MANSFIELD, Ohio–A publicized incident of teenage drinking at a Richland County school drew attention to the school in October 2014. While the incident may have spotlighted the school, underage drinking is an issue and Richland County educators are taking a proactive stance against teenage consumption of alcohol.
Brian Brown never expected to address teenage drinking firsthand as principal of Clear Fork High School, but the issue unfortunately presented itself last fall. A group of Clear Fork High School students were charged with misdemeanors and one student was issued a citation for underage consumption of alcohol at a party held late one Saturday night at a student’s home.
“Down here, we don’t expect those things,” said Brown. “We think pretty highly of our students, and we still do. We think our students and our kids aren’t engaging in that activity to that extent.”
In October 2014, the Knox County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call regarding a party involving underage teenagers who were allegedly drinking alcohol and posting pictures of the party on Facebook, according to a report released by the Knox County Sheriff’s Office. The report stated the officers noticed numerous beer cans and a table set up for a beer pong game.
The issue isn’t new and it’s not specific to a particular group of high school students. The 2011 Richland County Community Health Assessment results indicated that 41 percent of Richland County youth had consumed at least one drink of alcohol in their life. And according to the National Institute of Health Facts, underage drinking is a leading cause of death from injuries and the main cause of death for people under age 21.
According to the report, over half (56 percent) of the youth who reported drinking in the past 30 days had at least one episode of binge drinking, and seven percent of all youth drivers had driven a car in the past month after they had been drinking alcohol.
“I’ve talked with other area principals and administrators, and they see the same things we do,” said Brown. “Most would agree that on any given weekend there’s a party someplace that could be busted where it could certainly get their school’s names in the paper.
“You watch television shows supposed to be set in high school, and every show features them going out and drinking,” said Brown. “But it’s not the norm. There’s nothing normal about it at that age.”
Deputy Gary Kiener of the Richland County Sheriff’s Office said the department responded to nine cases of underage drinking in Richland County over the past year, eight of which were drinking parties outside of school that were busted with several kids charged with underage consumption.
“We’ll go to parties and because of manpower we can’t write everybody up,” said Keiner. “With 40 or 50 kids finding rides for them, making sure parents come get them, it’s hard for us to do. I remember writing up 20 kids one time.”
Kiener noted that often times officers would go straight to the source of the party – find the adult who supplied the alcohol and charge them with contributing to the delinquency of minors.
According to the 2011 Richland County Community Health Assessment, 45 percent of Richland County underage drinkers got their alcohol from someone who gave it to them, and 10 percent said a parent gave it to them. Twenty-four percent paid an older person to buy the alcohol for them, 10 percent took it from a store or family member, and six percent got it from a friend’s parents.
Addressing underage drinking
Leading the charge against underage drinking in Richland County is Tracee Anderson, Executive Director of Community Action for Capable Youth (CACY). According to their mission statement, CACY works to promote a drug, alcohol and tobacco free way of life among the county’s youth through education and prevention activities done in coordination with youth service providers, parents, community leaders, law enforcement and educators.
“That’s all we deal with is drug, alcohol and tobacco prevention,” said Anderson. “We focus on how much use there is and how much we’re preventing it.”
Three percent of underage drinkers in Richland County bought their alcohol in a liquor store, convenience store, supermarket or gas station. To combat this, CACY, through a partnership with METRICH and local law enforcement entities, visits places with a vendor license for alcohol to monitor whether they’re selling to underage buyers.
“I think marketing of alcoholic beverages is always out there, even though they’re not legally allowed to market to youth you see that with the fruity drinks and packaging, that’s consistently out there, said Anderson.
“You definitely see in the spring and fall with compliance checks when there’s more outside activities, and we do more targeted efforts towards prom and homecoming seasons. There are concerns around holiday times with families in general and access. We work diligently to make sure we get information out there about responsibility to keep alcohol away from underage drinkers.”
While one method of preventing underage drinking is keeping the product off the market, Anderson noted another method is prevention through teaching refusual skills. Refusal skills include staying away from opportunities to drink, being aware of marketing for alcohol or other products, and enforcing decision-making skills from a young age.
“Overall Richland County does really well but there’s always more work to be done,” said Anderson. “It’s something we’re very focused on, schools are interested in keeping it up, and the community is really interested in making sure kids stay safe and healthy.”
Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE)
A popular education program in teaching refusal is the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program, a nationwide program implemented locally at Mansfield City Schools. Superintendent Brian Garverick stated the DARE program starts at the intermediate level and is taught through high school in health classes. He noted Mansfield schools also works with CACY to talk about prevention and education with students.
“We talk about the facts related to alcohol abuse. We talk about what the impact of that is, not only with them, but those around them. There are some open discussions about the use of alcohol among peers, and education on how to deal with peer pressure when it comes to alcohol and topics dealing with teenagers, said Garverick.
“If there wasn’t education then they’re left to their own results of what their friends say and do rather than the research that’s out there.”
In Clear Fork, students are presented programs such as Rachel’s Challenge and Rusty’s Story in addition to working with CACY. Brown explained that education is not just about saying no to alcohol and drugs, but developing the whole person.
“You have to help them with decision-making and help them find their moral compass,” he said.
Education at home
One thought echoed by Anderson, Garverick and Brown is that education first starts at home. According to the 2011 Richland County Community Health Assessment, only 28 percent of youth in Richland County reported that their parent or caregiver had talked to them about the dangers of underage drinking within the past month. Thirty-five percent reported that they had never been talked to about this topic.
Which is why when his students were caught drinking alcohol in October 2014, Brown decided to turn the situation into a learning experience.
“Some people asked if I was embarrassed as the school administrator where the kids got busted for that party,” said Brown. “It’s actually something that has helped us bring it up as a topic of conversation, talk to parents about this type of activity. I’m not embarrassed about it, if anything I think we’ll become stronger for it and become better at what we do because of it.
“We’re still going to hug them and love them; they’re still our kids,” he continued. “You don’t write them off forever when they do something wrong. And anybody who is the first to write kids off because of that, I wonder what it’s like to be perfect. Because everybody during their teenage years has done something they’re not proud of, and hopefully they live to learn from it. And that’s what we’re trying to do, help kids learn from it.”
“Some people asked if I was embarrassed as the school administrator where the kids got busted for that party,” said Clear Fork Principal Brian Brown. “It’s actually something that has helped us bring it up as a topic of conversation, talk to parents about this type of activity. I’m not embarrassed about it, if anything I think we’ll become stronger for it and become better at what we do because of it.
