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Bored youths target Pemberton family

Outreach worker calls for more parental involvement as Block Watch program developed

Shelley Williams has lived in Pemberton’s “Vinyl Village” for about six years, but recent problems with neighbourhood kids have made her consider packing her bags and moving away.

Williams says her family has been targeted in their home on Laurel Street by a group of local youth.

The conflict started off as a nuisance, with the kids kicking soccer balls against the house and riding bikes over her lawn. So they built a fence — at a cost of $800 — to keep the kids off of their property. But that attempt backfired, with the kids climbing up the new barrier and jumping off onto their trampoline.

They also installed floodlights to illuminate their property and discourage kids from hanging around.

But the situation escalated about one month ago when the Williamses had their front door kicked in at three o’clock in the morning.

“It’s caused a lot of stress in our family, big time,” said Williams.

“… I’m feeling better now, but for a while there, I didn’t sleep at all. Not at all. One day I think I had a break down — I just cried constantly, all day, ’cause I just didn’t know what else to do.”

According to Williams, this isn’t just an isolated incident. She said she regularly sees groups of teens — some as young as 14 years old — roaming the streets late at night, smashing bottles, drinking, and vandalizing surrounding buildings.

Williams spoke at the Village of Pemberton’s Sept. 4 council meeting, recounting her family’s ordeal, and asking for help. Specifically, she said she would like to see a streetlight erected in front of her house, and a “proper” noise bylaw implemented.

Williams said she doesn’t know why her family has been singled out, but thinks part of the reason is that the kids are bored. It’s a problem she understands well; she also grew up in a small town.

“I used to party too, but we didn’t go out hurting people and vandalizing,” she said. “And this seems to be the new kick.”

Geoff Pross is a youth outreach worker with the school board and runs the youth program at the Pemberton Community Centre. He agrees that many of the youths in Pemberton are bored. Compounding that boredom is a general sense of a lack of opportunity, which is exacerbated by the affluence in neighbouring Whistler.

And while boredom certainly can lead to mischief, Pross points out that this is the case in any small town.

“I actually see mostly very good intentioned kids who have a combination of boredom, quite easy access to alcohol, and a permissive culture around alcohol,” he said.

Pross said parents need to be involved in their kids’ lives, and aim to prevent poor behaviour, rather than punish them after the fact.

And part of prevention is ensuring there are other activities for youth to engage in.

“Making sure that there are opportunities to do other things than drink at the skate park, or that parents know how their kids are getting home at night, and when they’re coming home at night, as opposed to finding out that they’ve done something and then grounding them for two months.”

Pross also believes that an increased police presence at youth events could make a difference, because it would allow the authorities to develop positive relationships with the kids.

  Cpl. Paul Vadik also spoke at Tuesday’s council meeting. He said in a general sense, youth crime in Pemberton hasn’t increased.

“Those types of incidents haven’t been common in Pemberton. There’s no pattern to it,” Vadik said of Williams’s complaints.

He plans to present summer crime statistics at council’s Oct, 2 meeting, but doesn’t expect to see alarming numbers.

“Off the top of my head, there hasn’t been a significant increase, if any, of youth crime,” Vadik said.

Most of the kids in Pemberton are good, Vadik added, “There’s just a few that ruin it for everyone else.”

Vadik said each incident reported by Williams was investigated thoroughly, but didn’t result in any arrest because they couldn’t positively identify a suspect.

He said officers make regular patrols, but it’s not the RCMPs responsibility to “baby-sit.”

“It boils down to parents showing some leadership on what their kids are doing, and that’s my issue right now, is why are kids out at three o’clock in the morning? As a parent, do you know where your kid is?”

But Councillor Mark Blundell spoke out at Tuesday’s meeting, saying the RCMP weren’t policing properly and that patrols seemed insufficient.

Vadik disagreed.

“It’s not a question of patrolling — patrols are made on a regular basis — it’s accountability with the kids and parents.”

He added that if council thought policing was inadequate, they should consider adding another officer to the force. That would cost about $100,000.

“If the council wants to pay for more officers, hey, I’d love to have 24-hour coverage,” said Vadik.

Council didn’t seriously discuss the possibility of providing funding for additional patrols, but agreed to look into the possibility of putting a streetlight in Williams’s area.

Williams said she was glad that Blundell spoke up at the meeting.

“It made me feel good to hear that somebody who is on council knows of these groups, he’s seen them firsthand… because after a while you start feeling like maybe you’re the one being the problem.”

As member of the community, Williams said she wants to help turn these kids around.

“I didn’t want to sit around and be a victim, and I do care about my neighbourhood and I care about the kids here.”

But she is worried that the problem could escalate from nuisance to violence.

“Once they get tired of us, they’re going to just move on to somebody else or do something worse.”

Williams has been working with the local RCMP to develop a local Block Watch program. Vadik thinks the program will be a good addition to the community.

“The more eyes out there, the better. If the kids know that there’s 10 block watch residences in Vinyl Village that are keeping an eye out on things, well then they’re going to be less inclined to go out there and goof around.”

Pross thinks the community has taken a positive step by centralizing the community centre and youth centre, and agrees that the new Block Watch program could be good for the community, if it’s used as a preventative tool, and isn’t just used to help arrest kids.

“If it goes directly from mischief to police involvement without possibly a middle step that includes parents or community engagement or youth outreach, then I think it can label a kid and make that kid believe that, ‘Oh well, I’m a bad person, so I might as well keep doing bad things.’”