing and things, provide too much information.”

East Assistant Principal Katrina Murray amounts a perceived increase in outbursts to a recent change in attitude towards adults.

“When I first started in education, respect was warranted by the position and the person being an adult. There’s more of a worldview now post-COVID, that just because you’re an adult doesn’t mean that you earn [teens’] respect,” Murray told Spark. “There’s more questioning of adults now in society in general, and that’s not always a bad thing.”

Lemay said that disruptions in public also have to do with a societal lack of empathy.

“There’s a lot more entitlement, ‘I’m out for myself, I have to do what’s best for me.’ There’s truth to that, but we also have to be a functioning member of society, and we have to have empathy,” said LeMay. “I don’t think empathy is as embedded in our society now as it used to be.”

Regardless of whether there are more youth disturbances in public than in the past, social media may bring more attention to these issues.

“Everybody that has seen those posts wants to put their two cents in. Not necessarily to be the one to instigate that fight, but they want to see it and video it, because then they want to be the ones that posted it, or they want to be the ones that said they saw and it just constantly festers and it builds,” said Eilerman. “Even after it happens, we still deal with it sometimes days, weeks and months down the road.”

With or without definitive changes in youth outbursts over the years, different organizations and people are looking for possible solutions to decrease these issues.

Some of these proposed solutions include: personal stress management from students, building relationships between youth and mentors, increased policies in schools, increased policies in public spaces, and more positive opportunities for youth.

“I usually make a list of what needs to get done and prioritize what needs done first,” said Emily. “I also set goals for school, but I have my own personal goals of things I want to get done in a day or in the school year.”

Miller cultivates relationships with her students to reduce their stress in the classroom.

“In class, I try to build relationships with [students] and let them all know that I’m available by checking in on kids when I can and looking out for everyone,” said Miller. “By sharing about myself with [students], I’m hoping to humanize me in a way where they realize they can come talk to me.”

Murray also said that East attempts to lessen the inflammation that social media brings to these situations by implementing a new phone policy.

“[Students] acknowledge [the benefit of reduced time on their phones], but they’re still adolescents, so sometimes they need help understanding how to stay mentally healthy and how to make good choices,” said Murray. “The policy changes are there to help kids.”

On the whole, West school resource officer Jeff Newman from the West Chester Police department and others who have experience with adolescents have an optimistic approach to looking at the future.

“I look at society and I kind of worry about things on occasion. Like, where are we going?” Newman told Spark. “The best example that I know things are going to be fine is when I come into [West] every day, and everybody just gets along. They have little silly disputes, but most of the time they are able to navigate through and it’s fine.”

By and large, the NUL continues to combat youth disturbances by providing teens with opportunities like summer jobs. On a daily basis, George tries to give opportunities to the youth around her by being a positive influence.

“I’m inevitably a mentor to my employees,” said George, “but I’ve got a ton of kids that are regulars and I try to plant good seeds in their heads to help guide them in the right direction.”

From Batdorf’s perspective, “teenagers will be teenagers,” and while they may take horseplay and disrespect too far, sometimes they are “caught up in the moment.

On the whole however, West school resource officer Jeff Newman from the West Chester Police department and others who have experience with adolescents have an optimistic approach to looking at the future. 

“I look at society and I kind of worry about things on occasion. Like, where are we going?” Newman told Spark. “The best example that I know things are going to be fine is when I come into [West] every day, and everybody just gets along. They have little silly disputes, but most of the time they are able to navigate through and it’s fine.”

The Boys and Girls Clubs of America logo. (Annabelle Hammerly)

Miami Valley Ballet Theatre and The Boys and Girls Club of Hamilton collaborated on a program to help promote the exploration of dance and movement as an outlet for kids.

The sounds of kids funneling into the studio fills teachers’ ears as they are met with big smiling faces, some barreling at them for a hug. They begin clapping in anticipation for the class to start, looking around to see who can create their very own rhythm that day.

Artistic director of the Miami Valley Ballet Theatre (MVBT), Michelle Davis and teacher Teresa VanDened Sorge came together for a collaboration to create a weekly class for the Boys and Girls Club of Hamilton. This class allows kids to explore their creativity while also allowing for learning moments. Davis has been collaborating with local businesses and organizations for years. She said that post-pandemic is when a perfect “trifecta” was created.

“I feel like a lot of things at MVBT come to be organically,” Davis told Spark. “When I heard Teresa talking about her background working with Philadelphia school kids, the program she created, and wanting to get back into the partnerships, it was perfect.”

Sorge started off her teaching career atypically. Filling in for a teacher, she realized how special teaching was to her, and has loved it ever since.

“I think I have always been a person that is hungry to learn about teaching. I realized there was no place I would rather be, and I came to this planet for that reason,” Sorge told Spark. “Just being with the kids is my favorite thing and I hope I can introduce that world to MVBT students who might not know about it and inspire someone to do this kind of work in the future.”

Davis strongly believes movement is more than a set of steps; instead, it is a way to communicate without words.

“For the Boys and Girls Club, because we believe so strongly that movement is for all, we give [youth] a voice through movement,” Davis said. “Often as kids you are not in power to do anything because you are always told what to do. Having this program allows them to have a voice in a different way through movement which I think is really important.”

Teacher assistant Colette Sherman said that teaching the kids was also an educational experience for her as well, in more than one way.

“I have taught classes before, but nothing like this,” Sherman told Spark. “I had to adjust my expectations and expand on what I knew to create a space that allowed [students] to explore and dance freely.”

What makes MVBT different is the approach to misbehavior and how it is viewed by Davis from both a mother’s standpoint and an educator’s.

“Bad behavior to a parent isn’t the same to us,” said Davis. “It is just normal child behavior.”

The goal of the program is for kids to behave like kids. Davis emphasizes redirecting students to express their emotions in positive ways. Dance is one of the outlets that allows kids to use their energy productively.

Sorge believes movement is not something to be restricted, rather it is something to be rewarded with.

“What we can do in dance is give a little space, where kids can run around. Movement gets taken away in school when you are misbehaving,” said Sorge. “What I think children need neurologically, emotionally and socially, is to move.”

Sherman says that the studio is more than a place to dance; it is a release.

“I feel I can let go here and I don’t have to think about anything else,” said Sherman. “This program allows the kids to have a safe space without judgment. They aren’t worried about what others think which is why I love teaching kids.”

How does seeing disrespect from other teens make you feel?

Faced with disrespect, disruptions, and violence from youth in the Greater Cincinnati area, students, school personnel, business owners, and activist groups are looking to find solutions to change policy and mindsets.

An all-honors course load, AP classes, and basketball practice filled East junior Gloria Fritsch’s schedule day in and day out. While she was able to manage it for a few weeks, eventually Algebra II caught up with her.

“I was kind of leaving everything until the last minute,” Fritsch told Spark. “Doing all my homework the night before was stressful, and I was doing bad on all the assignments and failing the tests.”

After four months of struggling to keep up in the fast-paced environment of the class, Fritsch was tired of the overwhelming stress and hits to her GPA. At the beginning of the second semester, she finally made the decision to drop down to College Prep Algebra II. She knew it was the right decision, but still dreaded scheduling the meeting with her counselor.

“I did not want to drop the honors class because I took it as a sign of failure. When I talked to my counselor about dropping the class, I got really emotional. All the stress and pressure I was putting on myself came out at that moment,” said Fritsch. “All my friends were taking the same classes as I was, and I felt like the only one having trouble.”

Fritsch, despite feeling alone in her struggles, was in good company when it came to facing academic stress.

In a 2019 study from the Pew Research Center, 61% of teens in the U.S. said they felt pressure to get good grades. 70% of students said they saw anxiety and depression as major problems among their peers.

East Assistant Principal Katrina Murray highlighted an increase in stress as a reason for outbursts in public, as well as in school.

“Emotions can get the best of you,” Murray told Spark. “You make a split second decision to do something that is not good, then there are a lot of serious consequences that can go along with that.”

According to another study done in 2013 by the American Psychological Association, 42% of teenagers said they did not do enough to manage stress.

School psychologist Lora LeMay explained the challenges faced by students, and how overwhelming it all can be, offering journaling as one of many solutions.

The Journal of Medicine Internet Research (JMIR) did a study on the impacts of journaling on symptoms of anxiety. In this 2018 study, subjects filled out positive affect journals (PAJs) three times a week. They also filled out surveys reporting psychological, interpersonal, and physical well-being. By the end of the 12 week experiment, an overall decrease in stress among patients was found.

Students can attest to the positive impacts that journaling can have, whether it is for dealing with sudden life changes or simply venting about a bad day.

“Writing things down and journaling about my day really helps me process things,” said East Junior Kenzie Anane. “It is good to just get it all out there. It is like my own personal therapist.”

East Freshman Guidance Counselor Kira Murphy told Spark that teens having a positive outlet, or something that they like to do, can be a massive stress reliever.

“Daily gratitude is an easy one,” Murphy told Spark. “We all have things we can be grateful for. Doing daily gratitude can be helpful, and is proven to reduce stress.”

According to a 2022 study done by Pew Research Center, 32% of teenagers in the U.S said they notice social media having an overall negative impact on their peers. Despite this awareness, 54% of teens said it would be difficult for them to give up social media.

For teens being faced with over-reliance on social media, LeMay suggests replacement behaviors. These are short-term solutions to problems or “target behaviors” that aim to eliminate negative behaviors.

In the same way that chewing gum can reduce nail biting, replacement behaviors are meant to provide the same desired outcome without the negative consequences.

Some students, like Anane, take even simpler actions to combat stress.

“In school, I try to give myself a moment to breathe and clear my mind,” said Anane.

“Outside of school, the number one thing that helps me is going for a walk with music in my headphones. Getting sleep is also really important because it gives you time to clear your head and be at peace.”

Within East, according to East Principal Robert Burnside, not every fight is treated like a “cookie cutter” situation.

“We work hard as a team to do a thorough investigation on what happened to make sure that we are issuing appropriate consequences to any students involved,” Burnside told Spark. “The consequences can be anywhere as low as a three-day out of school suspension to 10 days with a recommendation for expulsion. It depends on the severity of the fight.”

One solution that the East Student Leadership team came up with was the “NEST” acronym: Navigate, Empower, Support, and Thrive.

“Using that as how we define ourselves and making that our mission every day when we come to school allows for us to all have a common goal, and to make it a positive thing that is moving along the same direction,” Murray told Spark. “No matter what, you’re going to have a group mentality with teenagers. So are we going to let [disruption, misbehavior, and fights] define the group mentality, or are we going to define that mentality?”

While school fights only impact a small percentage of students, one thing that distracts nearly every student in the building is cell phones.

The Pew Research Center reported in a 2024 study that 72% of high school teachers said that cell phones were a major problem when it came to in-class distractions.

At Liberty Junior School (LJS), students are only allowed to be on phones in the hallways between classes. During lessons, devices are kept at the front of the class, and they are not allowed in the lunchroom.

This new phone rule is not only meant to eliminate distractions in class, but it is also useful in discouraging the use of social media in school. According to LJS history teacher Rick Cooper, social media has been known to cause problems.

“Because of social media, people are able to say things and do things that they might not be able to do face to face,” Cooper told Spark. “There is so much more that kids are exposed to. It impacts how they behave.”

Some teachers say it has already been working, not only to decrease in-class distractions, but also to connect students in the school. While schools adopt new ways to decrease distractions and make schools safer, teachers still face disrespect from students.

“A lot of times, when students are being disrespectful, it usually has nothing to do with the person they are being disrespectful toward,” Murray told Spark. “Usually they are having a bad day or they have something going on. The first action for something like that would be to talk to the student about their choices and how to not let your emotions influence your decisions.”

To combat this disrespect, teachers like Sweeten aim to build better relationships with students.

“Establishing that relationship with the students and building on it can help,” said Sweeten. “If that misbehavior is happening, you can take the time to connect with them and get to know what is really going on.”

Murphy explained it could also aid in diffusing conflicts with students.

“If you have a really strong relationship,” Murphy told Spark, “[Students] are a little more willing to talk, and sometimes you just need to let them get that out.”

Popular places among teenagers like Liberty Center Mall a have been cracking down on curfew and chaperone rules in response to the violence and disruptive activity from teenagers in the past years. Liberty Center implemented a rule stating that juveniles had to be accompanied by an adult after 6 pm.

However, according to a Spark survey, 53.1% of store associates do not believe the Liberty Center policies to be effective.

This has led to some stores enforcing their own rules surrounding adult supervision by limiting the number of minors allowed in the store without an adult, regardless of what time it is. Other businesses hired their own security and police in an attempt to prevent theft.

Still, despite the extra measures taken by business owners in the mall, according to a Spark survey, 67.3% store associates reportedly experienced violent outbursts from teens in or around their establishment.

Store manager of Zumiez in the Liberty Center Mall Ash George petitioned to have stricter enforcement of the chaperone policy when it came to unaccompanied minors in the mall. After a large riot in the mall, she garnered a lot of support from other store tenants, workers, and even security.

Deputy Batdorf with Butler County Sheriff’s Department explained how some teens react to their first taste of freedom, and how it can lead to disruptive behavior.

“Everybody was a kid once, and when your parents allow you the freedom to be outside their supervision, kids tend to act as if there are no rules,” Batdorf told Spark. “Some think there is nobody that can punish them other than their parents. So, when they do get away from the supervision that they have had for the first 13 to 16 years of their life, it is basically a trial by fire in their eyes.”

Aside from parental support, George suggested all kinds of positive adult reinforcement, or mentoring, to instill good morals into teens.

“You are not trained on how to exist in this world, that is where your parents are supposed to pick up the pace,” George told Spark. “But a parent and child relationship is not the same as a peer relationship. Every person in your life is going to give you a different experience.”

Murphy agrees that these types of relationships are vital for kids.

“Having positive adult support in your life is important. The adults in your life can make a big difference, and that may be parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends,” said Murphy.

As for those who are not able to confide in a trusted adult at home, Batdorf recommends reaching out to a professional.

“I would definitely have them seek out help as far as counseling. I am not a counselor, but if a kid is lashing out, it seems as though they are bothered by something at home,” Batdorf told Spark. “They feel neglected or isolated, they do not have anybody they can go to.”

There are many non-profit and activist organizations putting in the work to solve the problem of public altercations and violence among teenagers as well. Groups like the Edge Teen Center, Boys and Girls Club, and the National Urban League (NUL) are doing their part to provide kids with safe and welcoming places to stay when they might not have many other options.

The NUL, for example, aims to curb violence among youth by providing them with work experience, keeping them busy while also helping prepare them for the future, NUL Community Partnering Director Derrick Rogers explained.

“We have 70 youth right now that are working at various businesses throughout the city,” Rogers told Spark. “Cincinnati has a 10 week work period until school starts back to where they’re gaining that experience, and then on Fridays they will have workshops full under those pillars that I described earlier.”

The purpose of the NUL is driven by those four pillars that Rogers mentioned. Workforce development, advocacy, post-secondary education, and mental health. According to him, they utilize these to pursue their mission, which is to help underserved youth.

Not only is the NUL striving to improve the city by eliminating poverty, but it is also on a mission to end the violence in those communities.

“If it is a sudden dispute because of trauma or something like that, then your response needs to be conflict mediation, or some other type of thing that deals with mental health and trauma,” said Rogers. “So we just try to get the community just to buy in and to look at and not put a blanket response over every incident, every youth incident, because they all are different.”

The non-profit EDGE Teen Center offers a safe space and a variety of after school activities for students just a 10 minute walk away from Lakota East.

Empowering teens to impact the world. It’s the mission statement of the EDGE Teen Center, an organization which services a combined 120-140 students after school across two locations, EGDE@East and EDGE@West. The EDGE provides all of their services free of charge to anyone in need.

For 14 years, the organization has provided the tools students need to navigate high school and prepare for their next steps into adult life. A big part of this is providing mentorship, EDGE Executive Director Sara Gabbard said.

“We have a unique space here where we walk alongside young people as they make these big decisions and get a voice in their life that is not their parents’,” Gabbard told Spark. “Sometimes we are able to say the same thing in a different way. It provides some of that supervision too, but in a really authentic way.”

EDGE works to create an environment where all students feel like they belong and feel safe. “What I love about EDGE is that we have a little bit of a breakfast club scenario here. There are band kids here, there’s athletes, there’s kids that don’t really have a place where they fit in at school, when they’re here they’re just EDGE kids,” said Gabbard.

Senior Nikki Lattimore has come to EDGE since her freshman year and has had a great experience since day one.

“I love the support over here,” Lattimore told Spark. “They make you feel at home, they’re just so supportive, and they really want you to be you here.”

Jarell Tudor said the transition to Butler Tech was difficult but EDGE helped make some things easier for him.

“I was kind of a lot at first, not being able to see my friends everyday, but they come here and at the end of the day I can see them,” said Tudor.

EDGE provides a wide array of different programs for students. EDGE’s newly revamped EDGE@Work provides students with community service opportunities, teaching them skills needed in the real world. EDGE partners with Focus on Youth to provide mental health counseling twice a week.

“I like the group therapy sessions a lot,” said Lattimore. “My mental health is a lot better because of them.”

Once a month, EDGE hosts “Fridays, Food Trucks, and Futures,” an event where they bring in a food truck and a guest speaker to share insight on something in the adult world.

“I knew completely nothing about housing before the speaker came in, but they talked to us, and gave us a little rundown, so that was cool,” said Tudor.

All of the EDGE programs are designed in line with the Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets, a set of crucial internal and external factors that are trademarks of healthy development in teens. Some of these include adult role models, responsibility, and most importantly, safety.

“To just release teens into the world, 14-15 year-olds, that’s a lot,” said Gabbard. “We have really dug in deep on those 40 developmental assets, preparing young people for their future and meeting their needs where they are now, whether those are mental health needs, mentorship needs or academic support needs.”

A variety of experts explain how brain development in adolescents impacts their behavior.

As she goes through guided notes on how the brain works, it makes her think about her own. Sitting in class, AP Psychology student Hadia Ciba learns about the brain and the science behind it. When she heard that the adolescent brain doesn’t fully develop until age 25, she began to doubt her decisions a teen herself.

“I’m not fully thinking about every little thing, and then I feel like I have to [seek counsel from] people who are about the age of 25 to make sure I’m making the right choices,” Ciba told Spark.

While Ciba said that she does not notice much of a change in her mind now versus a few years ago, she said that it takes a few years to really look back and notice how much she has grown.

“There are two really big periods of change in someone’s [adolescent] life. One of those is during early adolescence, that’s why Junior High tends to be really challenging,” school psychologist Lora LeMay told Spark. “There used to be the belief that it was just hormonal, and while that can contribute to part of it, we’re not giving enough credit to the changing brain, because it’s completely shifting and it’s reorganizing.”

According to LeMay, the brain develops in a highly specific way.

“Something really important to know in terms of brain development is that it happens from bottom to top and back to front,” said LeMay. “What that means is that the last part of the brain to develop is the frontal lobe, and that’s what really separates us from animals.”

She explained that the frontal lobe is the rational decision making part of the brain, which stays underdeveloped until early adulthood. The part of the brain to first develop is the brainstem and the midbrain which control the “essential things like balance, coordination, emotion, and fight or flight,” according to LeMay.

This area of the brain is also called the “reptilian brain” or the primitive brain, because it controls instinctive behavior according to.

“The brainstem is the primitive brain. It’s a connection point between the brain and the spinal cord,” East Medical Interventions I teacher Jim Williams told Spark.

Outside of that is the limbic system, which is responsible for emotions. This is where the amygdala is housed.

“It is a tiny part of your brain that is essentially the center of your emotions. Because it’s in the middle [of the brain], it is another one of the first things to develop,” said LeMay. “It has always pretty much always been there. Since it is really close to the hippocampus, the part of the brain in control of memories, we package our memories with emotions.”

Since the instinctive and emotional parts of the brain are developed going into young adulthood while the frontal lobe may not be, risky behavior is more common among teens.

According to Pediatrician Ronna Schneider PHD, as adolescents get older, they are more likely to get into dangerous situations due to the underdevelopment of the brain.

“The scary thing is, you’re an adolescent when you start to make decisions that are really going to impact the rest of your life, like getting in a car when you’re drunk,” Schneider told Spark. “If you’re driving drunk, you could potentially kill somebody, hurt somebody, hurt yourself, or lose your license. What I always tell my children is: one bad decision can ruin your entire life.”

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), risk-taking behaviors in teens are often used to cope with “emotional difficulties.”

“So, when we have a flood of very intense emotions, our brain tends to go offline, or we flip our lid. This is when our brain gets overflowed with cortisol, which is a stress hormone, and norepinephrine, which is adrenaline,” said LeMay. “This tends to take the reasoning part of our brain offline, so then we’re acting basically on our limbic system, which is that emotional and reactive center.”

In a heightened state of emotion, people will act off of fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. These evolutionary reactions are what are often seen in teenagers when they are faced with high levels of stress, according to LeMay. This leads to rash decision making in heightened situations.

Teenagers’ brains are also more responsive to dopamine, the “feel good” chemical in the brain that is released when there is a reward or something pleasurable that happens, according to LeMay.

“Through research it has been found that in some cases, the level of dopamine in teenagers and young adults’ brains is a little bit lower than in adulthood,” said LeMay, “but when there is something exciting that happens, or when there is a reward, there is a huge surge of [dopamine].”

A large dopamine release, according to psychologist Matt Heiner, often comes from using social media. This may lead to an over reliance on social media, which can have additional negative side effects for teens.

“We tend to seek out information that confirms our views of the world. This is called confirmation bias,” Heiner told Spark. “Social media is adept at giving us information that sucks us in, and also confirms those views and perceptions. Phones and social media can narrow our perspective on how we are supposed to live life, about what is acceptable and what is not.”

Heiner said that he has a simple rule that he uses for himself and his clients.

“When it feels like your phone is a tool that you’re using to enrich your life, that’s healthy,” said Heiner. “If it feels like more of a burden or there is pressure to use it, it’s worth considering changing your relationship with your phone.”

Another factor that can impact adolescent development is a lack of sleep, according to LeMay.

“Over time, if you are losing sleep, you’re going to lose your ability to think clearly,” said LeMay. “Part of your brain starts to, again, go offline because you revert back down into the core of your gggbrain, meaning breathing, having emotions, and being alert if all of a sudden something attacks. Your brain doesn’t have the ability to really think clearly and reason though.”

This chronic lack of sleep can lead to potential lashing out in places like the classroom, especially unintentionally.

“High school is not always an easy place to be, and I understand that, but [students] have to understand that there are ways that you can express what’s happening that are okay, and then ways where you’ve crossed a line,” East AP US History and CP American History teacher Samantha Miller told Spark.

Some students feel as if they have no choice but to get a lack of sleep because of their busy weekday schedules.

“I could use at least an hour more,” said Ciba. “When I don’t get enough sleep, it is harder to pay attention in class.”

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 72.7% of high schoolers in the U.S. do not get enough sleep on weeknights. The CDC reccomend eight to 10 hours of sleep for the average teenager.

“Without the proper amount of sleep, you never have a chance to fully recover and reset,” said Williams. “It’s almost like an avalanche effect.”

On top of already having poor decision making skills, the adolescent brain needs the right amount of sleep, food, and regulated stress to function without behavioral issues, according to Williams.

Although they can not fight their psychological makeup, teens like Ciba use an understanding of their brain to make better decisions.

“I try to think what would be the pros and what would be the cons of each decision I make,” said Ciba. “While I am strong in my beliefs, I know the brain isn’t fully developed until around 25.”