She urged the crowd of about 100 to get to know the teens and youngsters on their block. Identify the ones who aren't supervised by a parent or adult after school or at night — for whatever reason — and take it upon yourself to try to help, she said.

        She has some nerve. But she's right.

        Ms. Lemmie's comments were in response to an audience suggestion that the city support more programs to rehabilitate troubled youth.

        There are successful agencies already, she said; the Youth Collaborative, for instance, just won a national award.

        “But you shouldn't look at institutions to fix it alone,” she said. Start with kids you know. Commit to do one thing with them each week — maybe the library, the park, bowling.

Preaching to the public

        Ms. Lemmie is a city official; her function and purview exist at the pleasure of taxpayers. She supervises 6,000 employees, many who work in city departments directly responsible for youth programs, all of whom are paid by tax dollars.

        How dare she tell taxpayers to take on more responsibility to help neighborhood kids. How dare she be right?

        “Today, many of us are afraid of our own children,” she said. “No matter what program you run, if you see a group of kids coming toward you and you cross the street, it destroys their sense of self.”

        She's got a point there, said fellow speaker Ishaq Nadir , a communications consultant.

        Mr. Nadir, 33, grew up on high-crime Burnet Avenue in Avondale. He says adults in his neighborhood took interest in him and helped keep him in line.

        Now he tries to talk with youth in his old neighborhood and his new one, Kennedy Heights. He tries establishing a rapport first, and later he attempts to encourage them to do better with their lives.

        “How ya doing, Big Time?” he asked a 16-year-old male acquaintance he ran into after the speech Thursday. “Maybe this weekend I'll holler at you. I'd like to speak to you.” The youth nodded an OK.

Parental responsibility

        Most of us aren't like Mr. Nadir. We don't often screw up our courage to even speak to teens we don't know well, much less try to guide them.

        But this is what happens when we don't: This summer, Cincinnati police conducted curfew sweeps in several neighborhoods, arresting more than 360 kids over four nights. (Curfew for unsupervised kids 15 and under is 10 p.m.; for 16- and 17-year-olds, it's midnight.)

        Without the curfew sweeps, police regularly pick up several to 10 youths each night for curfew; some land at the Hamilton County Youth Center until morning because parents fail to claim them.

        About 1,000 youths each year are arrested for dodging school, police say.

        Sure, children are their parents' responsibilities. But there are too many irresponsible parents for the rest of us to do nothing.

        “We've disregarded the personal responsibilities we have for our communities,” Mr. Nadir said.

        “We say it's the mama's fault. ... Talk to the young. Compliment them. You never know. The kid may be outside his home because he's locked out.”

        Ms. Lemmie, who moved to Cincinnati from Dayton three months ago, told the audience that she noticed a neighborhood kid hanging around.

        She approached him, and he told her he had overslept and missed his bus. His parents weren't home and hadn't made alternate arrangements, so she took him to school.

        She did it many more times, she said. “If I didn't, you know what would have happened.”

        E-mail damos@enquirer.com or call 768-8395.

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