SOME GOOD KIDS DESERVE THEIR DAY IN SPOTLIGHT

Let's Talk About Good Kids

Recently, we wrote about the alarming rate of drug use among Charlotte
County teens. Today, we want to tell you about one teen who not only
doesn't do drugs, but has the courage to alert school officials about
someone who would sell drugs to his friends.

And, we'll tell you about two other teens who pulled a victim from a
crashed vehicle that went into a water-filled canal.

Good kids, doing good things.

The Charlotte County Sheriff's Office honored two teenagers Friday who
rescued the driver of a submerged car at the intersection of
Collingswood and Toledo Blade boulevards on Dec. 29.

Chris Graniero, 15, of Punta Gorda and his friend, Chad Adams, 16, of
Gulf Cove, were making a video when they saw two cars collide. One
car, with a female passenger inside, plunged into the canal and began
to submerge.

Adams wasted no time. He jumped into the water and pulled the woman
from the car. Graniero helped him pull the woman to dry land before
Charlotte County EMS arrived. The woman was taken to the hospital and
treated.

Hopefully, anyone in the same situation as Graniero and Adams would
have done the same thing. Both young men would probably tell you as
much. They don't believe they did that much special.

But the instincts they showed and the results of their action -- a
woman's life may have been saved -- deem their efforts worthy of
recognition.

Another local teenager, Ryan Allender, may be even more
courageous.

A teenager's life is often defined by how he or she rates with their
peers. Respect is not always easy to earn.

Allender put his reputation on the line earlier this year when he, and
a friend, were offered oxycodone pills by a classmate. It didn't take
Allender long to do the right thing.

He told his teacher -- almost unheard of in the teen community where
the normal approach is hear nothing, see nothing and do nothing.

The girl who offered the drugs was arrested. Allender did pay a price.
For days some of his friends shunned him. Eventually, however, things
returned to normal and Allender says today that he would never
hesitate to take the same action.

We need more teens like Allender. Drugs are bad. Recreational use and
experimenting too often lead to addiction. Teens too often do not take
the potential dangers of drugs seriously enough and sometimes their
friends, or themselves, suffer because of that.

If more teens took the same approach to drugs as Allender, we would
find fewer drugs in the corridors of our schools and many young people
might be spared the anguish and repercussions of a life of drug use.