Commentary—

Students Share Their Message For Families

By The Newtown High School Student Panel

We are the students who spoke at the Parent Connection Meeting on April 28, 2004. At that meeting students spoke out about alcohol and drugs and teenagers’ experiences. We believe that it is important to share our message to all parents because we strongly feel that our message was misrepresented in a follow-up newspaper article. The purpose of our presentation was the following:

To inform parents of what has worked and what has not worked at home, in the community, and at school with relation to fighting alcohol and substance use among teenagers.

We felt that we could make a difference in someone else’s life by speaking with parents. As one panelist stated, “The drug culture is easy to get into, but difficult to get out off. Sometimes you need help to get out.” We wanted to help by being part of this panel.

We wanted to create awareness and help families to prevent students from making poor choices. We feel like better people by being able to help others.

Not all families are without issues and based on our own personal knowledge and experience, we want to share our thoughts to help families.

Here is the information that we conveyed to the parents who attended the Parent Connection Meeting. We fully understand that parenting is hard and a constant challenge. Here is our adolescent advice that we would like to share with you to help solve or prevent an alcohol or drug problem from developing:

Be involved in your children’s lives.

Family time is important, try to have dinner as a family every night, if possible.

Keep conversation lines with your children open.

Don’t buy love, give love.

Look for signs and cries for help from your children.

Watch for changes in behavior, grades, and friends.

Know the who, where, and when about parties and social events that your children attend. Make sure parents are home and know the family or house of adolescent gatherings.

Have family rules set and stick to them.

Create and emphasize trust with your children.

Be parents first, friends second.

Your child should be willing to have you meet his or her friends.

Ask questions, be informed.

Don’t be afraid to take serious actions right away to ask for and get help.

Address an issue at the first indication of a problem.

Trust your gut feelings and reactions.

It is important for all of us to convey our message to parents, because these are issues that teenagers battle nationwide. We encourage other students to speak out and not be afraid to voice their opinions. All students, at one time or another in their lives, will be faced with a difficult choice to be involved with alcohol and drugs. You as parents are very important people who can help your children to make the right decisions!