Not long ago, authorities discovered a 15-year-old Wisconsin girl in a suburban Atlanta hotel room who was “employed” in the sex trade. With her at the time, was her one-year-old daughter. If we don’t understand how a girl can end up thousands of miles away from home, we really don’t understand the tragedy of human…

I have seven boys, and all of them struggled in high school. None were star athletes or straight-A students. They just wanted to get by, so they could grab their diplomas. They tended to do well in interesting subjects, but in others they just drifted along. My middle son, Josh, struggled with the transition between…

When my husband Steve was in middle school he got caught one day sneaking off campus. The principal later called him to the office on the intercom. Punishment, a paddling, was in waiting and everyone knew it, so the students responded with an “ooooohh!” This otherwise good student was suddenly famous. In one stroke of…

I lived for almost 15 years in Wheaton, Ill., a wealthy suburb outside of Chicago. Within the city borders were five different colleges, therefore, city officials kept a very tight rein on teenagers. My sons, who went to high school with hair past their shoulders, often felt “targeted” by the high school police officers and…