It's 9:30 am, on a Tuesday. Do you know where your child is? In Columbus, Ohio if they are not in school they may very well be sitting in an area Truancy Intervention Center. Since December 2000, the City of Columbus has been leading an aggressive campaign to get local area school students truant from school off the streets, and back into the classrooms. The man leading this campaign is a veteran former law enforcement officer who is committed to making a difference with young people in the community.

Christopher Vaughn is the Program Director of the Southside Truancy Intervention Center. Since the city started its truancy abatement efforts, the truancy center serving the south side neighborhood of Columbus has been the busiest site. Over 1,000 Truants have been brought to the Center for truancy intervention services. Vaughn brings a lot of experience to the table as the program's Manager. He has 10 years experience as a Criminal Justice professional. "Years ago, when I was a Deputy Sheriff in Chicago, I saw so many young people come through our justice system. I always wondered where they got off track, and how they got on the path to a possible lifetime of trouble?" said Vaughn. "I thought that somewhere along they way they made some bad decisions that landed them behind bars. And that these bad decisions started for them at a young age.".

The Truancy Intervention Center that Vaughn heads is the first stop in the effort to help keep some young people in Columbus from continuing to make bad decisions. The City of Columbus committed over $357,000 to open three Truancy Intervention Centers in various neighborhoods throughout the city. It was an effort to decentralize truancy services from one location, which caused Police Officers to leave their patrol zones, and to assist parents in returning their children to their neighborhood schools in a timelier manner. "We offer many educational support services at our Truancy Intervention Centers, but we are no substitute for school." Vaughn said. "Our primary goal is to educate the parents about the state's truancy law, the local school district's attendance policies, and to provide any services or resources to help the young person from becoming a chronic or habitual truant. We want the parents to get their kids back to school, talk to the local school administrators about their children's school attendance, and too become more involved partners in their children's education."

The truancy abatement initiative is a collaborative effort in Columbus. The collaboration consists of the Columbus City Council, the Columbus Public Schools, the Columbus Police Department, the Columbus Metropolitan Area Community Action Organization, the Y.M.C.A. of Central Ohio, the Columbus City Attorney's Office, the Franklin County Juvenile Courts, and Franklin County Children Services. This collaborative is headed by Columbus City Council Member, Charleta Tavares. "The major issue here is ensuring that our children are getting their education." Tavares said. "That we are protecting them from harm that they are not victims, and that they are not victimizing others."

Many have said that school truancy is often a precursor to more serious issues facing the community. According to statistics, school dropouts are six times as likely to be unwed parents, seven and a half times more likely to be dependent on welfare, and six times more likely to commit crime as juveniles than graduates. These are just some of the reasons Christopher Vaughn has taken on the challenge to help keep the young people he works with on track in the educational mainstream.

Vaughn, 39, is the eldest of four children. Growing up in Chicago, Illinois, he says that his parents had a lot to do with the effort and commitment he had in his school days. His father was a supervisor with an Illinois state agency and his mother is an education professional, with experience working in the Catholic school system in Chicago. Vaughn, an Alumnus of the University of Illinois, started his career in law enforcement with the Cook County Sheriff's Department in Chicago. He has served as a sworn officer with department and agencies in Nevada and Indiana as well. After working as a Juvenile Probation Officer in Indianapolis, Vaughn moved to Columbus, Ohio, to assume a position with the Franklin County Juvenile Court. From that post Vaughn joined the staff at the Columbus Metropolitan Area Community Action Organization, as Program Coordinator of the agency's Southside Truancy Intervention Center .

We have been afflicted by so many American adversities; we have been placed in untenable conditions that human beings should not have to long endure; we have been pulled and pitted almost beyond that which any people can stand. Yet and still we rise; sometimes slowly, sometimes with back-pedaling, but always we rise.

Minister Al Amin's condition is a case of our back-pedaling. We have been thrown back by this great leader's stumbling action. We are all hurt by this action. We weep with those who are at a loss: the bereaved, the injured, and for Al Amin, H. Rap Brown, himself, and for his family. We weep for Black America and all America.

It is because of his experience with young people in the justice system that Vaughn has worked tirelessly to make his Truancy Intervention Center not only the best in the city, but also the best in the state of Ohio. "One of the first things I did was reach out to my counterparts around the country to see what was working for them." Vaughn said. "I looked at programs in New York City, Atlanta, Oklahoma City, and Tacoma. I was determined to make our program a truly successful model."

Apparently, Vaughn's efforts have paid off. In January of 2002, the John Glenn Institute for Public Service and Public Policy presented a Best Practice Award to the Columbus Metropolitan Community Action Organization for their efforts to address the problems of school truancy facing the community .

"We have done good work here, I think." Vaughn said. "We served 506 families in our first year, and 608 so far this year. The effort that local law enforcement has put into getting the kids off the streets during school hours is still going strong. Helping to keep the kids on track to getting a good education not only benefits the child, but in the end, it benefits us all as a community."

The city of Columbus has expanded its truancy abatement efforts by opening two additional Truancy Intervention Centers to serve the city. The Columbus Public Schools provided $200,000 to open the sites in two underserved areas. Columbus is leading the way in Ohio's efforts to help keep our young people in school, and a former cop is still pounding a beat to see that no child gets left behind in the pursuit of education. []