By Thea Jarvis

Kristy Darnell was a first-year associate at the Atlanta law firm of Alston and Bird when she heard of the Truancy Project, an early intervention/advocacy program for at-risk youth enrolled in Fulton County Schools.

The graduate of Vanderbilt Law School dealt primarily with medical malpractice and litigation and knew little about juvenile justice, but her new employers supported the innovative project and she was drawn to the idea of working with troubled youngsters.

Truancy, Ms. Darnell learned, was a prelude to adult crime. If the problems were confronted early enough, young lives could be changed.

After an intensive seminar on the juvenile court system, Ms. Darnell was assigned to represent a young truant who had missed at least half the required school calendar. The lawyer met with surprising success.

“I was shocked that such little effort on my part contributed to making a noticeable change in a person’s life,” Ms. Darnell said of the experience a year and a half later. The overburdened youngster “just needed someone to pay a little bit of attention to her.”

At 14, the girl lived in a small duplex with three younger siblings, her mother and stepfather. The neighborhood had been infiltrated by drug dealers and many of the girl’s friends were turning to drugs.

The family was “really struggling,” said Ms Darnell. After visiting the home, she realized the case involved more than just a child unwilling to go to school.

The girl’s unemployed parents often found it easier to have her stay with younger children while they searched for jobs during school hours. If the teenager missed her bus, she had no other way to get to school. The parents wanted to be supportive but didn’t know how, Ms. Darnell said.

Once the juvenile court system and the Truancy Project became involved, help was on the way.

Ms. Darnell acted as the girl’s counsel and a probation officer was assigned to the case. A judge ordered the youngster to return to school with an attendance card to be signed daily by teachers.

In addition, it was agreed that “she needed something to do after school,” Ms. Darnell said. “She was just hanging out, with no place to go.”

The teenager began tutoring sessions at the juvenile court facility, enrolled in the Big Sister program sponsored by Spelman College and did community service in city parks during the summer.

The turnaround “has been amazing,” said Ms. Darnell, who had a bird’s-eye view of the girl’s transformation from truant to faithful, striving student.

Such success stories have multiplied since the Truancy Project began in 1991, said cathedral parishioner Terry Walsh, who co-founded the program with Glenda Hatchett Johnson, chief judge of the Fulton County Juvenile Court. Some 125 cases have so far been referred to the project and 180 volunteers, lawyers and non-lawyers, have helped young truants get their lives on track.

“If the community is going to make it, we’re going to have to do something to interrupt school failure, teen pregnancy and juvenile crime,” said Walsh, a partner at Alston and Bird and immediate past president of the Atlanta Bar Association.

The Truancy Project is “one small way of intervening in the young life of someone while there is still a chance to make a difference,” she believes.

Judge Johnson concurs. The child who drops out of school is “three and a half times more likely to have a criminal record,” she said. “Truancy is an area (in which) we can try to do better.”

The co-founders called Atlanta’s Truancy Project the only one of its type in the U.S.

“We kind of made it up” without a previous model to go by, Judge Johnson explained. “We fine tune it as we go. It’s a step of faith.”

This year, the American Bar Association honored the Truancy Project with an Award of Merit and the State of California Department of Youth Authority recognized it as one of 15 national volunteer award winners.

“My hope is that this can be a model we can export around the state,” said Walsh, himself a project volunteer who has worked for over a year with a young man who, at 15, wanted to leave school and find a job.

The boy’s family was not receiving their allotted food stamps and had difficulty paying utility bills. There was little clothing available for the youngster to wear to school and he found it a struggle to learn.

With help from the Truancy Project, the boy was tested and a learning disability was discovered. The court sent him back to school, but offered the option of vocational training. Clothing was made available through the Truancy Project’s clothing bank, filled with donations from volunteers and supporters.

It appears to be another success story, said Walsh, who maintains a friendship with the teenager that includes outings to upcoming Braves games.

“We stop treadmill” through intervention, he said, “avoiding private pain and public expense by interrupting the cycle of disadvantage.”

Walsh advises that individuals need not have legal expertise to become involved in the Truancy Project.

“There’s no magic in lawyering,” he said. An attorney is only required in the adjudication phase of the process, when a truant appears in court.

“Concern for troubled, at-risk kids” is all that is asked of project workers, Walsh said.

For information on the Truancy Project, Contact Terry Walsh at 881-7000.