You'll end up in a 'body bag': Ga. judge talks about viral tough love talk
Two weeks ago, Judge Verda Colvin held up a white body bag and told a courtroom full of teens that they may soon end up in one. Now, people across the nation are listening.
The moment, captured in a now-viral video that’s spreading across the web, was part of the Bibb County Sheriff Office’s “Consider the Consequences” program, a Scared Straight-style program for at-risk teens in Macon, Ga.
“The way you’re going, you will go to jail or you will end up in this body bag,” Colvin, a Bibb County Superior Court judge, told the students. “One of two things. What do you want to do?”
Colvin underpinned a grim picture of the teens’ future with a hopeful message: You’re loved, you’re valuable, and you can change your path.
Eight minutes later, officers were passing out tissues for students. One of them, unbeknownst to Colvin, filmed the talk and posted it to the sheriff’s office’s Facebook page.
“We forget that kids need a real dose of the truth, lovingly” Colvin, 50, told USA TODAY.
“Do I come hard? Yeah, I come hard," she said. "It’s an intimate setting, and that’s why I never expected it to be recorded.”
Covin spoke with us about her newfound Internet fame and the philosophy behind the tough love she brings to the courtroom.
USA TODAY: So you didn't know your talk with these kids was being filmed?
Colvin: I came in from one of my court hearings on April 1, and someone said to me, "Judge you're all over Facebook." Because I don’t do social media. At all. The only reason I have a Facebook page is because I’m up for election this year. Had I known, I honestly would have told them "No, you can’t record me."
Why's that?
A lot of kids think that about adults—that it’s about how we look to the world. But I don’t care about how I look to the world; I just want to reach them. Kids only resonate with us when we’re authentic with them and when they feel like we care when they get it.
It looks like the kids in the video got it. Do you often give this same speech?
It's always from the hip. But in the video, I felt like I needed to go up a notch. Every month, the ages of kids in the program were getting younger, and the things kids were doing were out of the box. How do you steal your parents’ car? Steal their credit cards? But I’m always intense, always passionate.
In the video, you reference racial profiling and other distinct challenges some of these kids might face. How do you speak to those hurdles while convincing teens to overcome them?
All through life, as a minority or as a woman, there's been things you can point to to convince you of what you possibly can and can't do. I have to acknowledge what they feel. How can you not mention that? But that’s not enough to stop you from what you're trying to do. It’s like Monopoly. Don’t land in jail so you don’t go to jail. If you know the game, don’t play the game.
Thanks for your time. Any parting thoughts?
Our society will fall or rise on what we do to make young people all they can be. So I implore everyone: Pour into a child.
Follow @JoshHafner on Twitter.