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."