I would like to commend the Austin High School Student Council for launching their new "Voice & Choice" program launched yesterday, at the high school.

Tuesday, November 23, 1999

I would like to commend the Austin High School Student Council for launching their new "Voice & Choice" program launched yesterday, at the high school. A program where three representatives of the student council went into each grade 9, 10, 11 social studies class, and each grade 12 language arts class. Here, they led debates on different school issues such as "food service."

Here, I would like to see the lunch hour just that, one hour. It’s not enough time for anybody to have only a half hour lunch. It isn’t fair to students or teachers. This could be an opportunity to bring in volunteer adults to "be there" roaming around, perhaps joining a group at a table to honestly build rapport with students and acquaint themselves with our changing student body face. We keep hearing about social skills-aren’t they best developed in social settings, like meal times? Other areas open to concern include: library policies, tardy policies – one student described how absurd she felt the current policy is; sportsmanship; locked doors and on an on.

Student Council President Amanda Lyons stressed the importance of student participation in the Sentinel.

The Sentinel, published Friday, in addition, set a courageous course by discussing drugs and alcohol at Austin High School – obviously putting many hours of research collecting their findings.

The classroom poll indicated that 78 percent of seniors have used alcohol in the last year and 39 percent have tried marijuana (up 72 percent from 1991); 60 per cent of freshmen have used alcohol in the last year and 45 percent of juniors have tried marijuana; 30 percent of sophomores and 28 percent of freshman have tried marijuana; 20 percent of seniors have driven drunk and 32 percent of seniors have ridden with a drunk driver at least three times in last year. Scary.

Does this bring in to question the current D.A.R.E. program? The University of California, Riverside, in their research, concluded the D.A.R.E. program actually promotes drug use.

Last spring we sat in the Banfield gym as the D.A.R.E. awards were passed out, hearing letters read by students testifying to future abstinence of drug and alcohol in their ‘pre-adult’ years.

My thought then – how are these students going to feel about themselves when they, as we see above, many will, experiment with alcohol and drugs to some extent. Crappy, guilty, hard on themselves.

In our junior year in high school we had a debate in Miss Magner’s chemistry class on teen use of alcohol (this was before drugs, at least in Austin.) In the debate I took the position that adolescents drank because it was fun. This was not well received. What I didn’t mention in the debate – I was influenced by seeing a sibling intoxicated; first feeling embarrassed, then later deciding if he could do it so could I.

Now, I don’t want to apologize for saying this but back then as I think it was and still might be now, that much of what students do during their school days is not very stimulating. Does this increase the desire for "weekend fun?" And, does the fact that we prohibit drinking under the age of 21 actually encourage it.

Now a number of students. Twenty-two percent of the seniors, haven’t used alcohol in the past year and I suspect about 50 percent of the parents claim those 22 percent. However, many of these will soon face college life where often the stop light to alcohol often turns green. So besides getting some prestigious degrees, this can be the beginning of alcohol use. It’s good to know that the Austin Community College campus apartments are alcohal free.

Was it fun? Not really. Being around drunks is not fun, especially in youth where the behaviors so often run to extremes – with adults too. Not fun according to the personal account of the student with drugs in the Sentinel article.

Yet, I believe it was Robert Lewis Stephenson who said "Youth is for experimentation." And it was one of Austin’s own administrators, who once described me, much to my delight – in my flag sweater, as "a vision of sartorial splendor" – that suggested his daughter fix herself a drink when she first gets home from school (as a teacher.)

What about drugs? Are they as bad as the nation attempts to make them out to be? If you haven’t read last Friday’s Sentential get a copy, a good place to start. And talk to your kids about it. It effects them.

Bob Vilt’s column appears Tuesdays