As the country reels from the incident in Littleton, Colorado, attention is once again focused on the needs of our youth. The media circus following the massacre, the endless interviews and tears we watch on TV screens, the increased presence of police in local schools, talk of metal detectors and increased rules - no backpacks, no trench coats - all designed to protect our students from themselves. As it so often happens, many students will be punished for the horrific action of a few.

As a teacher, I often saw how troubled teens enjoyed manipulating the fear of school authorities and adults, and how successful they could be. In short, if you can cause people to fear you, you can keep them away from your gut level insecurities and problems. If you can keep them away, you can also keep your inner troubles from exposure and remain the tough guy, the one who has it all, the one your classmates call cool.

Schools are reeling on a number of levels these days. They are charged with the responsibility of teaching students to read, to write and to do math. But so many students come to school with so much inner turbulence that the need for counseling is more and more necessary. My own colleagues and I used to debate - are we hero to teach or to counsel? I had more than one argument which essentially goes like this: the lessons are lost on troubled youth; the more immediate need is to take care of them emotionally, to deal with inner and outer conflicts. And while this may not be in any teacher's job description, a successful teacher will take on this added responsibility. But teachers can't do it alone.

More informational tidbits: 75 to 80 percent of our nation's prisoners are illiterate to some degree, and were once students in our public schools. We now have a Corrections Corporation of America. You can find it in the NASDAQ listings. Its stocks yield high returns. Those are facts. More and more it seems we fail to provide education that would reduce illiteracy, just as we fail to provide the counseling necessary to help youth find their way in the world. Instead, we lock them up and make money off of them. We find it easier to discuss metal detectors and other capital outlay expenditures than to think seriously about how to provide mentors, counselors, and support for youth as they travel the road to adulthood.

While working as a broadcast technician for UAU, I watched a criminal justice class in horror as student said they wanted a career in criminal justice because they would have job security. The very people who should be thinking about how to help prisoners rehabilitate were thinking more about financial security. So it seems to me that we are in a critical period in dealing with our youth - we continue to watch as they destroy themselves and others and then lock them up, or we find a way to teach and support them.

Recently, then PEN Readers and Writers program sent writer Gloria Velasquez to tour northern Arizona. PEN's goal is to increase literacy among youth; they want students to read more. In fact, such visits do increase the desire to read, but more importantly, they provide an outlet for discussion of troubles. Using fiction as a backdrop, students are able to ask questions and share feelings they might otherwise keep bottled up. These interactions between students and writers make it possible for kids to access the support they need through fiction. I witnessed many students telling their own stores to this author: "I had a friend who was gay." "My mother has had this same trouble with abuse." "I thought no one could ever understand how it feels to watch your parents split up." Ms. Velasquez has created a series of young adult novels which can promote discussion of serious issues: racism, divorce, gay youth, domestic violence.

In the first of these short novels, Juanita fights the School Board, we meet Juanita Chavez, a young student in trouble at school because of a fight, the result of racism. Juanita has no idea how to react to her classmates jeers and her anger gets the best of her. Her family, in the background are migrant farm workers trying to build their dream in America; Juanita, or Johnny as her friends call her, will be the first in their family to graduate from high school. In the course of the novel, Juanita receives support from a counselor who helps her, and in the end, she successfully wins her fight to be reinstated. Of course this would happen in this fictional world; in the real world many students are lost for the lack of mentors and effective counseling.

In Maya's Divided World, we meet Maya, Juanita's pal who seemed to have it all in the first novel. Maya's parents are professionals - they have a nice home and all the comforts. The grass is always greener - Maya is so often jealous of Juanita's large family while Juanita wishes she were an only child like Maya with the nice clothes and possessions that make being a teen so much easier. All of this falls apart when Maya's parents decide to divorce. Maya is unable to ask why it happened, and her parents think she can't handle it. In fact, this truth-telling is the healing that is needed. When Maya asks her parents why and how the divorce came along and receives honest answers, she is able to move on. As before, a counselor is the catalyst that makes this possible.

In Tommy Stands Alone, Tommy must find a way to deal with his homosexuality. Knowing his own father won't accept him, Tommy decides to attempt suicide. Tommy's friends, who include Juanita and Maya from previous novels, must also deal with Tommy's being gay. Some are true to him while others are so wrapped up in what others say they are unable to stand with Tommy. Again, the counselor enters to help Tommy, hi family, and friends, victims of racial discrimination, to see how Tommy is also a victim of discrimination.

The last novel in this series, Rina's Family Secret, tells the story of Rina, whose father beats her mother daily. Rina is unable to understand how her mother can allow this to continue, and in fact, she leaves home to escape. Again, the kind counselor helps her see that her mother needs support to learn how not to accept these beatings, and at least Rina returns to her mother and siblings.

In every case, these youngsters act out their frustration and anger with alcohol, drugs, fights, and ditching school. In every case, the kind counselor, Ms. Martinez, arrives like Superman to save the days. Ms. Martinez has had experiences of her own - past divorces, gay relatives, and so on. She donates her time to help these troubled youth find their way to the future because she understands viscerally where they are coming from. But when it's all said and done, we realize we need to clone Ms. Martinez. While our school counselors and teacher work overtime and beyond, who in the school has the extra time to assist young people? In this fictional world, students find their way, and many youth would enjoy these novels for their page-turning quality. But something larger is beneath these printed pages - an awareness that youth need mentors to grow successfully and that mentors need patience. Even the strongest of families often can't provide the support needed, and often mentors from outside the family have more success.

Our young people are screaming their need for support and truth-telling. And more rules and police are not the answers. We need more mentors for our youth - people who accept them for who they are, people who reinforce their efforts, no matter how small, and people who help them believe in themselves and in their dreams. Schools, teachers, and even families can't do it alone.