Flanagan's island

Policy Review, Summer 1994 by Jendryka, Brian

In the early morning hours of September 22, 1993, Amtrak passenger Michael Dopheide was awakened by the sounds of screeching brakes and someone screaming, "Oh my God, we're all going to die."

Amtrak's Sunset Limited, traveling at 70 mph, had just jumped the tracks over the Bayou Canot bridge in Alabama, and sections of the train were slipping into the water below. Smoke, fire, and the terrified scream of passengers combined to form what one passenger called a scene from Dante's Inferno.

One of the sinking cars contained Dopheide, along with dozens of other passengers. In the foggy darkness, and without his glasses, Dopheide escaped through a window and swam to safety. But then another reflex took over, and he went back for the others. Keeping afloat by hanging onto floating debris and treading water, Dopheide is credited with saving the lives of 30 passengers that night.

Explanations for heroism are sometimes hard to come by. Dopheide points to his years at Boys Town, a family-based community for troubled youth, as a large part of the answer. A lesson he repeatedly learned at Boys Town was that "No matter what, no matter how difficult the situation is, you're still going to help, you're still going to carry this person to safety."

Based in Omaha, Nebraska, Boys Town has been carrying troubled teens to safety for more than 75 years. It was founded as a boys shelter in 1917 by Father Edward Flanagan, who used a $90 loan for the first month's rent and a stubborn desire to keep homeless, hungry boys from becoming homeless, jobless, hungry men. Since then, its skills-based, highly disciplined, and family-oriented philosophy has helped transform the lives of over 17,000 children--boys and girls with some of most intractable of social and behavioral problems.

CHANGING PROFILE

As illegitimacy mounts and more and more American families fall apart, Boys Town is a model for a foster care system in crisis, and an attractive alternative to a welfare system that undermines parental responsibility. Recognizing that the care of troubled youth is a growth industry, Boys Town is itself expanding, and has set up satellite residential homes in nine communities around the United States. Boys Town also operates seven emergency shelters, a national research hospital for children, and a national hotline that handles over 500,000 calls from troubled children and parents annually. In addition, Boys Town provides training for teachers and parents like Common Sense Parenting, which helps build parenting skills.

When Flanagan first launched his rescue effort, Boys Town kids were the self-confident, rough-and-tumble orphans like the one Mickey Rooney portrayed in the 1938 movie Boys' Town. Not anymore. Many are like Sam, who came to Boys Town because he lost his glasses at school one day and just "couldn't take another beating" from his father. Or like Jill, who had been sexually abused since age three by her father, and got drunk in 6th grade because she thought it would dull the pain. Or like Jack, who called Father Val Peter from the Omaha bus station because he was a member of a teenage gang called the Bloods and wanted out. "I just saw my best friend killed and I don't want it to happen to me," he said.

Boys Town candidates reflect the worst trends in American culture. Most have been out of school for two to three years. Three-quarters come from one-parent families. Many have tried alcohol or drugs. A majority of girls have been sexually abused, and four out of 10 boys have been physically abused. One in five have attempted suicide.

There is no standard route into Boys Town. Some kids are placed there by their parents; others are abandoned, become wards of the state, and then are referred there. Some just show up on their own. The typical Boys Town resident has been to several other child-care centers, shelters, psychiatric hospitals, or foster homes. Many have had run-ins with the law--40 percent have been on probation or parole. Some have even committed murder.

Despite these dark beginnings, kids who come to Boys Town emerge with a bright future. Approximately 80 percent of the children who come here are successful. By Boys Town's standards, this means: They graduate from the program and high school, stay out of trouble with the law, and remain employed and off welfare.

Boys Town graduates compare well, not only with their peers in other foster care homes, but with kids outside the child care industry. Compared to the national norm, Boys Town alumni are more likely to hold a job or be in school, have jobs at a higher average income level, more likely to attend church on a regular basis, and less likely to use illegal drugs.

NO SUCH THING AS A BAD BOY

From the days of Father Flanagan, Boys Town's guiding credo has been, "There's no such thing as a bad boy--only bad environment, bad thinking, and bad training." This belief has never meant treating children as victims who bear no responsibility for their lives. On the contrary, it has meant providing them with an environment that helps sustain good character.