Alcoholics Anonymous Reviews

Recent suburban drinking parties attracted 70 teens on Grand Island, another 34 in Evans and 22 in Clarence. Eight students in Sloan showed up drunk at a homecoming dance.

Those four incidents all occurred over two weekends.

Once again, alarm bells are ringing across the region about the prevalence of underage drinking.

The alarm has sounded many times over the years, but now the public is starting to learn what educators and advocates for alcohol treatment have been shouting for years:

Teen drinking, always a serious problem, is getting worse.

“They’re drinking younger, they’re drinking more, and they’re drinking for the purpose of getting drunk,” said Sally Yageric, parent program coordinator for the Erie County Council for the Prevention of Alcohol and Substance Abuse. “It’s no longer [primarily] for social reasons. It’s to get drunk.”

Richard J. Gallagher, executive director of Alcohol and Drug Dependency Services, agrees.

“All I can say is, there has been a significant increase,” he said.

Gallagher recalled talking recently with 14 girls on the Renaissance Campus, a residential treatment facility for young people with serious alcohol or drug problems. Several admitted to having started drinking at age 8, 9 or 10.

Local school districts have limited reach in combating teen drinking, which invariably occurs off school property during nonschool hours.

But virtually every school district in Erie County has a code of conduct, spelled out in a contract signed by student-athletes and their parents — and, in some cases, students involved in any extracurricular activity.

“I think it’s being done pretty much across the board now,” said Matt Smith, community awareness director for Western New York United Against Drug and Alcohol Abuse. “If you put that jersey on, you have to adhere to a code of conduct.”

In the four recent drinking incidents that have become public, such contracts led to the suspension of more than three dozen student-athletes, for at least part of the remaining fall sports season.

Educators and other professionals applaud such contracts, but they emphasized that such policies, to be effective, have to have three main components:

• Consistent enforcement throughout any one school district.

“I think the bottom line from youngsters who watch the situation is ‘Oh my gosh, they’re serious. The school district does what they say they’re going to do,’ ” said Charles L. Stoddart, the retired Orchard Park superintendent who teaches a Fredonia State College course on drugs, alcohol and tobacco prevention.

• Parents must be active participants in the process and open up a strong dialogue with their children.

Most professionals in the alcohol- treatment field don’t think that situation exists now. “Many parents are clueless, and they don’t want their kids to be held accountable and responsible for their actions,” Gallagher said. “Many of these kids who should be linked to treatment are being allowed to continue to drink and use drugs without any consequences.”

“Many parents feel ‘I did it, and I turned out OK,’ ” Gallagher added.

Smith, from WNY United, cited the need for parents to have “the talk” with their children about alcohol and drugs.

National studies consistently show that parents believe their children know how the parents feel about drugs and alcohol, Smith said.

Teens, however, overwhelmingly say they don’t know how their parents feel.

“There’s just a disconnect there,” he said.

Yageric, from the Erie County Council, remains dumbfounded by many parents’ attitudes.

“You’d be surprised how many parents have cocktail parties for their kids before the Homecoming Dance,” she said. “It just blows my mind.”

• Any such school policy has to find a way to get help for youngsters with serious alcohol problems.

“The one thing that I don’t like about the contracts is when the person is dropped automatically from the team and nothing else is done,” Gallagher said. “Just kicking them off the team without providing them with services is really doing a disservice to the kids.”

When eight Cheektowaga- Sloan students showed up drunk at a school dance two weeks ago, school officials had a little more latitude, because the event occurred at a school function. Those students received five-day, in-school suspensions and 30-day suspensions from any extracurricular activity.

School officials weren’t interested only in the punishment.

Two of the eight students were found to have underlying problems and were referred for outside counseling and assistance from the district’s Family Solution Center.

“At least in one case, and maybe in two, their future safety might be ensured by the intervention,” Superintendent James P. Mazgajewski said.

Professionals in the field have little doubt why teens appear to be turning more to drugs.

It’s all about alienation, boredom and often a lack of connection with their parents in our increasingly busy society. That’s why Yageric believes young people are drinking to get drunk, not primarily for social reasons.

“They don’t like their lives,” she said. “They’re bored. They’re afraid. They’re afraid because of what our life is like right now. It makes them feel better to get drunk and not have to think about these things.”

These youths have grown up with TV, video games, computers and instant messaging — all of which can hinder communication with their parents.

“They have no coping skills, because they’ve been entertained by various media their whole lives,” Yageric added.

As they universally require their athletes to sign the contract, school officials have to rebut the argument that such a policy unfairly targets athletes.

While students caught drinking away from school can be suspended from the football team or the chess club, they cannot be suspended or expelled from school.

As a result, an athlete or student leader caught drinking faces consequences at school, while a classmate not involved in such activities does not.

“If you’re representing your school and being looked up to by young kids and your peers, I think the school has a right to expect certain behavior,” Smith said.

School officials say that playing sports is a privilege.

“If you take part in an extracurricular activity, you understand there is a higher expectation for you, and that you will be held accountable,” Lake Shore Superintendent Jeffrey R. Rabey said.

So what works? School officials are working with alcoholism experts to develop effective programs. Here are two examples:

• Two years ago, when some Clarence High School athletes were found to be drinking, the school suspended those athletes from their team for violating the written contract.

That was the “stick” school officials wielded. But Superintendent Thomas G. Coseo said the district also offered a “carrot”: The athletic suspensions were cut in half for those students willing to go with their parents to visit teens and receive some counseling at the Renaissance Campus in West Seneca.

“That piece of it — requiring the parents to go with the child — developed an open, honest dialogue between them,” Coseo said. “That dialogue is one of the most critical pieces.”

• Last year, Lake Shore Central School required parents to attend one of six 90-minute sessions about alcohol and drug abuse. If they didn’t attend, their children couldn’t go to the junior ball or the senior prom.

“Not everyone was thrilled to go. This is America,” said Smith, from WNY United, a former Lake Shore school board member. “But we have gotten overwhelming support, and people were grateful that [the program] exists.”

Still, skeptics will point out that Clarence and Lake Shore both had well-publicized drinking incidents in the last two weeks.

Even the best programs can’t solve the problem. They can only help some teens.

Buffalo News