DISTRICT 5 ROUND TABLE WORKS TO COMBAT TEEN ALCOHOL, DRUG ABUSE

The news last month that 11 percent of the nation's alcohol was consumed by
teens may have been a surprise to some. It was not to a group of parents,
educators and community leaders who have been working for years on the
issue in Lexington-Richland District 5 schools.

More than a year ago, the district surveyed some of its high school
students and determined they were drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco and
using marijuana at higher rates than teens elsewhere in the state.

Of those surveyed by the University of South Carolina's School of Public
Health, 54 percent of boys and 52 percent of girls had recently had at
least one alcoholic drink; 34 percent of the boys and 35 percent of the
girls said they had engaged in binge drinking. Among boys, 38 percent had
used marijuana; the number was 35 percent for girls. For cocaine or other
inhalant use, the percentages were 12 percent for boys and 8 percent for girls.

Sixty percent of boys and 47 percent of girls said they had engaged in
sexual intercourse; 15 percent of boys and 10 percent of girls said they
had their first sexual encounter before age 11.

The number of kids involved left no doubt in one community leader's mind
that it will take many different contributors to solve the problem. The
Rev. Rick Perrin is pastor of Cornerstone Presbyterian Church and
co-chairman of District 5's Community Round Table.

"The community has pushed problems off on schools," he says. "The problem
is bigger than the schools can handle." In other words, it won't get fixed
without a partnership among schools, parents, law enforcement and the
community.

Many strong influences push kids in the wrong direction, Rev. Perrin says,
things such as movies and television. There must be strength on the
preventive side, too.

The research done in Lexington-Richland District 5 and nationally shows,
for example, that parents and family members often are supplying the
alcohol that underage drinkers consume. Jack Claypoole, executive director
of the Lexington/Richland Alcohol and Drug Abuse Council, says parents
shouldn't forget that providing any alcohol to kids under 21 is illegal,
period, and that doing so presents a confusing message.

"If we say it's OK to break that law, what other laws is it OK to break?"
he says.

Rev. Perrin's group has found some parents think that providing alcohol at
parties in their own homes is more controlled and safer than letting kids
get it elsewhere, and they seem to view underage drinking as inevitable.

"We just want to say, 'We can be better than this,"" Rev. Perrin says. "If
we can inspire and persuade good families to be better, fair families to be
good and poor families to be fair, we can make a whole lot of difference."

Another obstacle groups like the District 5 Round Table face is parents'
denial.

"They say, 'My kid wouldn't be involved in that,"" Rev. Perrin says. "The
fact is, kids across the spectrum -- economically and otherwise -- are
involved."

At LRADAC, Mr. Claypoole says underage substance abuse also is a concern in
suburban areas because kids there have the money, cars and free time that
allow them to get into trouble.

In order to work on this problem in District 5, the Community Round Table
has secured grant money, which is being administered at LRADAC. The
programs concentrate on preventive efforts and early identification of kids
who could be in trouble. They also are helping law enforcement crack down
on merchants who sell to underage customers.

The Round Table has given parents some tools to try to help. One is an
agreement parents and their children sign together in which both make
promises. Parents vow, for example, to love their children with time and
attention, not just material things.

Rev. Perrin says the bottom line is that all of the behaviors identified in
last year's survey -- underage drinking, drug use and sexual activity --
are destructive for teens and have potentially disastrous consequences.

"We want to help parents to be aware of what's going on in a positive way,"
he says. "We want them to encourage their kids to make wise choices."