PARTY SEASON IS HERE - DO PARENTS CARE?

The Just Know Coalition Vows To Carry Its Anti-Drug Message Forward.

Youth party season is in full swing, a reminder that summer's here.

This year is different in at least one respect; Just Know, a group formed
last fall to reduce risky behavior among youth is hanging in, determined to
meet the challenge of reducing teen substance abuse on Bainbridge.

"I've never sat on a committee that had more energy and focus," said
Bainbridge School Board President Bruce Weiland, who worked with the group
of parents, educators, medical professionals, fire and police, arts
organizations, therapists, business leaders and others. "It's been an
exciting year."

Just Know events since last fall included:

. A community forum in November that drew more than 300 islanders to learn
about the impact on island youth of addiction and depression;

. Training for school personnel in drug recognition by local law
enforcement and Washington State Patrol;

. A mock car crash at BHS to underscore the danger of drinking and driving;

. A presentation of the realities of substance abuse for Woodward Middle
School parents by police and school administrators.

Whether the message is getting through, nobody knows.

Progress can seem frustratingly slow, in the face of a youth party season
that has already seen a serious stabbing, an after-school fistfight on
school grounds that left a youth with broken bones, and an attack on a
young woman by another girl at a party.

Police have already broken up several underage drinking parties, at private
homes and in outdoor locations, since school ended. Parent-sponsored
parties for underage drinkers remain a particular sore point, police say -
one that reveals a tacit endorsement of youth drinking and drugging.

"I'd like to see some adults go to jail," Bainbridge Police Chief Matt
Haney said. "When adults tell me openly that they are giving juveniles
alcohol, I think that's wrong."

The bottom line for Just Know may be a change to the pervasive island
culture, and that's a long-term project, as Weiland and others point out.

"We've got this huge oil tanker steaming along," he said. "You don't move
it with one shove. I see every little discussion, every event as shifting
the course, if only slightly."

In August, Just Know is supporting a Bainbridge Performing Arts project
called EYES: Empowering Youth, Enlightening Society, a dramatic reading of
high school stories in which young people share tales from adults, and
adults read stories by young people. The event is promoted as enhancing
intergenerational communication.

What the net result will be of all this activity is hard to gauge,
organizers admit; other programs and organizations trying to effect the
same ends have come and gone.

Alaina Simcoe, like other island students who graduated from BHS in the
1990s, was taught a "just say no" approach to drugs and alcohol.

"I have a sort of cynical opinion about any of those programs because of
the D.A.R.E. program," she said. "They tell you just say no and they tell
you ways to say no. What's missing, more often than not when grown-ups talk
to other grownups, is the real-life connection to the reality on the
ground, to the kids."

Simcoe came to believe that a few real-life examples of what drugs can do
would be more effective than generic warnings.

"If they, say, saw pictures of a house teeming with rats because the person
is 'tweaking' so much that they can't take care of themselves, it's more
real," she said. "Or if they saw someone super-glue white rocks (of
methamphetamine) into his mouth because all his teeth had rotted from the
stuff."

But Weiland says that Just Know has learned from the weaknesses of past
approaches. Bringing more young people on board is a top priority for next
year; the group held a retreat Wednesday to help define the organization
further and chart the future.

"We did a lot of soul searching," Weiland said. "And we re-energized the
group. The hope is that we can get Bainbridge Island to reorder some of its
values."

- - Dee Axelrod

Teen views

Many island teenagers don't view the use of marijuana or alcohol as a problem.

Others interviewed this week believe the community can do more to dissuade
them from using. Whatever their point of view about substances, Bainbridge
teens are sure to encounter drink and drugs in the course of a high school
career here.

Ellen, a junior, experimented with alcohol for the first time last weekend
when she got drunk with friends.

"I decided that I'd do it as an experiment to see what went on," she said.
"I knew I'd be curious, and I didn't want to dive in with a whole bunch of
strangers." Ellen didn't enjoy drinking, which, she says, made her feel sick.

"I'll probably never get drunk again," she said. "I've seen people
destroyed by it."

Tammy (not her real name), who came to the first day of school last
September with a hangover, says her own substance use is representative of
many schoolmates who drink "recreationally."

"It's pretty much everybody," she said. "I think that's why (the sophomore
class) is so close, because everyone has drugs in common."

But Tammy says her involvement with sports keeps her from drinking more;
getting caught might mean getting thrown off the team. And she calls
smoking marijuana "stupid," and resists even when her friends smoke.

"Michael," a recently graduated senior, first tried alcohol in the fall of
his sophomore year. It soon became a habit.

Like Tammy, he drinks every weekend with friends to relax, usually in a
party setting. At the same time, he's likely to smoke some marijuana as "a
social thing."

What motivates students to drink and use drugs may be the external social
setting - or it may be an internal drive, a desire to "self-medicate."

Samantha, who began using alcohol and drugs at the end of her freshman
year, says that she used substances to make herself feel better.

"I was trying to find escapism," she says. "I've done drinking, some
marijuana. Nothing much."

The students all know that drug use could affect them adversely, but none
believes that he or she has arrived at the threshold where using a
substance ceases to be a choice and becomes, instead, a driving need.

All say they plan on going to college and don't want substnace abuse to
stand in the way.

"I want to go college, I want to have a job," Tammy said. "I don't want to
lose too many brain cells and end up stupid."

While students admit that "unless you want to stop, it's not going to
happen," they'd like to see a more united community taking a stand.

"The community ignores the problem. They're all like, 'Oh, my kid doesn't
do it.' I frankly think they're doing a poor job," says "Michael." "You see
kids clearly intoxicated, clearly coming to class high...After being in the
high school for four years, it scares me that this drug and alcohol problem
will eventually get out of control. We're known as a very academically
successful community, but I hope we can take action - and it will take
everyone - to really prevent the downfall of our students."

- - Sean Fraga