CLASS LAST CHANCE FOR TROUBLED TEENS

Program Targets Drug, Alcohol Problems

ASHLAND -- When a teen-age child becomes too much for a parent to handle,
the tempting response is to let the child lie in the bed he made.

One local program for teens with drug and alcohol problems takes the
opposite approach: it gets the children out of bed - early on Saturday morning.

Three local teens braved Saturday's winter storm to participate in the
Early Intervention Program, sponsored by the ALERT Regional Prevention
Program, an arm of Pathways. The program is in its sixth year statewide.
The class presents a final chance for the teens to straighten up their
acts. They have been referred to the program through the courts, police,
schools or parents. By participating, they avoid being expelled or
suspended from schools, or being sent to jail. After completing the course
- - if the teen stays clean - judges often expunge their juvenile criminal
record.

"The kids here today who are either out of control or have used drugs in
the past aren't bad kids. They just made bad choices. This is a second
chance," said Pam Stockbridge, an early intervention specialist for ALERT.

A unique aspect of the five-hour course is that parents are required to
participate, too. That way, they can better take part in their child's
recovery, Stockbridge said.

Gathered around the conference room tables in the Skytower on Bath Avenue,
Stockbridge talks to the parents - the teens have left the room - while
they complete surveys about family history of drug and alcohol abuse.

"I promise you will see an attitude change in your child," Stockbridge
tells them. "Overwhelmingly, after they complete this program, your family
relations will be improved and they won't be hanging out with the same kids
they used to.

"Not a lot of things tend to work with substance abuse and kids, but for
some reason, this works," she added. "I don't see a lot of kids come back
to this class a second time."

They discussed the importance of "picking your battles" with children,
setting consequences for negative actions and making teens accountable for
what they do. Parents also learn a little teenspeak.

"As a parent, I don't know when my kids say they're going out for a little
shake and fries what that means," Stockbridge tells the assembly.
"Actually, fries is another name teens use for pot, but how would you have
known?"

Stockbridge reassured the parents that they are still important to their kids.

"Research shows parents still matter most to their kids. They will look to
their friends for trends, music and clothes, but when they are in trouble,
they will come to you," she said.

As the teens join their parents in the conference room, they are greeted by
Boyd County Sheriff Philip Sturgill.

"I don't know what brought you here today and I won't ask," Sturgill said.
"This is a time when you don't have to look at me as the sheriff. You look
at me as an adult who wants great things for each of you.

"I am a product of the '60s, you have to understand," he continued. "I have
seen rampant marijuana use. I've seen LSD trips. I've seen it all." One
thing he saw - while taking the sheriff's office's drug-sniffing dog into a
Huntington crack house - has stuck with him through the years, he said.
Hiding in a corner of the house was a friend from high school.

"He looked at me in a way I cannot explain," Sturgill said. "It must have
been painful for him to admit to me what his habit had become."

That same friend was later robbed, lost his job as an electrician with a
rock band and wound up sleeping under a bridge in Las Vegas, Sturgill said.

"I don't even know where he is now," Sturgill said. "All I know is that
there is a fine line between using a little and using a lot. Once he
realized he had a habit, it was too late.

"I don't want any one of you to turn out like him. Right now, at this
moment, you are just one second away from messing up your life."

The sheriff continued on for nearly two hours, relaying tales of teens
being killed in alcohol-related accidents, drug lords who kill to get their
money and the cost of getting into trouble with the law.

The students sat, glancing solemnly at one another as Sturgill spoke.

"I'm not taking a 'Scared Straight' sort of approach with you. These are
real stories. Stories that you could easily become the lead character in."

The rest of the day included videotapes of teen addiction recovery stories
and a tobacco trivia game. Before the teens left, Stockbridge set up
appointments for a follow-up screening. Each will have to call her monthly
and will fill out a survey again after six months. Louisville-based
Spalding University will monitor their progress, she said.

ALERT also mails out letters to parents every two months to reinforce tips
covered in the workshop.

TAMMIE HETZER-WOMACK is a free-lance writer living in Greenup County.