Good kids; Bad kids

I was sitting here watching beyond scared straight. The kids on here really do need help and in many cases, they do not go into the family background and dynamics, even though that most likely has a lot to do with their behavior.

And it got me to thinking..
When we moved here to Cali, I saw an ad at a school for this community action program for young adults that seemed like a good place for Ciarin to go as she found what it was she wanted to do. She is 18, we are on the broke level and we were now residents, and that spelled out the criteria for qualification. We did all the paperwork and Cees was accepted.. or so we thought.
We went back 6 different times attempting to get her qualified. What we were lacking was a traumatic event such as homelessness, abuse, police contact, among other pitfalls that teens experience, and it struck me that here we were trying to get her into a positive active community program that my tax dollars pay for but simply by virtue of her being a GOOD kid, there was nothing available to her?
I find that hard to digest. Shouldn't there be equal opportunity for all kids? Because she followed all the rules and did the right thing, yet was at a crossroads with where she was headed after HS, was she doomed to just sit home or get a part time job because all of the community and government programs were reserved for those with 'issues'?
Some say that's good because why would I want her to be in the danger of being influenced by these types. I say how about those kids may well be influenced by HER and her well developed sense of right and wrong and steering clear of the dangers that can befall them. I say maybe by allowing these so called 'good' kids to interact and participate in these programs, maybe we are giving them a better chance at success. Don't we see it everyday when prisoners grouped together pick up each others traits? Let's try a different approach and mix a little of the different element in there and I am so confident in my child's abilities and self control that I am willing to allow her to be the guinea pig!
Needless to say, she was finally accepted after we played up an incident she had in HS where a bunch of girls tried to jump her. It finally cleared and she was allowed into the program, BUT alas, she had already made a decision on her future and is now on her way in her next step in achieving her goals, but I cannot help but wonder, had she not been so discouraged, so singled out and been ostracized for doing the RIGHT thing throughout her teenage years, maybe she would have made a difference in a few of these troubled kids lives... but hey.. we will never know.
~Stacey