Chasing kids down a different alley

Police for years have found themselves chasing South Boston teens off corners and occasionally down alleys. But now, through a program funded partly through the Boston Police Athletic League, they're bringing youths into another kind of alley -- the bowling alley.

"Things like this that Jackie is doing are great," said Dave Connolly, 54, as he watched his son and two grandchildren bowling at the South Boston Bowladrome on a recent Friday afternoon. "You've got to keep them off the streets."

Jackie is Boston Police Officer Jack Boyle, the youth officer at the District 6 Station on West Broadway. Boyle, well known to South Boston children from his classroom talks on drugs and alcohol, started the bowling program with Sharon Pierce, who runs the Walsh Community Center. Every Friday since September, about 25 children between the ages of 7 and 12 have bowled for an hour after school. Teenagers from the Condon Community Center on D Street have met to bowl on Tuesdays.

Police say misbehavior among adolescents and teens is surfacing at an increasingly earlier age in South Boston. Over the past four months, police say, there have been about 20 assaults on adults by South Boston teenagers. Abuse of drugs, including heroin, continues to be a problem.

"What's the formula that causes this? We don't know, " Boston Police Sergeant William Meade of District 6 said. "There is no line. It crosses all [socioeconomic] boundaries."

Meade and Boyle both say, however, that numerous programs in South Boston are helping keep some youths on the straight and narrow. The bowling program and a new boxing program that features Friday Night Fights at the Walsh Center provide teens with healthy social outlets and keep them occupied, the two officers said.

"We have a lot of success stories," Meade said. "There are many kids who are not getting caught up in the net" of crime and drugs.

Pierce said she and Boyle chose bowling because it is more social than other sports programs -- such as basketball, volleyball, and flag football -- that already exist in South Boston.

"In this everyone gets to participate regardless of their ability," she said. "They're under less stress here to perform well."

On a recent Friday, about 25 children, many from different schools, bowled at the bowladrome as Boyle and Pierce looked on.

In one lane, four Gate of Heaven School students talked about video games as they watched each other play. Some had an inkling how to bowl. Others flung balls sidearm, most of which became gutter balls. Bowling in stocking feet, they were refreshingly honest about how many pins they knocked down.

"That's a five," Devin Doherty, 8, told his much taller friend Matt Nee to write on the scorecard.

When Doherty threw a 17 in the last two frames to come from behind and win, Nee shouted good-naturedly, "You just beat me, Devin."

As the bowling hour ended, Barbara Kinney, the bowling alley manager, collected the scorecards.

"Scoring is what I try to teach them," she said. "I think this is a great thing. It keeps them off the street and it keeps them occupied."

But as effective as these programs are for younger children, youth workers say they become less effective when children get older. Kinney said about 20 teens participated in the Tuesday afternoon program when it began in September, but that number is around a dozen now.

Michael Conroy, a South Boston drug and alcohol counselor, said many teens stop attending sports and other youth programs between the ages of 13 and 16. "That's when we lose them," he said.

Youth workers say they are increasingly frustrated that no matter how many programs they offer or pizza parties they throw, many older youths just won't attend. They'd rather be out with their friends hanging on the corners, said Helen Allix, who oversees South Boston's three community centers at the Condon, Tynan, and Walsh centers. When interviewed by this reporter or coaxed by youth workers, many older teens said there is not enough to do in South Boston.

Allix disagrees.

"The excuse that there is not enough to do in South Boston is basically that, an excuse," she said at a recent community meeting. Citing programs at the community centers, the Boys and Girls Club on West Sixth Street, and the Neighborhood House on East Seventh Street, she said, "We've got tons of things for these kids."

For more information on South Boston youth programs, contact Police Officer Jack Boyle at 617-343-4747.