The Rye Youth Council, as an organization committed to building character in our young people, is ready to support the entire community in the wake of the recent hazing incident in Rye.
These past few weeks have been an emotional and anguished time, and the breathless media coverage has only served to escalate the discussion. Lives have been forever changed, and our children are looking to us to handle this crisis. Unfortunately, there is no road map to follow to "fix" this issue. We are all called to take responsibility for the just and ethical treatment of each other.
This is a time to work together to find ways to strengthen the character and emotional well being of all kids in our community. The Rye Youth Council is actively working to facilitate that conversation. To that end, we have reached out to community leaders, parent representatives, clergy, police and school personnel.
We have begun a dialogue about our shared values and vision and are developing the framework for positive initiatives, which will be both responsive and proactive.
We will continue to work on this over the summer and are planning a more extensive community discussion in early September with the aforementioned participants, led by the RYC.
Our youth advocates are also formulating fall programs that will include parent forums to solicit their input.
In the meantime, our three youth advocates Casey DeCola (decolac@yahoo.com), Sara Braun (sbraunryc@optonline.net) and Stephanie Low(stephlowryc@optonline.net) are available for a confidential conversation to anyone who seeks it.
We also refer you to our website www.ryeyouthcouncil.org, which has some pertinent articles that our advocates have written in the past. For more information please contact our office at 967-3838 or email us at ryeyouthcouncil@aol.com.
