George Trevino The 300 Kid

The 300 Kid
The phrase "300 kid" might be very foreign to you and everybody around you. In contrast in the halls of a Juvenile court it's a phrase that is heard to often."How could you blame him, he was a 300 kid". A "300 Kid" is one of those unintentionally dehumanizing verbal short hands so common in the juvenile system. So what is a "300 Kid" it's a synonym for a foster child, dependent child, a beaten, battered, and abused child. In the juvenile system young reoffending offenders are looked at as delinquents and should be locked up and thrown away the key. When in reality what we should do is examine there childhood and figure out at what point did things start going array. We should ask our self these questions? Was he abused? What kind of family did he get brought up with? Drug dealers? Law-abiding parents? These are just few of many questions that one judge or Probation Officer should ask himself before rendering that immense sentence "Transfer him to adult court."

George Trevino was what the state made him under the juvenile Court's guidance and protection- as a victim, not a victimizer- a bright, law- abiding A student with a love to write poetry. For years he was entrusted to neglectful, drug-addicted guardians. He was allowed to roam the streets, to experiment with drugs, to drop
out of school-all while under the supervision of the state. He then was transformed from a child in danger to a dangerous child. He himself said " I always wondered what it was that I had done wrong","but no one would ever tell me". He is what many of our youth is going threw. He grew up with no positive role models, no parents, nobody to tell him "No thats not good, don't do that", and nobody to tell him "Your doing a good job son". His mother was a gun shooting felon that served years in prison and eventually died in the penitentiary, and his father he never knew him he died of drug overdose before George turned two. And on Christmas Day, George's sister was killed by a drunken driver. So in the end could anybody really blame this so called "300 Kid" for choosing a life of crime.

pGeorge Trevino was not a murderer but he was going to be charged for murder because the court felt that he was a danger to society.
George's minimal involment in two previous cases one being a mere passenger in a stolen car, and the other an unarmed latecomer to the schoolyard fight- he was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and, car theft, both felonies. Later he took part in an Armed Robbery where one person was shot, the ringleader of the robbery and besides him no one was harmed. Instead George was looking at up to 29 years for this sentence. A bit unfair for a child that was bounced around from foster home to foster home, who really didn't no any
better.
With George's Life you could obviously apply many theories to his life but I chose to apply the Differential Assoc.Theory by Edwin Sutherland/Social control theory by Travis Hirschi and Mike Gottfredson. In George's situation he really didn't have any role models. His behavior was learned, he spent the majority of his life in the streets learning from his peer's, his so called "Friends",. All George wanted was to be loved someone to care for him and even in the book when he feels love for somebody he doesn't know how to react to it or even what it is. This boy was not always a bad child. When he was placed with the Reveles family he received something he had never received: kindness, support, acceptance. She treated him like a son, and thats exactly what he needed and wanted.
In George's Situation there is really exact plan that could fix him re-integrate him back to society. I feel first and most importantly he must be placed in a positive house hold where people care for him, free of drugs and violence. He was obviously a great student, when he was enrolled in school he earned A's and B's and was an excellent poet. Next I feel that he must undergo regular counseling and therapy instead of just saying he is a bad kid. This could be useful because this could help him talk about the tragic life he had to undergo and maybe use that to relinquish his past and start a new one. Also I feel that George in the end just needs people to recognize him as a child, a son, a poet and lastly as a delinquent