Too Old for a Babysitter, Too Young for a Job

AT 4:30 on a Friday afternoon, long after most students at Osceola Middle School have gone home, principal Robert Jackson notices a girl waiting in the main office. ``What's the matter, Brenda?'' he asks. Nothing, she replies. But, she wonders, could she have permission to stay in the office until her mother picks her up at 5?

``It's OK to wait if you'll answer the phones for me,'' Dr. Jackson tells her. She agrees, and he returns to the business at hand - answering a reporter's questions.

The interruption neatly illustrates a subject much on Jackson's mind these days: What to do with the growing number of students who have no supervision after school. Too old for babysitters, too young for part-time jobs, 6th- to 8th-graders with working parents often find themselves with limited and unsatisfactory options. Some go home to an empty house. Others ``hang out'' with friends. Still others, like Brenda, must wait at school until a parent picks them up.

``Last year we had two kids whose mother told them to stay here until 5 every day,'' Jackson recalls.

As the ranks of working parents grow, middle-school administrators across the country face similar challenges. Most after-school care serves only elementary students. And many parents believe that once children reach middle school, they are mature enough to be left alone.

Survey shows need

Jackson disagrees. ``Just because 11-year-olds are in a middle school doesn't mean they don't need the same protection they did when 6th grade was still part of elementary school,'' he says. Sixth-graders, he adds, make up one-third of the 875 students in this sprawling, tan brick and stucco building.

No nationwide statistics exist on how many middle-school students are considered latchkey children. But in February, when Jackson asked parents in this middle-class community to complete a survey that began with the question, ``What does your child currently do before or after school?'' more than half of the respondents indicated students are either alone or in the company of siblings. Some 40 students expressed interest in school-based activities before and after school.

Jackson is now putting the finishing touches on a program that will run from 7:15 to 8:15 a.m. and from 3:45 to 5 p.m. For $6 a week or $17 a month, participants may choose activities such as team sports, creative arts, music, outdoor education, swimming, and field trips. The program will be run by the YMCA.

``Kids want to get off that bench in front of the school and do something,'' Jackson says.

Already some are doing just that. Last week Osceola Middle School joined seven other area middle schools in offering an ``after-school adventure'' called the In Crowd. Modeled after a program developed by the YWCA in Atlanta, the In Crowd brings together 30 students and two trained adult facilitators for snacks and discussions of topics such as current music, dating behavior, drugs and alcohol, teen stress, and discrimination.

``They don't mean `discrimination' in the way adults might think of it,'' explains Marte Toohill, program director at the Clearwater YWCA, which sponsors the project. ``It's discrimination between different types of music, skateboarders and non-skateboarders, and people who dress differently.''

Mrs. Toohill says the program grew out of a youth forum sponsored by United Way. ``Students said they would like to have a place where they could meet their friends after school, along with an adult who would listen to them and give them information they didn't feel comfortable asking their parents or teachers about.''

Parents want to talk, too

Tom Warren, a facilitator for In Crowd sessions at four middle schools since the program began March 1, says, ``Kids tell us they love to come to this group. I think a lot of their positive response is because they have a place to go on an afternoon when they would otherwise not have anything to do....'', or when they would have to go home to an empty house.''

On Thursday, parents of students registered for In Crowd programs will gather at the Clearwater YWCA for a meeting of their own. ``We found out parents don't know what to do with kids when they get to middle school,'' Toohill says. ``They're so afraid of hurting the child's feelings, or of having the child say they're not going to love them anymore. They need to know it's all right not to always agree with your child. It's OK for parents to say `no.'''

All these efforts and programs, Toohill emphasizes, are important in guiding middle-school students through the often choppy waters of early adolescence.

``Middle-school students are the most neglected group,'' she says, despite the fact that their needs are great. ``Their bodies are changing. Their minds are changing. They're trying to find a niche for themselves. They need to be listened to. They need programs and support and understanding.''