HELPED YOUTH ADVISE OTHERS

Lee spent his last Monday at Girardot Center -- his home for the past eight months -- sorting through possessions. Today, he's headed back to his hometown of Thayer.

The 16-year-old looks like a typical teen, with a surfer haircut and emerging whiskers.

But unlike other youths whose most pressing worries are whether they've got a date for the prom or the day-to-day state of their complexions, he spent a lot of time in court for stealing, assault and transporting guns across state lines.

"The assaults started when I was 10 years old, but I didn't start stealing until I was 14," Lee said. "I had a friend with his driver's license, so we would drive into Arkansas and steal handguns from a pawn shop, they sell them to the kids in Thayer for $100 to $400."

Girardot Center includes a group home for teen-agers with criminal convictions. About 24 kids, ages 12 to 17, live there. They all have stories similar to Lee's. The center provides a stable atmosphere, schooling and therapy.

Now the center, under the inspiration of group leader John Hill, is going a step further. Residents with success stories like Lee's are taking their message of actions and their consequences to kids in the community.

Although Lee and most of his peers are products of single-parent families and have received little direction, they readily admit they bear the blame for the choices they've made.

Kirvy, 14, landed in Girardot Center after a strong-armed robbery in Rolla. He was a gang member who sold drugs, drank heavily and "beat up people for no reason."

"My home life used to be berserk," Kirvy said. "Mom went to work at 10 at night and didn't come home until 8 or 9 the next morning. I have four sisters and three brothers, so people came to the house all the time."

He won't blame his mother for her work schedule, though.

"It was my choice to do what I did," he said. "The gang influence is all around my little brother and sister, and they don't get involved in it. They're strong enough."

Kirvy last spoke to students in the St. Andrew Lutheran Church's 7th grade confirmation class. Pastor Louis Launhardt said the boy made an impact on students in the class, especially when he implored the church group to avoid drugs and their devastating effects.

Hill, the group leader, intends to let schools know his kids are available.

On Wednesday, they will speak with participants in the Tracker program, a Southeast Missouri State University program that matches troubled kids with university students who can monitor them. Speaking dates with Southeast's criminal justice classes and Puxico Public Schools also are scheduled.

Hill said the residents at Girardot are just like the kids next door, except their value systems are very different and their lives lack structure.

The center provides that structure with a regimen of cooking, cleaning, learning and counseling. If someone has a problem, he is encouraged to approach a group leader or talk about it in group discussions.

"We talk about anger, stress, drugs and alcohol," Hill said. "Those meetings can get pretty intense."

The average stay is six months. When a resident goes home, he and his family are enrolled in counseling to keep the teen from going back to his old friends and habits.

That's something Lee, the teen-ager who will return home today, wants to avoid.

"I wrote down the names of all my friends and made check marks by the ones I can't be around," he said. "There were only three left."

Lee, who recently received his G.E.D., said he will stay out of trouble by enrolling in junior college in West Plains and then Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield, where he plans to pursue a marketing degree.