Teen Scene Helps Families ‘Connect, Communicate and Cope’

Conference tries to bring parents, children closer together

By Josh Premako/Signal Staff Writer

Jessee Bayze, 16, a junior at Canyon High School, and her mom, Felisa Bayze, listen to Crudele’s motivational speech.

Communication was the theme this week when hundreds of local parents and teens attended Santa Clarita’s fifth annual Teen Scene Unplugged.

"It’s OK to cry, it’s OK to hurt (and) it’s OK to ask for help,” keynote speaker John Crudele told an audience of more than 500 Wednesday at the Hyatt Valencia.

“The walls you put up to keep other people out,” he said, “are the same walls that keep you in.”

Teen Scene is organized by the city’s Blue Ribbon Task Force to bring parents and their teens together in an environment where discussions of youth issues are encouraged. Topics discussed in the past have included drug and alcohol abuse, teen preg­nancy and gang-related issues.

The lobby of the hotel’s conference center was packed with booths and information from local youth outreach groups including the Blue Ribbon Task Force, Safe Rides, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and others.

The overarching theme for Wednesday’s event was “Connect, Communicate and Cope During the Teenage Years,” with Crudele—a Minneapolis-based youth motivational speaker—calling on parents and teens to pursue and remain open to genuine communication.

The keynote speaker for the fifth annual Teen Scene Unplugged John Crudele speaks to an audience, helping the parents and their children learn to “connect, communicate and cope during the teenage years,” which was the evening’s theme.

“We don’t fix kids,” he told parents. “We fix cats and dogs. Children spell ‘love’ ‘T-I-M-E.’”

Turning his attention to the high-schoolers in attendance, Crudele exhorted them, “Young people, we believe in you.”

“Don’t tell me what you’re not, tell me who you are and what you want to become,” he said.

Crudele, 46, said his father’s suicide when Crudele was 15 thrust him into adulthood.

“Losing my dad and being the oldest (of four children) put me in a parental role,” he said.

He has been speaking “from a little light inside” for 22 years, and said that time has made him bold­er in his delivery.

“Approach the people you have left in your life,” Crudele said in his closing remarks, prior to a question-and-answer ses­sion. “I’ve said ‘I love you’ to my father more times since he died.”

Darren Brewster, a junior at Hart High School, said he has a good relationship with his parents but hopes Crudele’s message inspired a little more trust.

“Teens don’t just always go out to get messed up,” he said.

A father of three, Rodrigo Fuenes of Castaic said the seminar gave him “tools to work with.” Fuentes said he wants his children to understand “you’re there for them, (and) you don’t want them to make the same mistakes (you did).”

Crudele left teens with a bit of simple wisdom, saying, “Maybe the answer you’re looking for is sitting beside you.”

 

(Left) The keynote speaker for the fifth annual Teen Scene Unplugged John Crudele speaks to an audience, helping parents and their children learn to “connect, communicate and cope during the teenage years,” which was the evening’s theme.