Pubdate: Sat, 26 Oct 2002
Source: Sun Herald (MS)
Copyright: 2002, The Sun Herald
Contact:  http://www.sunherald.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/432
Authors: Karen Nelson,Robin Fitzgerald And Mike Cummings, The Sun Herald
Note: Part 1a, http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1966/a07.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?135 (Drug Education)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

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."
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