Countywide : Nonviolence Is Focus of Week’s Activities

A local group is asking young people to shun violence and to put pressure on elected officials and community leaders to do something about the problem.

Lake Forest resident Karen Lott, founder of the Green Ribbon campaign, is urging students and families to write letters this week to their elected representatives, asking them to get tough on young offenders.

Lott is also calling on parents to turn off the television today and for them to ask their pastors to speak out Sunday about the problem of youth violence.

“We need to encourage kids to be good citizens and speak up,” Lott said. “If they know something bad is going to happen, they have to speak up and tell someone.”

Lott founded the Green Ribbon campaign after her son, Philip, now 18, was shot four times by fellow students in a drive-by shooting nearly two years ago.

On Monday, she spread her message of nonviolence to sixth-graders at Cielo Vista Elementary School in Rancho Santa Margarita. The students will send “stop youth violence” cards to representatives in their district, teacher Paul Hart said.

They are also making posters to hang in their windows at home and will try not to watch television today, Hart said.

Everyone needs to realize that violence among youths “is not only in North Orange County or L.A.,” Hart said.

In addition to the letter-writing and poster campaigns, the Green Ribbon campaign is also sponsoring a writing contest. Students from grades one through 12 are encouraged to write essays on teen violence and how they can make their community a safer place.

The stories can be essays, poetry, fiction or nonfiction and can be typed or printed. A $100 prize will go to the first-place winner. The second-place student will receive $50, with $25 going to the third-place student, Lott said.

Entries must be received by 5 p.m. on May 6. They should be sent to Karen Lott, P.O. Box 848, Lake Forest, Calif. 92630.