Order them home at night. Search them in the classroom. Lock them up. Lock their parents up. Buy their guns.
In Florida, the increasing number of violent crimes committed by youths has generated a slew of drastic proposals. Critics warn "the state of fear" could be transformed into a state of siege for teens; others see the changes as vital."People realize that extreme measures are needed to get back control," said Dade County Commissioner James Burke, who last week gained initial passage of a teen curfew for the Miami area.
Burke's crusade became personal last month when he and his wife were held up by an armed teen who stole their car.
Burke also proposed neighborhood patrols by non-police county employees and prosecuting parents of repeat curfew violators. He said the main goal of the curfew, set for a final vote Jan. 18, is to force parents to take responsibility for their children.
Not everyone buys the idea.
"They don't want to give us a job or give us something to do, and now they're going to take our rights away," said high school student Nikado Jean-Pierre.
John Thomas, 16, said: "All it's going to do is cause more people to get locked up."
The proposed Dade curfew is 11 p.m. weeknights and midnight on weekends for youths under 16, with exceptions for those on the way to or from work, school, church and civic events.
In Tampa, the City Council also is considering a curfew, and Attorney General Bob Butterworth has proposed one for the entire state.
Civil libertarians warn that basic freedoms are getting trampled.
"You don't take away the rights of an entire group of people," said Robyn Blumner, state director of the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU opposes curfews on constitutional grounds, and Blumner warned that enforcers will likely target young blacks.
The state's soaring juvenile crime was spotlighted in October when teens were arrested in the slayings of two tourists. One of the suspects is 13 and already has a lengthy criminal record.
"It is the juvenile crime that's exploding," U.S. Sen. Connie Mack, R-Fla., said last week after discussing crime with students at Citrus Grove Middle School.
The students had been searched with metal detectors as part of a program of random weapons searches in Dade County schools.
Last month, lawmakers banned gun sales to teens or possession except for hunting and target shooting and allowed youths as young as 14 to be tried as adults for certain crimes.
Community groups are involved as well.
Jacksonville's Black Issues Forum plans to expand its gun buy-back program to the entire state, paying teens $25 per workable gun. In Broward County, churches are "adopting" young criminals, hoping to reform them.
"We want to say to those young people that you are our children, and we don't intend to let you go unchallenged," said Bob Ingram, who helped organize the gun buy-back program. "We intend to retake our community."
Florida's crime has a high profile mainly because of the threat posed to its $31 billion-a-year tourism industry.