Mr. Alen K. Bell

There was one last chance for her: an education program set up for delinquent kids by Alen Bell.He was a probation officer at Lane County, Oregon, who tried to help juvenile delinquents before they were actually sent to jail - and who never gave up on a child.

I was then running a neuro-developmental program for him.When they first brought her to me to be given a functional neurological screening, she had refused to let me pull up her sleeves, which was necessary for one of the tests.Now I knew the reason.What testing she did allow me to do showed her to be very poorly coordinated.Her entire profile was that of a person with a retained Moro reflex.When I made a copy of the "typical behavior profile" of the child with a retained Moro reflex. and showed this to her mother, the woman said: "That,s my girl, from early on!"Such children are terribly sensitive to almost every loud noise, bright light, and smells.They tend to have motion sickness and tire quickly under fluorescent lights.She showed all the behavior problems that are the result of living in a world that is so inhospitable to them.

At first she would not work with me, though she agreed to do some of the exercises at home and faithfully came to the academic program that was offered at the Juvenile Education Center.The tutors there told me that she wrote beautiful poetry , was very smart, but they were very afraid that she was suicidal.What clued them to that, was that, no matter what the weather was, wind, rain or even snow Janet came without a coat, or even a sweater.Finally with the urging of one of her tutors, and only when the tutor agreed to come along, did she let me to actually work with her five days of the week, as we did with the other teenagers.

Now that I had seen her bleeding arms, it made sense that she never wore a coat.The same lack of sensation in her arms, also gave her little differentiation between hot or cold.Just as her pupils did not react to light when I shone a light into them it was a sign of some damage or lack of development in the brainstem.

Alen Bell, M.S. who was a juvenile counselor at the Lane County Department of Youth Services for twenty-seven years.He has a Master in Teaching degree from the University of Oregon as well as an Oregon Secondary Schools teaching certificate.He started the Lane County Department of Youth Services Education Center and coordinated it until May 1997.He was the 1997 recipient of the Eugene Education Association Golden Apple Community Volunteer award for his work with delinquent youth.Mr. Bell served on the Lane County Sheriff's Office Citizen's Advisory Committee from February of 1999 to June of 2000.

Contact Information:Alen BellWork Phone: 1-541-914-2525

ALEN K. BELL
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Alen Bell was born in Fallon, Nevada, where helived ona dairy farm andattended school until Christmas of his freshman high school year.In 1954 the family moved to the State ofWashington where he again lived on a dairy farm.He attended BethelHigh Schoolin Graham, Washington.In 1955 he wasawarded a prize purebred heifer calf by the Parkland Kiwanis Club.Hegraduatedfrom Bethel in 1958.

Collegeeducation.He attended Bible Standard College in Eugene,Oregon, from 1960 to 1963.He thentransferred to the University of Oregon in Eugene.In 1966 Alen graduated from the University ofOregon and obtained a Bachelor's Degree and an Oregon SecondaryTeachingCertificate.In 1968 he received aMasters Degree from the University of Oregon.

Occupation.In August of1968, he went to work for theKlamath County Juvenile Department where he remained until April of1971.In May of 1971, he went to work atthe LaneCounty Juvenile Department, later changed to be called the Lane CountyDepartment of Youth Services, where he remained until he retired on January1, 1998.

From1972 to 1985 he worked primarily in the rural areas acting as intakescreener,court worker and probation officer.Duringthe later part of the 1980s while workingwith Springfield youth, he began torecognize that something must be done to help teens who simply couldnotsucceed in school.He helped themdevelop their basic learning skills.Hethen, in 1991, started the Department of Youth Services EducationCenter, whichhe coordinated and enlarged until May of 1997.

Duringthis period of time he found that many of the youth he served could notbenefitsignificantly from any cognitive based learning approach.

These would have been the throw-away children, except for Alen Bell, their probation officer, who simply would not give up on them.