Rowdy Youth

In city ministry, our Church's youth group, over many years, became increasingly Black. Black children are more rowdy, and we now needed to contend with the real possibility of injury (there were up to about forty children). In fact there were sporadic injuries -- thankfully all of them small. The only serious injury was to an adult, who dislocated his ankle while playing soccer with the children. OBSERVATION: With possible injuries in mind, the youth leaders developed a zero-tolerance policy towards rowdiness. They began to send youngsters home. This upset them very much -- and had the desired effect. We also appointed more youth "helpers".