YOUNG CRIMINALS’ STORIES CALLED PEER PRESSURE ON STEROIDS’
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Community leaders gathered Tuesday on the spot where a 13-year-old boy was shot walking home from a high school football game last month. They met to unveil a new book aimed at stopping such violence. “If These Chains Could Talk” is written by young people in trouble with the law, collected and published by Duval County school board member Betty Burney.”As I’m writing to you this letter, I am looking out the window and I see freedom,” Jimmy C. wrote in the book. “I am on the 6th floor of the Duval County Jail. I am 17 years old, charged as an adult for first-degree murder.” The editor said the book is unique in that the authors are all young and all admitted to committing serious crimes — many involving guns and violence.
“They have what I call peer pressure on steroids,” Burney said. Joseph Wise, Duval County superintendent of schools, and other school leaders believe so much in the power of these words, they want to put a copy in the hands of thousands of middle-school students.” (It’s) powerful because it’s a Jacksonville school board member, Jacksonville students — many who are still in the juvenile justice system — and Jacksonville students learning from those who’ve chosen some things with very bad consequences,” Wise said.
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Betty Seabrook Burney represents District 5 and joined the Duval County School Board in November 2004. She is a Raines High School graduate, holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Miami and a Master of Arts in Public Administration from Northern Illinois University. Currently, Ms. Burney is an education consultant for TPG, Inc., and Seabrook and Associates. She is a member of the NAACP Education Committee, Wayman Chapel AME Church and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. 
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