how we treat our children matters this
isn’t a small sense of how we treat our
kids my niece or nephew my friend’s
child your child but also in the broader
sense we draw back from the parent who
mistreats their child in public and when
we go to another country when we see
kids begging in the street we think well
we don’t do that in America well how do
we treat kids in America and that’s what
I want to talk about today to take this
word movement free movement of mind body
ideas and all else that comes with it
and apply it to kids who get funneled
through this thing called the juvenile
justice system America incarcerate
s’more children than any other country
in the world this is at a huge financial
cost and a human cost as well the
philosopher Foucault wrote about how
we’ve taken this spectacle of punishment
and moved it from public’s view and this
applies to children who commit crimes as
well the law shields them in many ways
and this is to protect them but it also
ends up hiding things from the public
like locking kids in solitary
confinement when I think of movement in
my childhood things start to appear in
my mind like a series of montages riding
my bike down a hill as fast as I can and
feeling the wind whip around me
rollerskating around the block and doing
these trails that I’m convinced look
like an Olympic figure skater and then
as I got older driving around in my
parents suite Park Avenue Buick and
exploring all parts of the Bay Area and
hiking in labs and and and stinson and I
played music I remember that moment when
I realized that moving my body when I
played the piano made it so that me and
my listeners could feel that music even
more and I read books so many books
books that took me back in time and
forward and let me create worlds where I
was walking down the streets of London
on my Victorian hoops or fighting these
sand Tigers and
some mystical future all of this
movement expanded my world as I’m sure
it expanded yours take a moment and
think about what movement meant in your
childhood movement to us was as
essential to life as breath the movement
of our childhood made you and me who we
are today
now some may say well we’ve come a long
way we don’t lock kids up in duct cells
and just give them bread and water we
don’t whip them or flog them others may
say well they’ve done something wrong so
why not take away their movement well
I’m going to tell you some stories and I
hope they make you wonder have we really
come so far are we okay with how we’re
treating kids in the system one of my
clients spent months of his young
teenage years in solitary confinement
what I mean by this is a small concrete
cell generally about six by nine feet I
remember people in the facility telling
me stories about him how when they would
open the door he would jump out like a
jack-in-the-box or how he would create
these small intricate patterns on each
of the blocks of the cell using wetted
toilet paper I heard these stories and
outwardly I didn’t really show much
emotion I was his lawyer it never felt
like the right time or place but inside
my heart what I couldn’t stop thinking
about how much energy he let’s call him
D had and how he could only express it
in these small confined ways and then
made other shackles so I had a 14 year
old client I knew she was shopping with
her family she felt like they were being
racially profiled so she got into it
with the store clerk she ended up
pushing the security guard no one got
hurt but she got a juvenile case it was
a misdemeanor then she was having a hard
time at school so she got a probation
violation she was locked up and brought
to court we’re all across the country
including our capital Washington DC
children are brought from lockup into
court
like this wrists shackled linked to a
belt around the waist ankles shackled
kids shuffling and chains now I don’t
need to tell you what this reminds us of
especially when black and brown kids
make up so much of our juvenile system
this illustrates the legacy of slavery
and that’s what happened to her the
shackles child her they made her feel
like a criminal and more and more even
for kids who aren’t in custody ankle
bracelets are being put on them GPS
devices that beam their location from
satellites into probation offices black
devices that you have to wear around
your ankle no matter football practice
or if it’s hot out and you want to wear
that cute summer dress or shorts and you
have to ask your probation officers
permission to go almost anywhere
back-to-school shopping getting your
haircut going to your grandmother’s
house even church and I could go on and
on how their movement their activities
their relationships are curtailed in
ways that I could not have imagined as a
child as an adolescent as a teenager and
this is just at the time when their
bodies and minds need to stretch and
grow and instead their development is
stagnant and withered and ultimately
these experiences are so disruptive that
it keeps them from becoming their best
selves so what do we do about this did I
just tell you all this so we can go home
and cry no I’m talking about the
juvenile system here because I hope
first and foremost that it creates a
feeling of empathy a sense that these
children are not others but our children
and that if we think about how movement
was important to your development my
development our happiness that we see
how valuable it is for everyone and
second that change is really possible
we’ve all seen the kids marching against
gun violence it’s
inspiring kids don’t know the boundaries
yet it makes them a little reckless but
it’s also what makes them so amazing
kids are going through this fantastic
period of change about everything about
them a change that’s not gonna happen
again
they’re reacting adapting to their
environment and soaking everything in
and so there’s hope even for the
children who are thrown away and locked
up one of my last jobs at the public
defenders was visiting kids who are
locked up for long periods of time and
they’re kind and polite they dream they
read books and palms they’re funny
because kids are ever hopeful beings I
remember meeting Dee again a few years
later and I would always save him for my
last visit because he would just make me
laugh he could imitate anyone months of
solitary confinement was not going to
stamp out his essence and there are
people who are doing interesting and
innovative things like focusing on peace
circles that talk about healing instead
of incarceration and people who are
looking at youth incarceration as a
public health issue people who are
bringing music and yoga into juvenile
halls mentoring kids and actually being
there for them through thick and thin
common sense always told us in research
confirms that we have to do better for
kids especially those who’ve had a hard
time that they need mentors that we need
to connect them to things that make them
tick so change is happening reforms are
taking place but is this enough because
minds need to be changed for reforms to
truly take hold institutions need to
change being examined possibly
dismantled
if research is telling us that locking
kids up doesn’t work then let’s try
something that does that makes it life’s
better not worse that makes us a society
actually safe and more whole why
shouldn’t we contemplate a fundamental
rematch
of this thing called the juvenile
justice system and so I ask can movement
as empathy and vitality spark change can
this truth that movement is as essential
to life as breath be the foundation and
the barometer for how we treat kids in
the juvenile justice system and finally
this to me is hope for the beginning of
that transformation born of movement but
I’m having a dialogue with you that I’m
telling you my clients stories now I’m
not my clients a far cry when they would
sit with me they would think you’re
you’re such a nerd
well first they would try to figure out
what kind of Asian I was and then they’d
be like you’re such a nerd well despite
our differences they trusted me with
their stories and how they really felt
when they were in these places and
experiences that try to crush them and
we would breathe together because
sometimes the only thing that they could
do and not get in trouble is to do the
one thing that’s essential to all of us
to breathe and so I would say to them
I’d ask you to do this with me breathe
in deep raise your shoulders up to your
ears and let go and we would do this not
just to create separation from the
hardness that lay outside that visitors
door but to create movement through
breath and so I take their trust and I’m
telling their stories because there is
power in telling people’s stories just
as we created movement through breath in
those cells by timeyou their stories
their stories are taking flight and
becoming free and there is power in
feeling empathy and finding commonality
with people who seem different from you
and me and this commonality that
movement makes us whole happier more
free I hope
you take this the next time you hear a
news story that only tells the criminal
side of a child when a mentoring
opportunity comes up when the
nitty-gritty of your city county state
laws and budgets come up and you ask
yourself two questions how are we
treating our children are we letting them
isn’t a small sense of how we treat our
kids my niece or nephew my friend’s
child your child but also in the broader
sense we draw back from the parent who
mistreats their child in public and when
we go to another country when we see
kids begging in the street we think well
we don’t do that in America well how do
we treat kids in America and that’s what
I want to talk about today to take this
word movement free movement of mind body
ideas and all else that comes with it
and apply it to kids who get funneled
through this thing called the juvenile
justice system America incarcerate
s’more children than any other country
in the world this is at a huge financial
cost and a human cost as well the
philosopher Foucault wrote about how
we’ve taken this spectacle of punishment
and moved it from public’s view and this
applies to children who commit crimes as
well the law shields them in many ways
and this is to protect them but it also
ends up hiding things from the public
like locking kids in solitary
confinement when I think of movement in
my childhood things start to appear in
my mind like a series of montages riding
my bike down a hill as fast as I can and
feeling the wind whip around me
rollerskating around the block and doing
these trails that I’m convinced look
like an Olympic figure skater and then
as I got older driving around in my
parents suite Park Avenue Buick and
exploring all parts of the Bay Area and
hiking in labs and and and stinson and I
played music I remember that moment when
I realized that moving my body when I
played the piano made it so that me and
my listeners could feel that music even
more and I read books so many books
books that took me back in time and
forward and let me create worlds where I
was walking down the streets of London
on my Victorian hoops or fighting these
sand Tigers and
some mystical future all of this
movement expanded my world as I’m sure
it expanded yours take a moment and
think about what movement meant in your
childhood movement to us was as
essential to life as breath the movement
of our childhood made you and me who we
are today
now some may say well we’ve come a long
way we don’t lock kids up in duct cells
and just give them bread and water we
don’t whip them or flog them others may
say well they’ve done something wrong so
why not take away their movement well
I’m going to tell you some stories and I
hope they make you wonder have we really
come so far are we okay with how we’re
treating kids in the system one of my
clients spent months of his young
teenage years in solitary confinement
what I mean by this is a small concrete
cell generally about six by nine feet I
remember people in the facility telling
me stories about him how when they would
open the door he would jump out like a
jack-in-the-box or how he would create
these small intricate patterns on each
of the blocks of the cell using wetted
toilet paper I heard these stories and
outwardly I didn’t really show much
emotion I was his lawyer it never felt
like the right time or place but inside
my heart what I couldn’t stop thinking
about how much energy he let’s call him
D had and how he could only express it
in these small confined ways and then
made other shackles so I had a 14 year
old client I knew she was shopping with
her family she felt like they were being
racially profiled so she got into it
with the store clerk she ended up
pushing the security guard no one got
hurt but she got a juvenile case it was
a misdemeanor then she was having a hard
time at school so she got a probation
violation she was locked up and brought
to court we’re all across the country
including our capital Washington DC
children are brought from lockup into
court
like this wrists shackled linked to a
belt around the waist ankles shackled
kids shuffling and chains now I don’t
need to tell you what this reminds us of
especially when black and brown kids
make up so much of our juvenile system
this illustrates the legacy of slavery
and that’s what happened to her the
shackles child her they made her feel
like a criminal and more and more even
for kids who aren’t in custody ankle
bracelets are being put on them GPS
devices that beam their location from
satellites into probation offices black
devices that you have to wear around
your ankle no matter football practice
or if it’s hot out and you want to wear
that cute summer dress or shorts and you
have to ask your probation officers
permission to go almost anywhere
back-to-school shopping getting your
haircut going to your grandmother’s
house even church and I could go on and
on how their movement their activities
their relationships are curtailed in
ways that I could not have imagined as a
child as an adolescent as a teenager and
this is just at the time when their
bodies and minds need to stretch and
grow and instead their development is
stagnant and withered and ultimately
these experiences are so disruptive that
it keeps them from becoming their best
selves so what do we do about this did I
just tell you all this so we can go home
and cry no I’m talking about the
juvenile system here because I hope
first and foremost that it creates a
feeling of empathy a sense that these
children are not others but our children
and that if we think about how movement
was important to your development my
development our happiness that we see
how valuable it is for everyone and
second that change is really possible
we’ve all seen the kids marching against
gun violence it’s
inspiring kids don’t know the boundaries
yet it makes them a little reckless but
it’s also what makes them so amazing
kids are going through this fantastic
period of change about everything about
them a change that’s not gonna happen
again
they’re reacting adapting to their
environment and soaking everything in
and so there’s hope even for the
children who are thrown away and locked
up one of my last jobs at the public
defenders was visiting kids who are
locked up for long periods of time and
they’re kind and polite they dream they
read books and palms they’re funny
because kids are ever hopeful beings I
remember meeting Dee again a few years
later and I would always save him for my
last visit because he would just make me
laugh he could imitate anyone months of
solitary confinement was not going to
stamp out his essence and there are
people who are doing interesting and
innovative things like focusing on peace
circles that talk about healing instead
of incarceration and people who are
looking at youth incarceration as a
public health issue people who are
bringing music and yoga into juvenile
halls mentoring kids and actually being
there for them through thick and thin
common sense always told us in research
confirms that we have to do better for
kids especially those who’ve had a hard
time that they need mentors that we need
to connect them to things that make them
tick so change is happening reforms are
taking place but is this enough because
minds need to be changed for reforms to
truly take hold institutions need to
change being examined possibly
dismantled
if research is telling us that locking
kids up doesn’t work then let’s try
something that does that makes it life’s
better not worse that makes us a society
actually safe and more whole why
shouldn’t we contemplate a fundamental
rematch
of this thing called the juvenile
justice system and so I ask can movement
as empathy and vitality spark change can
this truth that movement is as essential
to life as breath be the foundation and
the barometer for how we treat kids in
the juvenile justice system and finally
this to me is hope for the beginning of
that transformation born of movement but
I’m having a dialogue with you that I’m
telling you my clients stories now I’m
not my clients a far cry when they would
sit with me they would think you’re
you’re such a nerd
well first they would try to figure out
what kind of Asian I was and then they’d
be like you’re such a nerd well despite
our differences they trusted me with
their stories and how they really felt
when they were in these places and
experiences that try to crush them and
we would breathe together because
sometimes the only thing that they could
do and not get in trouble is to do the
one thing that’s essential to all of us
to breathe and so I would say to them
I’d ask you to do this with me breathe
in deep raise your shoulders up to your
ears and let go and we would do this not
just to create separation from the
hardness that lay outside that visitors
door but to create movement through
breath and so I take their trust and I’m
telling their stories because there is
power in telling people’s stories just
as we created movement through breath in
those cells by timeyou their stories
their stories are taking flight and
becoming free and there is power in
feeling empathy and finding commonality
with people who seem different from you
and me and this commonality that
movement makes us whole happier more
free I hope
you take this the next time you hear a
news story that only tells the criminal
side of a child when a mentoring
opportunity comes up when the
nitty-gritty of your city county state
laws and budgets come up and you ask
yourself two questions how are we
treating our children are we letting them
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