SURVEY RESULTS ARE FROM STUDENT RESPONSES TO THE STATEWIDE 2006 HEALTHY YOUTH SURVEY.

Underage drinking focus of meeting

By Matt Nagle

By matt nagle

Staff Writer

Endeavour Intermediate School PTA and the Surprise Lake Middle School (SLMS) Counseling Department are teaming up to host a town hall meeting on underage drinking April 3 focusing on community, parents and students in grades 4-12. Similar town hall meetings are being held across the state and nation that same day as part of a national week of action March 31 through April 4 to help keep youth alcohol free.

Anyone who wants to prevent underage drinking is invited to attend the April 3 event, which will be held in the SLMS cafeteria 7-8:30 p.m. SLMS counselor Tina Cook said the main goal is to address how local communities in Fife, Milton and Edgewood can work together as a whole to help young people stay away from alcohol. “We really want community people to join us because (alcohol consumption) is not happening in the school building but outside of it,” she said.

A well-rounded panel of speakers will address the multiple issues that come into play when children drink. Slated to speak are Courtney Cleveland, an 18-year-old in recovery; Fife High School graduate Rich Morrow, whose daughter, Stacy, died in the crash involving Frederick Russell, the former Washington State University student convicted of killing three fellow WSU students and injuring three others in a drunk driving crash in 2001; and Julia Joyce, treatment director with Lakeside-Milam Recovery Center in Puyallup. Representatives from law enforcement and emergency room personnel will also be speaking. Renee Tinder, who works in suicide prevention and issues of underage drinking, will be moderating. The panel will take questions from the audience.

Informational tables will provide brochures and contact information. Students with Columbia Junior High’s substance abuse prevention team Prevention Activities Will Succeed (PAWS) will be in attendance and Fife High School’s SADD chapter (Students Against Destructive Decisions) will perform a skit.

Marjorie Dickson with Endeavour PTA noted that it’s been a real community effort so far in organizing the town hall meeting. A steering committee was formed that brought together Fife School Board members, Fife Municipal Court Judge Kevin Ringus, police chiefs of Edgewood, Milton and Fife, local Kiwanis chapters, the Fife Regional Chamber of Commerce, Milton Mayor Katrina Asay and Fife Mayor Barry Johnson, among others. The two mayors will be making an official proclamation for the day on April 3.

“It’s been wonderful seeing all the (police) chiefs coordinating and coming up with suggestions for us,” Dickson said, particularly in Fife where parties held in local hotels pose problems specific to that community and offer an open invitation for teenagers to binge drink. “That is very problematic,” Dickson noted, especially given Fife’s continued booming growth.

Teens drinking at home is another area of concern. “One of the most important messages law enforcement wants to get across is consequences to parents for hosting parties where drinking is taking place,” Dickson said. “Some say, ‘If my kid is going to drink I want him to do it at home – that they’re going to do it anyway so they might as well do it here.’ It’s a false outlook to let them drink at home. That’s one of the goals [of the town hall meeting], to get that out there.

“Alcohol does not need to be a rite of passage.”

Cook said that at the town hall, parents can learn some of the basic skills in communicating with their children about issues involving alcohol. It’s important for parents to establish a concrete plan for what their child should do when out with friends and has too much to drink. “If they’re in a bad situation, what is their plan? They need to be able to call their parents at home and deal with all the other ‘stuff’ later,” Cook advised, referring to the parent/child conflicts that are bound to erupt in this situation. “That’s what I did with my son. I wanted him to just call me. I didn’t care if it was three in the morning.”

Parents must be involved, Cook said. “Even though their kids are in their teen years and parents start feeling like they don’t have much influence, they really do.”

While parents face certain consequences for their child’s actions when it comes to drinking, so do the children. According to statistics, alcohol kills more youth than tobacco and illicit drugs combined. Regular alcohol use damages a young person’s vocabulary and memory recall. Minors convicted of possession or DUI can be barred from playing school sports, getting a driver’s license and receiving financial aid for college.

“We’re talking about life-changing decisions at a very young age that could affect their ability to go to college,” Dickson said. “A large component of (the town hall meeting) is simply to get the dialog going about this and to get some other ideas out there.”

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