Fighting Back: Part 3b

PARTNERS IN HELPING YOUNG PEOPLE

Married Couple Takes Action To Show Right Path

JACKSON COUNTY - For Nancy and Ken Broadus, getting young people to stay
away from drugs and alcohol is more than a job. It's a calling.

The Broaduses spend Friday and Saturday nights following Jackson County
teen-agers to the parking lots, athletic fields and homes where the young
people gather to meet, flirt and sometimes drink and take drugs.

The Broaduses, like some pastors and teachers, fill a gap between the
often-times mechanical processes of the law, courts and schools, and kids'
inattentive families.

Both know the damage smoking does. Ken's parents smoked and he can remember
being in the back seat of the car, saying, "You're going to kill us." His
mother and father both died of smoking-related diseases.

Nancy's father died of emphysema and lung cancer. He was so addicted that
on the day he died, his lungs were so weak he used a toothpick to puncture
the filter so it would be easy enough to draw the smoke from his cigarette.

"We just hate to see young people smoke and drink when we know what's in
store for them 20 years down the road," Ken said.

The two play a crucial role, said Kathy Best, director of the Jackson
County Children's Services Coalition. "They are a sane, almost parental
voice out in the chaos these kids find themselves in."

Unique devotion

What the Broaduses do, and the devotion with which they do it, is unique on
the Coast. They establish a rapport with the teens and act as counselors on
the streets when they can.

They bust up parties and cite teen-agers for underage drinking. They also
listen to problems, offer advice or give teens a good scolding.

Instead of a Friday night at the movies, Nancy Broadus gets off work at a
shipyard, showers and heads out with her husband, Ken, who is a Sheriff's
Department sergeant. She is a deputized volunteer.

Most evenings, they start out at a convenience store looking for underage
drinkers trying to buy beer. They'll talk to kids about where the parties
are, then check all the usual hangouts. When they find a party in progress,
they dump out liquor and drugs, write citations about a quarter of the
time, call parents and find someone to drive intoxicated teens home.

Ken, who had been a Sheriff's Department patrolman in Vancleave and North
Gautier, uses that experience while patrolling for drinking and drug-using
teen-agers.

"I could tell there was a lot going on with kids that really wasn't good,"
he said. "I realize these kids are getting into trouble when there's
nothing to do. In that vacuum, trouble just seemed to follow them around.
Then you throw a little alcohol on it or drugs and you've got a problem."

The Broaduses rarely work undercover. They usually wear jeans and polo
shirts with a Sheriff's Department badge on the left side and their name on
the right. They both carry a gun.

About half of the kids they talk to want to talk about personal problems,
Ken said. "But remember," he said, "this is a two-way street. We're asking
open-ended questions in part because we want information out of them."

The teens are more likely to listen to the Broaduses than their parents.
Ken worked at the county jail for almost a decade talking to young people
in trouble.

"I would just get on them and talk and talk and talk. I'd tell them,
'Apologize to your mom for what you did. Thank her for coming to get you,'
" he said. "You don't ever quit. I talk to all of them because you don't
know which ones you're going to get through to. I never miss any opportunity."

They know each other well

Ken and Nancy Broadus know more than 100 teens and young adults well enough
to sit down and talk to them about their lives.

"We see them all the time," Ken said. "We walk into Wal-Mart or a grocery
store and they come up to us. The line is always, 'You been to any parties
lately?' They'll say, 'Thanks for listening to us,' or 'Thanks for what
you've done.' "

Ken seems to be an unlikely confidante for style-obsessed teens. He is
short and stout, with a bushy mustache. He is soft-spoken and
super-earnest, nerdy by teen standards. He's an authority figure, and that
seems to be what some teens crave.

Certain teens are drawn to the pair, starved for the attention and a
concern for their well-being that the two provide.

"Sometimes we spend more time with these kids than their parents do," Nancy
Broadus said. "And they need someone to listen to them."

About the patrols

The overtime that Ken Broadus, a sergeant with the Jackson County Sheriff's
Department, racked up this year patrolling for teen-aged drinking, tobacco
use and drugs is paid by a $14,000 federal grant administered by the state.
His wife, Nancy, volunteers her time and has been named a female volunteer
of the year by the United Way of Jackson and George counties.

For two years, the attorney general's tobacco fund paid for the extra hours
and equipment with $46,000 and $42,000 grants.

In the last 16 months, the Broaduses wrote 145 citations for selling or
buying drugs; made two arrests for disorderly conduct by youngsters under
age 21; and made eight arrests of adults who were contributing to the
delinquency of minors by either sponsoring a party or buying the liquor.