TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION ORGANIZES OUTREACH EVENT

South Asian Parents Urged to Spend More Time With Children

At the Grand Taj banquet hall, in front of a rapt South Asian crowd,
Karen Sekhon places a lunch box on a table.

She pulls out a bong, used for smoking marijuana, and a "third lung" -
a pop bottle fixed to a plastic bag, also used for inhaling pot.

She also displays cans of shaving cream designed to conceal illegal
drugs, and highlighter pens that hide pipes.

People are intrigued.

"Can I see?" asks one young boy, leaning in with a group of his
friends.

Sekhon isn't surprised by the curiosity. She's a substance abuse
liaison with the Surrey School District.

The lunch box contents are part of a detailed presentation Sekhon
gives to parents about how to recognize suspicious or concealed drug
paraphernalia.

Thursday night she's offering information to parents at the first
annual Celebration of Education and Families. More than 800 people
have gathered - South Asian parents and students over age 12, plus
school district staff.

Many - mostly the girls - are dressed in their saris and traditional
dress clothes. The boys are wearing baggy street clothes. Some of them
text their friends on their cell phones while their parents listen
intently to a three-hour presentation organized by the South Asian
Teachers' Association (SATA) of Surrey. But many of the kids are just
as intrigued as their parents.

The information session was planned as a "bridge between parents and
teachers" and as a forum for finding solutions to South Asian gang
violence.

"We're looking to get parents more involved in their children's
education," explained SATA committee member Ami Kambo, who teaches at
L.A. Matheson Secondary School.

SATA looks for ways to address "communication barriers" between
parents and teachers - most notably language and culture.

"For instance, in India the school system is more traditional. Here,
students are expected to draw on their own motivation," Kambo said,
also citing parents' busy work schedules as a barrier to effective
parent-teacher dialogue.

Last week, a report issued by the school district flagged
parent-teacher communication as one factor needing improvement in the
area of immigrant and English-as-a-Second-Language families.

According to the district, approximately 18 per cent of students in
Surrey come from Punjabi-speaking households.

At the SATA event, speakers from the school district, the RCMP, the
Surrey Teachers' Association and SATA gave presentations in Punjabi
and English.

Popular Red FM radio host Harjinder Thind urged parents to spend less
time at work and more time with their families. He also congratulated
parents for celebrating lohri, a South Asian festival that has
traditionally celebrated the birth of boys, for girls as well.

"That's a big accomplishment for our community," Thind
said.

Rob Rai, a youth diversity liaison, gave a compelling talk about gang
violence.

He explained, "99.9 per cent of the young people (in Surrey) are
thriving, flourishing, but just like everything else, nothing is perfect."

He said 108 local South Asian men have been killed by violence and the
drug trade since 1991.

"So what are the risk factors, and how are young people with a South
Asian background drawn in to gangs?" he asked.

Rai advised parents to spend more time with their children, and to
"keep in touch with what kids are doing."

He warned about the dangers of "cocooning" - staying only connected to
a first-generation immigrant community, and ignoring the balancing act
faced by second- and third-generation children - such as staying
connected to parental traditions and integrating into a new country.

After presentations from local student dance and theatre groups,
attendees enjoyed a buffet dinner.

"I was very impressed with the turnout," co-organizer Kambo said of
the event. "And the parents are appreciative. They told us 'we will
think differently about the way we parent.'"