Fighting Back: Part 7a

FEW ALTERNATIVES TO THE HIGH LIFE

Communities Struggle To Offer Safe Social Activities

It's difficult for kids to resist the lure of drugs and alcohol if they
have nothing better to do and nobody supervising them.

Too often they choose to kill boredom by killing brain cells with drugs and
alcohol.

Communities can combat adolescent drug use by providing kids with safe,
supervised social activities.

But providing kids, especially high school kids, with alternatives to using
drugs and alcohol is a tough task.

Damien, 18, a senior at Biloxi High School, said there isn't a whole lot
for older kids to do.

He said kids spend the weekend cruising around, going to movies, or hanging
out at the beach or the mall.

He said a lot of his classmates drink on the weekends.

"A lot of the preppy kids do it," he said. "But a lot of the skateboarders
and everybody else do it, too. They just don't talk about it as much."

He said he entertains himself with TV and video games.

"But I'm pretty lazy," he said.

Another Biloxi High School senior said that, although there is plenty to
do, a lot of kids believe they'll have more fun if they're drunk.

She said the annual homecoming dance is always populated by intoxicated
students.

"Usually people drink before the dance to hype it up," she said.

After school programs

Many kids try drugs after school when they return to empty houses.

The Boys and Girls Clubs of the Gulf Coast provide youth, primarily from
disadvantaged areas, with a safe environment to go to after the final
school bell sounds.

Director of Operations Sue Reed said the Boys and Girls Clubs create a
friendly environment where kids feel needed.

"Kids have to feel like they have a say in things and are important," Reed
said. "They don't get that when they go home to an empty house or join a
group of other kids where they feel important by doing the wrong things."

The kids go to the clubs to play sports, do their homework and hang out
with friends. The clubs also provide educational programs designed to teach
kids techniques to resist alcohol, cigarettes and other drugs.

A citizens' drug task force in Long Beach has established an after-school
program for middle school students, giving them time to socialize and do
their homework in a safe, structured environment.

Fred Walker, vice chairman of the task force, said about 30 kids are
registered for the program, which is open at Long Beach Middle School
weekdays from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. during the school year.

Walker said the task force has plans to introduce drug awareness curriculum
into the after-school program.

"The program is slowly growing," he said.

The task force hoped the city would hire a recreation director to oversee
the program, but Long Beach's budget woes recently dashed those plans.

Church groups help

Church-related activities and spiritual guidance can also keep kids away
from drugs and provide them with a sense of belonging.

"They want acceptance more than anything," said Ashley Austin, the student
minister at First Baptist Church of Biloxi, who has as many as 400 youths
under his wing. "The No. 1 need for ages 12 to 19 is acceptance. If they
don't find that acceptance, where will they turn? We try to give them an
environment where they feel accepted and gain a spiritual foundation."

Jared Savoy, youth pastor at the Northwood Christian Center in Gulfport,
holds a youth service every Saturday night regularly attended by about 115
teen-agers.

Savoy said he opens the youth hall at 5:30 p.m., giving the kids time to
shoot pool, play Ping-Pong and socialize before the sermon.

He said he keeps his sermons short and tries to stimulate interest by
making the scripture relevant to young people so that they can apply Bible
lessons to their lives.

Above all, Savoy said his Saturday sermons are meant to help kids develop
morals, build healthy friendships and grow spiritually.

He said he believes he's been successful.

"Most people say you'll never get a teen-ager to a church on a Saturday
night," he said. "We've defied the odds."

But South Mississippi communities still struggle to develop safe,
entertaining activities for adolescents to enjoy at night and on the weekends.

Bowling and the movies

Any Friday night in Ocean Springs, there are between 100 and 125 teens and
pre-teens dancing wildly at a vacant lumber store that has been converted
to a dance club.

They groove to hip-hop without being hopped up on drugs or alcohol.

They're just blowing off steam like adults would do, says John Darnell,
owner of Shenanigans II dance club.

Open Friday's only from 7 to 11 p.m., the club provides kids with safe,
supervised fun.

There's a snack bar and game room. Parents can stay if they want to, but
the club is strictly supervised with a sign-in and sign-out sheet.

But Shenanigans II is only for middle-school age children. By the time
they're 14, their issues are different, Darnell said, and tendencies toward
bad habits have already formed, like experimenting with drinking, which he
wants no part of.

If they can drive, they're too old. And too much potential trouble, Darnell
said. Besides, 16-year-olds don't want to be in the same room with
12-year-olds, he said. "In middle school, they're still kids whether they
like to admit it or not."

The high-school age teens in the same town don't have such a simple outlet.

Ocean Springs High School Principal Robert Hirsch said that about half of
his 1,600 students work in the evenings, which keeps them out of trouble.
They're working to pay for clothes and cars, he said.

Hirsch said about 400 of the female students take dance classes and a
similar number participate in city-sponsored sports. Then there are the
ones who study a great deal.

Hirsch estimates the number of students unsupervised, having trouble with
boredom and regularly using drugs and alcohol at between 10 and 15 percent
of the high school population.

"These are the ones with wheels and money," he said. "Money, mobility and
access... . I worry about the wrecks, casualties."

Hirsch said one problem is parents of the loosely supervised crowd who
support underage partying by sponsoring parties.

"That's when it becomes attractive to the kids who are supervised," he said.

Adults at community meetings in Vancleave fear that there is little for
their older teens to do on weekend evenings except experiment with alcohol
or drugs.

A 17-year-old from that community said it's bowling and the movies for
teens who are mobile.

"That and going to your girlfriend's house. That usually keeps you out of
trouble," he said. "But that's it."