NEW TEMPTATIONS: CURIOSITY AND DESIRE TO FIT IN COLLIDE WITH PRESSURES
OF ALCOHOL AND DRUGS

This is the sixth report in a yearlong series in which the Star-Telegram
explores freshman year, often a pivotal time for many high school students,
as seen through the eyes of area freshmen.

Even Makaylee Walker, an articulate, studious ninth-grader from Hurst,
hesitates before she answers the question: "Will you ever do drugs?"

"Maybe," she said. "Just to try it once to see."

For Walker, it is a matter of curiosity. Brandy Adair, 17, followed her
curiosity and learned the hard way where drugs can lead. She tried
marijuana for the first time as a freshman, only to wind up taking 30 to 40
prescription pills a day and flunking ninth grade.

Freshmen say they face unrelenting pressure to try drugs and alcohol, which
are easily accessible to most of them. At least 70 percent of ninth-graders
will drink alcohol this year, and 35 percent will try drugs, according to
the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse.

Inquisitive, rebellious and wanting to fit in, freshmen are at a crucial
age for learning to set limits. They are not the preteens who finished Drug
Abuse Resistance Education classes confident that they would never fall
victim to drugs.

As Walker said, "We did the Just Say No program. It was like, `I'm not
going to touch that stuff.' But everybody said that, and not everybody kept
the promise."

In most cases, youngsters who dabble in drugs and alcohol quickly learn
that that road is not for them, said Janie Casey, coordinator for guidance
and counseling for Keller school district. For others, it takes years, she
said.

Students who avoid alcohol and drugs tend to be active in extracurricular
activities and to have parents who are highly involved, Casey said. Those
who don't avoid alcohol and drugs often have family problems or hang out
with the wrong crowd, she said. Even breaking up with a boyfriend or a
girlfriend can lead to substance abuse.

"It is a time of real uncertainty in their lives," Casey said. "Most of
all, it is an identity issue, trying very hard to find where they are in
the scheme of things, or else it is an escape from something else going on."

School counselors said that for most freshmen, the adjustment to high
school -- the heavy course load, the exposure to older students and the
desire to fit in -- becomes a major excuse to try alcohol and drugs.

Freshmen find themselves submerged in a new world, where upperclassmen talk
about sex, keg parties and drugs.

The message some freshmen absorb: This is how it is done. This is what
older teen-agers do. This is fun.

Then one day, they find themselves where a joint is being passed around or
the beer is flowing freely.

All their lives, they have been drilled on how to handle it, but somehow,
the lessons fade and that curiosity kicks in.

Other factors come into play.

"I said, `I don't know what my parents would say if I came home stoned.'
They said, `Just tell them you're staying here,' " said a Northwest High
School freshman, who asked that his name not be used.

Add one to the statistics.

Before she smoked her first joint, Hurst Junior High School freshman
Virginia Gonzales said she mainly worried about whether she would act
stupid or goofy.

She also worried about being safe.

"I didn't want to end up like in a different state -- raped and dead," she
said. "You really got to watch out for that stuff."

But with reassurance from persuasive friends, Gonzales' decision made her
one of a growing number of freshmen trying drugs for the first time.

Those kinds of friends are plentiful in high school hallways, students said.

"A lot of guys pressured me," said Bracken Spencer, a Carroll High School
junior. "Come on, it's fun," teens told him about having a few drinks after
school or before a school event.

Spencer kept turning them down, and eventually they stopped asking.

But many freshmen want to fit in too badly, said a Carroll senior, who
asked that her name not be used.

"You know it's wrong, but I don't think you know who you are," said the
girl, who drank alcohol as a freshman. "It's not that it's hard to say `no'
to them, it's that it's hard to say `no' to yourself."

Most freshman are not self-confident, said Nicole Heldoorn, 17, a Carroll
High School junior who said she felt pressure to make a name for herself.

"Going to parties was a way to do that," she said. "You want them to accept
you, and you want to seem cool."

Struggling to make the transition from eighth grade to high school,
freshmen may see experimenting with alcohol and drugs as rites of passage,
a way to re-create their identities and to leave their pasts behind,
experts said.

"They are leaving that safe cocoon of middle school and entering into a
whole new and enticing world. There are a lot of questions," said Casey,
the Keller district counseling coordinator. "Both culturally and
developmentally, these kids get a double whammy their first year of high
school. They're so vulnerable."

Research indicates that freshmen, at ages 14 and 15, are not mentally or
physically prepared to cope with alcohol and drugs. Their brains are still
building up defense mechanisms and their hormones are changing, said Debbie
Steele, student assistance coordinator for the Keller district.

In some cases, addiction to alcohol or drugs -- a process than can take
years for an adult -- may take only weeks, even days, for a freshman. No
one knows how they will react or whether they are genetically prone to
addiction, Steele said.

"The message is that it's an invisible line between experimenting and
addiction. So their choices may make a world of difference," she said.

Often, a teen's decision-making ability is immature and can be easily
influenced by mixed messages from media and parents.

Casey said alcohol and drugs are so embedded in the culture, especially
movies and music, that they remain popular despite school and government
programs. And they are easily accessible.

Students said they obtain alcohol by stealing it from their parents' liquor
cabinets, by having adults buy it for them at convenience stores and
supermarkets and, in some instances, by buying it themselves.

Inhalants can be found under the kitchen sink. Prescription pills such as
Coricidin, a cold medication, and Vicodin, a painkiller, are sold at
weekend parties and in school cafeterias. And most freshmen can figure out
how to buy marijuana and ecstasy.

For Adair, a junior at New Direction Learning Center, the alternative high
school for the Keller district, a first experience with drugs led her down
a destructive path and ultimately to drug rehabilitation.

Adair said she tried marijuana with a small group of friends, which
included a few popular male upperclassmen. That early encounter became a
monthly habit, along with drinking and skipping classes.

Before Adair knew it, her grades began dropping and her self-esteem began
sinking. The appeal of drugs became too strong for her to keep her life
straight. She got hooked on prescription pills and drank occasionally. Her
freshman year remains a blur.

"In middle school, your world is smaller, much more innocent I guess,"
Adair said. "But in high school, your world becomes much bigger and you get
exposed to a lot more things. Drugs and drinking are all over the place."

It takes a powerful message from parents to withstand all the temptations,
said Kerry Jones, a counselor at Northwest High School.

"It all goes back to the home," he said. "It always does. It all revolves
around the home environment."

Parents must be involved with their children, participate in their
schooling and extracurricular activities, and be available for discussions
about alcohol and drugs, Jones said.

"Some kids aren't hearing any messages from home, and that's not good," he
said.

Schools continue to play a role, urging students to resist. Most districts
in Tarrant County offer drug awareness education such as D.A.R.E. or
privately sponsored programs.

Some have started character and virtue programs that incorporate anti-drug
messages. Districts also have high school staff members who are specially
trained in drug counseling.

In Northeast Tarrant districts, some high schools separate freshmen from
older students to help shelter them from the influence of of alcohol and
drugs. Freshmen take a health class in which the negative effects are
discussed, officials said.

But Northwest High School freshman Kati Krzystyniak said she is skeptical
about the effectiveness, even relevancy, of most school-sponsored anti-drug
programs.

"Everyone tells you it's really bad, but most of them have never done it,"
she said. "That just leaves a really big gap."

And though Krzystyniak said she doubts that she will ever try drugs, she
does not rule it out. She said she will never drink.

"I think it's gross," Krzystyniak said. "Why would you want to do that to
yourself? Most of them just end up throwing up all over the place."

Even with all the efforts to steer teens clear of alcohol and drugs, there
may be no way to stop some students from experimenting.

"At this age, these adolescents and teen-agers are just trying and learning
new things," Jones said. "It's not just drugs. It's not just sex. It's
everything in their lives."

The pressures of ninth grade may have proven too much for Adam Prado, who
said he encountered alcohol and drugs at Keller High School.

The 16-year-old freshman, already bored with high school and struggling to
adjust, fell in with the wrong crowd. Within weeks, the temptations that he
promised his parents he would avoid were staring him in the face.

"For a lot of people, the alcohol and drugs are a way to be accepted by
upperclassmen, to get attention," Prado said. "For me, it was just there."

Four months ago, Prado was suspended from school after being caught with
marijuana in one of his pockets. He said he was holding the marijuana for a
friend and forgot that it was there.

Nevertheless, Prado was led out of Keller High School in handcuffs and
taken to a detention center. Now he attends a Fort Worth alternative
school, where he takes his classes and goes to drug rehabilitation four
nights a week. He is now drug-free, he said.

"I struggled with it because it was always there. It's still there, still
around, but I know it's nothing but trouble for me," he said.

Prado said he may return to Keller High School next fall but would rather
attend New Direction Learning Center so he can "avoid all the distractions
in high school."

Walker, the freshman from Hurst, said getting hooked on alcohol or drugs
appears unlikely for her. She is too smart, she said. And besides, she
said, she does not have to do drugs to feel accepted.

"I don't need anybody to make me feel cool," she said. "You don't need
anything but your own self-confidence to feel cool."

Still, after that self-assured answer, Walker hesitated again when asked
about the chance that she will do drugs.

The pressures -- and the curiosity -- are still there.

Staff writer Monica Mendoza contributed to this report.