FIGHTING A WAR 'IN OUR LIVING ROOMS'

Parents, Counselors And Others Join Discussion On Kids' Excessive Partying

San Luis Obispo -- A parent quoted from an Oscar-winning film about the
drug war to describe the local battle, during a panel discussion Monday on
drug use by local teens.

"'We're fighting this war in our own living rooms,'" said Lori La Vine,
borrowing a line from "Traffic."

La Vine is co-chair of the Tiger Parent Network, a group of San Luis Obispo
High School parents that formed two years ago to address excessive teen
partying. The group hosted a panel at the school Monday that featured local
people who work with teens and an audience of a little more than 50 people.

Assistant principal Will Jones showed the audience some statistics from the
recent county survey. More than two-thirds of the 11th-grade students
responding said they had used alcohol or other drugs.

Coupled with that was a seemingly contradictory statistic: Nearly 80
percent saw such behavior as harmful.

"What's up with that?" said Karen Rogers, a counselor with the county's
Drug and Alcohol Services who works with students at the school. "That's a
function of denial. They do perceive harm, but 'it's not me.'"

John Bledsoe, a narcotics officer with the San Luis Obispo Police
Department, said he arrested two teens last week selling marijuana on the
corner of Chorro and Pacific. He said they were San Luis Obispo residents,
but were not students at the high school.

"The majority of the problems in kids I see is in the way they were brought
up," Bledsoe said, sounding an oft-repeated note Monday about parental
responsibility.

However, the evening was not a finger-pointing festival at the expense of
parents.

"In spite of the dreary news, there is hope," Rogers said. "There is
treatment."

Mary Helt, program coordinator of the Parent Project, said her job is to
give parents the tools they need to be able to tell their troubled child,
"'Because I love you, I'm going to provide a structured, discipline program
for you.'"

The project is a collaborative countywide program that offers classes on
raising children.

Two local parents, Patty and Robbie Robbins, said they took a Parent
Project class, but not until their son was already in trouble. They shared
how they had to put their son in a residential drug treatment facility to
help him with his drug problem.

"The biggest mistake we made was getting involved later, rather than
earlier," Robbie Robbins said.

For more information about Parent Project, contact Helt at 549-6772.
Parenting classes are scheduled later this month in every region of the county.

The audience also heard some advice from teens, passed along by the panel
members.

"They want you involved ... and most of all, they want you to care," said
Karen Aydelott, of the YMCA and the Mayor's Youth Task Force.

Frank Warren, director of Friday Night Live, also had a message from teens.
His group is dedicated to increasing the number of students who don't use
alcohol or other drugs, and regularly provides activities for high school
and middle school students.

Students at the high school recently shared a strategy to attract more
teens to a healthy lifestyle: "'We should make it more cool and accepted
... and recognize people for just being good people."

In response to a question from the audience about the influence of
television and movies on their lives and choices, Warren said, "Young
people consistently say it doesn't matter as much as what Mom or Dad does."