Dennis Scott

A CALL FOR LESS TOLERANCE

The year is 2005, and the city of Woburn is a bustling city of fifty
thousand people. Generally speaking, the people in this city live
relatively comfor table and most live just over the poverty line. Like any
city of Woburn's size, it has its share of problems including the pesky
pothole that seems to come out of no where driving down Montvale Ave or the
lack of sidewalks across the city or even the stalemate traffic along Main
Street occasionally. The fact is there is a much more serious problem
facing this city that has been staring us in the face for the past decade,
and this problem is the availability of alcohol and drugs for the youth of
Woburn Memorial High School. Walking down a hall at the high school on any
given day, it is possible to hear multiple groups of teenagers talking
about how "wasted" they were over the past weekend or how much "weed" they
smoked.

Because of this situation, I propose that the city implements new
standards, including a less tolerant police force, a less tolerant school,
and more awareness programs for the youth in the city of Woburn.

Firstly, the city needs to address its children by starting advocacy
programs for parents.

The first step in stopping this disease that is spreading is making sure
that parents have an understanding about what is going on. It is beyond
imagination how many parents believe that their children do not drink or do
drugs when they actually participate in these activities. It is time to
stop the regression back to archaic ways of handling alcohol and drugs,
including the theory that if children are not talked to about drugs and
alcohol, that they will not participate in these activities. I think it is
time for parents to be honest to their teenagers and most of all, it is
time for parents to stop pretending that their children are perfect and
start addressing what they do after school and on the weekends.

As the city of Woburn, as the community of Woburn it is time to realize
that the one-thing teenagers' need is discipline and respect, and when
parents avoid the subject with their children, they are not being respected.

The city of Woburn needs to be proactive in facilitating the needs of its
community by engaging students in programs in school that do not stop in
fifth grade, and continue through high school.

Students need guidance in high school, and need support to make the right
decisions.

If they are not receiving support, then they are not going to make the
right decisions, and it should be the responsibility of the city to start a
program where teenagers can talk to someone who is going to listen to them.
We live in a world where adults do not listen to teenagers because adults
feel that teenagers are useless and that everything is a "phase" that they
will get through on their own. The harsh reality is that in order to move
out of a phase there needs to be support and guidance, especially when the
"phase" is being intoxicated every weekend and smoking a bowl of weed.
Alcohol and Marijuana are addictions, and an addiction does not disappear.

Teenagers are at the most pivotal points of their lives in high school
because the decisions that they make may affect the rest of their lives.
Students need to understand the repercussions of their actions and that
they could die if they do not watch over themselves. Parents need to tell
their children that they will support them and that they are open books,
willing to listen. The city needs to educate parents and let them know that
teenagers respond to honesty and when you are honest, then students will
listen.

In talking to students, one can understand that parents do not listen and
avoid any discussion on alcohol or even drugs.

These teens also said that their families have zero tolerance policies.

Obviously, these teens drink, yet their parents are not tolerant, and if
this is the case, then how do the teens get away with it. The simple answer
is that parents are not honest with their kids and turn a blind eye to
their behavior.

It should be the number one priority to educate parents in the new solutions.

This can be accomplished through bringing in experts who are willing to
talk to parents and try to combat the issues facing Woburn.

The position of the school system should be zero-tolerance because the
reality is that teenagers who go to this school consistently drive under
the influence, endangering themselves, their friends, and their school
community.

If the school, through outside sources, gains word of a party, then the
students in attendance, who were consuming alcohol, can be punished and
immediately put into alcohol counseling. The school community needs to
ensure that more students will not die due to driving under the influence.

The city can help this by having police officers more aware of the
happenings in the neighborhoods and attempt to facilitate these situations,
and ensure that drunk drivers stay off the road.

In order to fully combat this situation, the police department needs to
work more closely with high school students.

D.A.R.E is an amazing program that educates students on the dangers of
alcohol and drugs in the elementary schools. The program should be extended
to include high school students who are the most endangered. Also, the
police department needs to crack down on the selling of drugs.

The city of Woburn is full of drugs, and it seems nothing is ever done. It
should be even more critical for police officers to get onto the streets
and stop 15 year olds from buying drugs because if they were not available,
then students would not have access to them and that in itself would create
a much safer school community, and much safer city, and an overall better
place to live with kids.

In the past six months, two Woburn Memorial High School students have died
in automobile related accidents in part to an intoxicated driver.

The city should have responded months ago, by investigating the happenings
at Woburn High. These were senseless deaths that never should have happened.

It should have been a wake up call for everyone in this city that our
children are not invisible, and may be subjected to the same fate as many
other students across the country. The fact remains that the consumption of
alcohol is everywhere in the city and drugs are even more so, and the city
needs to address these problems. I plead with you as an outgoing senior to
combat this disease that is spreading like a wild fire throughout the halls
of Woburn High School. Take a walk down the halls of Woburn High School,
and hear the mutterings of kids who are intoxicated regularly, and then
feel the helplessness of a young man who can do nothing about.

Help me help the students in my school.

As Mr. Norton said, recently, "We are a school community, a family." My
family needs help, and the only help I can receive is through you the city
of Woburn. Stop fixing things that do not need to be fixed, and fix the
problem with drugs and alcohol, because one day there could be another
accident and another student dies, and the school will look around and
wonder what happened again.

Do not let this happen again, and stop this disease.