Pubdate: Thu, 11 May 2006
Source: Petersburg Pilot (AK)
Copyright: 2006 Petersburg Pilot
Contact:  http://www.petersburgpilot.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4161
Author: Mike Tozzo
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

GAFFNEY PRESENTS IDEAS TO COMMUNITY AND SCHOOL BOARD ON SUBSTANCE ABUSE

The Petersburg School District has been dealing with drug and alcohol abuse 
by students for a number of years. Last Thursday night Suzie Gaffney, 
member of the Alaska Association of School Boards, met with members of the 
community and School Board to discuss some of the issues surrounding 
students in the schools.

Some of the goals of Thursday night's meeting were to create some ground 
rules, review and respond to several fact sheets on youth drug and alcohol 
abuse, examine viewpoints around these issues and decide on some next steps 
for further dialogue and action.

One of the things Gaffney said really stuck out to her but was not 
mentioned at the meeting was how readily available drugs and alcohol are to 
the students. "You don't have to go someplace to get it," said Gaffney. 
According to a client survey done in 2004 by Petersburg Mental Health, 65% 
of teens reported knowing friends who use substances.

Gaffney said studies show that parental attitudes are the number one 
determinant for substance abuse. "If a parent says 'oh I had a little weed 
when I was a kid,' those kids are more likely to use," said Gaffney. The 
second reason for use among teens is their peers accept it. "What we find 
more and more is substance abuse is not just accepted by one little group 
anymore but by the whole basketball team or soccer team and that is a 
national finding," said Gaffney.

The law is the third reason for usage among teens. "You can't drink until 
the age of 21 but how many people does that stop?" said Gaffney. The law 
doesn't really have that much effect on young kids today.

"I think that when you can get a group of people that are intentional and 
enough people get together, things can get done," said Gaffney. One of the 
big things that Gaffney said she hears from kids today is that adults are 
not consistent today. "I have kids tell me that one teacher will reprimand 
them for something and another will not say anything for doing the same 
act," said Gaffney.

One of the recurring themes at the meeting was that families play or should 
play a larger role in educating and preventing drug use among their teens. 
According to a hand out Debbie Downs, from on campus suspension (OCS), says 
that about 90% of referrals are related to substance abuse, yet there are 
very few families that follow through with the recommendation of substance 
abuse.

Numbers from a 2004 youth client survey show that 52% of PMH clients report 
that one of their parents was or is a heavy drinker/user. Kim Kilkenny of 
PMH pointed out that there are education programs in the schools but that 
simply telling adolescents not to do drugs doesn't work. "The just say no 
program does not work with adolescents, their concept of wrong is not 
computing, they don't think what they're doing is wrong," said Kilkenny.

Betty Barr, PMH counselor said, "They need real information about what 
actually happens and what happens to their thought processes." One of the 
trends pointed out by members of the community is that in almost every 
category in surveys on substance abuse Petersburg ranks higher than the 
state averages.

Community members pointed out that alcohol use is something that's very 
socially acceptable in the community and easily seen by Petersburg's teens. 
"You just have to be part of Little Norway festivities downtown, Fourth of 
July and we model very well as a community when we have fun and what needs 
to be present in many cases," said Barr.

"These kinds of things are not just a problem in Petersburg, I do community 
engagement meetings all across Alaska," said Gaffney. Attitudes about many 
substances are different in today's society. "When I was growing up 
everybody smoked, now smoking is banned in public places all across the 
nation," said Gaffney.

Kilkenny said she wrote a grant last year and Petersburg was the only town 
of this size to receive the grant. "What the grant does is allow for Betty 
to go into the schools and teach a risk reduction program to the eighth 
graders, it teaches real information in a non-threatening way," said 
Kilkenny. "Teenagers want to be able to come to their own conclusions so 
rather than me telling them "don't use drugs" we tell them this is what's 
considered low risk and this is what's considered high risk."

The community and school board presented many ideas to Gaffney who will be 
working on ways to combat and prevent alcohol and drug abuse in the 
schools. "This is not something that can happen in a two and a half hour 
meeting," said Gaffney. "It takes time."
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