ALTERNATIVE TO SUSPENSION CLASS HELPS BOND STUDENTS, PARENTS

Program Helps Kids Punished For Drug Or Alcohol Abuse Find Voice,
Support With Adults

Jane Smithson became annoyed and angry with herself when her daughter
had to go to the emergency room after eating a marijuana brownie at
her high school prom.

After all, Smithson was a criminal defense lawyer who defended kids
her daughter's age. How could she be so unaware of what was going on
in her own child's life?

But she found she was not alone after meeting other parents in
similar situations at the Alternative to Suspension class, a program
that allows students in the Sequoia Union High School District who
have been punished for drug or alcohol use or aggressive behavior to
reduce their suspension from five days to three.

Through the class, Smithson and her daughter were taught about the
dangers and symptoms of drug and alcohol use, as well as how parents
and teens can communicate better with each other.

"I was able to sit in a room with my daughter and talk about this
problem with out arguing about it," said Smithson, who took the course
in 2005, when her daughter was a junior in high school.

The program, established by Redwood High School counselor Kiki
Gregoriante about four years ago, has been so successful in the
Sequoia district, Gregoriante hopes to expand it into other high
school districts in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. She plans to
bring proposals to a number of local districts asking them to start
up the Alternative to Suspension class.

In the program, the suspended student and their parents or guardians
attend two three-hour night courses taught by counselors.

In the drug and alcohol class, some of the things covered include
signs of dependency, risks of substance abuse and effects on the
body, messages teens receive in the media about drugs and alcohol,
and characteristics of healthy families. The anger-management course
studies such things as communication skills and self-control.

Both classes give parents and kids a confidential setting to discuss
their problems and learn how to improve their relationships,
Gregoriante said.

"For the first time ever, we find that the parents get to know their
kids and the kids get to know their parents," she said.

Gregoriante also wants to expand another program she helps run at
Redwood High called the Safe Place. The Safe Place allows troubled
students at the school to learn about goal-setting, boosting their
self-esteem, managing anger, stress management and dealing with
substance abuse and domestic violence.

Sequoia contracts with Gregoriante's company, DK & Associates
Counseling Services, for roughly $38,000 per year for her and her
staff to run the Alternative to Suspension program.

While the class may not completely change students' lives,
Gregoriante believes it's a starting point.

"They realize they're not alone," she said. "It gives them a wake-up
call. It gives them a second chance to change their behavior."

Floyd Burrell, one of the counselors for the class, said he's seen a
lot of positive changes in the parents and students who go through
the program.

Just recently, at a local gas station, he ran into a parent who went
through the program. She honked her horn as he walked by, because she
wanted to tell him how much he had changed her family's life.

"She said it was the best experience of her life, and her daughter
stopped using drugs and is now on her way to college," Burrell said.

Parents, he said, can avoid going through a program like this if they
just get more involved in their teen's life. Often, Burrell said,
parents will become less engaged in their kids' lives as they get
older. But, he said, they should be doing just the opposite.

As for Smithson, her daughter, now 18, is doing well and has just
finished her first semester at the University of Colorado.

While she knows her daughter will be faced with drug and alcohol use
in college, Smithson hopes she will make the right decisions based on
what she learned in the Alternative to Suspension program.

"It (the class) really woke us up," she said. "We realized that
marijuana isn't just marijuana anymore. It could have liquid Ecstasy
in it or other drugs. And marijuana is also a lot stronger now."