I continue to be baffled...

Gary recently returned from a 4-day trip to Maui to figure out an on-going problem with the 4-H Livestock council there. Gary and I debriefed this afternoon, and he revealed some information that I find absolutely baffling...

The issues with the Livestock Council on Maui have been going on for years, in fact, the main people involved with these issues are the reason our county agent up-and-quit this past summer. Gary had been hearing all sorts of complaints from the youth involved in the program (saying that the adults were acting childish, and making them not want to be in the program anymore), and county extension officials (saying that this issue was too much to deal with so if Gary couldn't resolve it soon he was going to cut the program in the county).

Gary traveled over to Maui and had 3 days of intense individual and group conversations with everyone involved, and had each person indicate which individuals they thought were the source of the issues. An overwhelming majority narrowed the issues down to four adults who have had vendettas against each other for decades. The most appalling fact about these individuals and the issues is that they started penalizing youth with learning disabilities or preventing them from participating in the program to get back at each other. Not only were they subjecting the youth to their personal issues and using them as pawns in their "game," but they were unethically and wrongfully treating youth with learning disabilities.

When Gary told me this I was so shocked that it made me sick. There are some serious issues here, and something needs to be done to protect people - such as the youth with learning disabilities, and youth in general - from vindictiveness of a few. As an leaders of 4-H in this community it is our job to make sure that all youth involved in the program have a safe and educational environment to grow.

Gary wound up dissolving the Livestock Council in Maui county, and developing a Youth Council to run the program with 1-2 adult supervisors, selected by the youth, but with Extension & CTAHR (College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources) veto power (in case the youth select one of the individuals that were originally causing all the issues). The reasoning for this clause was to prevent a youth not being allowed to be involved with the youth council because of their relation to one of the original adults.