Valley teens present anti-drug strategies
August 20, 2008
By Laura Geggel
Mount Si ASB President Ben Olson sits with Key Club and National Honors Society President Gillian Kenagy at the Snoqualmie Valley Community Network’s Key Leaders Summit in Duvall. Photot by Laura Geggel
Surrounded by an audience of concerned community members, two Mount Si High School students did their best to answer a tough question: Why are Valley youth more susceptible to substance abuse than the average state student?Mount Si ASB President Ben Olson and Key Club and National Honors Society President Gillian Kenagy addressed about 70 people for the Snoqualmie Valley Community Network’s Key Leaders Summit in Duvall Aug. 11.
First, the duo presented the facts.
According to the 2006 Healthy Youth Survey, 52 percent of Mount Si High School seniors reported having consumed a glass, can or bottle of alcohol in the past 30 days compared to 42 percent of students statewide. The binge-drinking rate – consecutively drinking five or more alcoholic beverages – at Mount Si also outranked the state average, with 34 percent of seniors stating they had engaged in binge drinking, compared to 26 percent of seniors statewide.
The next Healthy Youth Survey will be administered this October.
Olson and Kenagy suggested several reasons for the higher-than-average drinking rate, from living in a rural community – which are generally notorious for lacking activities and having easier access to secluded areas – to the Valley’s growing affluence and ability to buy substances.
In a PowerPoint presentation, Olson and Kenagy shared a telling statement they had found on MySpace. In response to the survey question asking if students drank and why they did, an anonymous student answered, “It’s North Bend, it is either go to church or get drunk.”
Olson and Kenagy encouraged the community to invest in more activities for Valley youth.
“When youth are busy and involved in their community, they don’t have time to experiment with alcohol and other illegal substances,” Olson said.
The teens lauded the pilot teen health center program, saying that teens needed an outlet to help them cope with depression and personal issues.
Community programs and Mount Si health classes could also educate students more about the dangers of drinking, Olson said.
“A lot of my peers use the attitude that as long as they don’t get on the road, there are no permanent consequences,” Olson said.
But there can be lasting consequences. The brain continues to develop into a person’s early twenties, and alcohol is more likely to affect adolescent learning, memory and sleep cycles, among other things, than it does adults, according to the Mothers Against Drunk Driving Web site.
A social norms campaign could help put a cork in substance use, Kenagy said.
“The myth is that everyone is doing it,” she said, adding that may make students feel that alcohol and substance use is more acceptable.
After the student presentation, community members brainstormed ways they could help counteract messages that glamorize alcohol and substance abuse.
Alexandra Howson of Snoqualmie, who worked on the Tour de Peaks committee, said this was the first year Tour de Peaks did not have a beer tent.
“I think it would be interesting to broaden that out,” Howson said.
Organizers of Railroad Days and the Festival at Mount Si said they also would reexamine the need to have beer gardens and determine what sort of message the beer gardens were sending to youth.
Other people suggested a speaker’s bureau that could educate Valley residents about the risks of alcohol and substance use.
Olson said the anti-drug and alcohol message had to cover the entire Valley if it were to be successful.
“It can’t just be at school, it can’t just be in the community. It needs to be everywhere,” Olson said.
Reporter Laura Geggel can be reached 392-6434 x221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.
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