Teen drinking, SD policy

[gatordog]

Sun article. Good for this young man.

Interesting stuff on 203, 204, others teen alcohol policies


From boozer to cruiser
Alcohol plagued athlete who now wants to be cop



May 10, 2009
By PATRICK MOONEY [e-mail]
Sean Farrell has the 6-foot-1-inch, 190-pound frame of a Division I athlete, the kind of build that should help him pass the physical fitness test at any police academy. Once the senior outfielder graduates from Xavier University, he plans to pursue a career in law enforcement, a choice even he finds ironic.

"Absolutely," Farrell said. "Looking back on it, (I) wouldn't go as far as saying I was in trouble with the law, but I probably didn't make the best decisions."
Across the past few months, Farrell has gone on several ride-alongs in the Cincinnati area, sitting in police cruisers, shadowing officers and observing the job up close. If he ever does become a cop on the beat, he will recognize it instantly.

As Farrell said, "I know the 'Oh (expletive)!' look when a cop drives by."

Farrell was on the other side of the law as a Naperville Central student. Three times he violated District 203's code of conduct for alcohol abuse and as a result was suspended for his entire senior baseball season in 2005.

"I guess it's kind of ironic that maybe I was doing the same things that I might be busting people for," Farrell said, "(But) you got to learn from your mistakes sometimes."

Several years ago, a Benet basketball player was caught smoking marijuana. Marty Gaughan, the coach at the time, wanted him kicked off the team immediately.

The athlete's father didn't want the problem to go away that fast and came up with this proposal: have the kid sit at the end of the bench in a coat-and-tie for every game, so that people would constantly ask him why he wasn't playing.

Gaughan eventually offered the player a spot back in the program if certain conditions were met, but he wasn't interested. Justice isn't always this creative.

The code that brought down Farrell is reviewed annually by parents, coaches and students from both District 203 high schools. Any changes are presented to the board of education, which has the final say. Last year, language was inserted to hold students responsible for what's on the Internet. Administrators needed wording in the code to deal with Facebook and MySpace pages.

Right now, Benet is in the process of writing an athletic code of conduct separate from the student handbook that guides all disciplinary matters. The athletic department would like more control, standards that can be enforced 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Benet hopes to have its new athletic code in place for the beginning of the next school year.

District 203 and 204 students are always on notice. It doesn't matter if an athlete is busted for drugs or alcohol in the summer or out of season. The code applies year-round to all extracurricular activities. You're subject to it if you're the lead in the school play, a member of the chess club or a stud quarterback.

"We have the code in place (to) set boundaries," Central athletic director Marty Bee said. "It's a lot like an athletic contest. If you don't have boundaries for an athletic contest, what would it be like? It would be very confusing.

"That's what codes help do. They help identify for kids the boundaries in which they can make their decisions. If they step out of those boundaries -- just like an athletic contest -- there is a consequence."

Those consequences depend on what school you play for. A second offense for a baseball player in District 203 triggers an 18-game suspension; in 204 it means the athlete sits for one calendar year.

"Both codes go through similar review procedures, and they're adopted for what they feel is best for their students and their communities," Naperville North athletic director Doug Smith said.

You can spin these variances several different ways. Is one district too lenient -- or do those steps help keep a troubled athlete from going off the deep end? Is the other district too harsh, too rigid to deal with a complex problem -- or is the deterrent so strong that it will stop drinking and drug abuse in the first place?

Despite the discrepancies, an athlete can't outrun his punishment by enrolling in another school with a more forgiving policy. Bylaw 3.047 of the Illinois High School Association handbook makes certain of that.

"Under IHSA policy, if a kid transfers, they respect whatever the code is from the previous school," Smith said. "The infraction transfers with them. They can't leave a school to get out of (it)."

In the Naperville area, another set of rules doesn't exist for high-profile athletes. School officials definitely didn't look the other way for three college football recruits at the beginning of the 2007 season. Neuqua Valley's Jeff Radek, who eventually signed with Northwestern, Central's Josh Jelesky (Vanderbilt) and North's Kyle Lackner (Western Michigan) each received suspensions for code violations.

In March, District 204 disciplined two elite athletes. Waubonsie Valley senior Bri Rodriguez -- the state's Gatorade girls soccer player of the year last season -- was suspended four games for violating the code. A second violation cost Neuqua pitcher Ian Krol his senior baseball season. Krol is a likely top pick in next month's amateur draft.

"I'm not gonna sit here and promote underage drinking, but if you're gonna make a decision to do that, I think you gotta be smart about it," Farrell said. "If you're at a party where there's no parents home and there's 150 kids there, I mean you kind of got to get the idea that the cops are gonna get called."

Administrators insist that they are not the police. They don't cruise around on weekends looking for parties and taking down license-plate numbers. They aren't investigators working off anonymous tips and unsigned mystery letters. They have a process.

"(With) a parent saying something or another kid saying something, you got to go research that out, investigate it to find out it's real," Benet athletic director Gary Goforth said. "It's like the sexual abuse allegation. (You) could be accused -- you're found guilty before you're even tried. (And) even if you're acquitted, you're guilty.

"That's how it looks. You don't want that to get to a point where a kid is at a party and they're saying, 'Yeah, he had a cup in his hand. Well, he was drinking all night.' Well, maybe he was drinking water. (You) don't know that."

Benet's student handbook does not contain a clause about being in the presence of alcohol -- regulations are for purchase, possession or consumption.

The Catholic school claims jurisdiction over its grounds and school-sanctioned events. Benet does have a broad statement in the opening section of the handbook that reads: "A student's out-of-school conduct which seriously counters Christian values and morals may be subject to discipline."

But under its current drug and alcohol policy, if a Benet football player is cited at an off-campus party over the summer, he can't be punished once classes begin weeks later. That's why Benet is drafting a more comprehensive athletic code of conduct.

It would be a more effective way to deal with a problem that isn't going away.

"I personally think it's an epidemic," said Bee, Central's athletic director. "Alcohol has always been the drug of choice; it continues to be the drug of choice, and you know we can only do a little bit. So if a code of conduct helps one kid choose not to drink during their high school career, it's successful.

"If it generates some discussion between parents and kids about standards, behavior, then it's a good thing."

Choices aren't as simple or as isolated as drinking or not drinking this weekend. Farrell didn't realize the weight of one particular decision until it was too late. Fearing injury and focusing on baseball, he elected to not play football his senior year.

"My third offense, (I) think, was a Thursday night (before) a Friday game," Farrell recalled, "and obviously if I was playing football, I probably would've been at the pasta party or doing a team thing."

That is Farrell's primary regret. This will sound like denial, but it's not. Farrell didn't have a problem with underage drinking so much as he had a problem with getting caught. He says he hasn't had any issues in college, and to be honest, once he became legal, the party scene lost some of its allure. He says he grew out of it.

"Alcohol, (it's) out there," the 22-year-old said. "The parents know it, the kids know it. ... Being an athlete at Xavier, it's a smaller school, and it's taught me (that) you've really got a bull's-eye on your back."

Farrell, who has worked summer baseball camps at Central, is not a pariah around the program. Central coach Bill Seiple remembers Farrell, who had recently completed his freshman season at Xavier, rushing the field after the Redhawks won a state title in 2006. Farrell was there cheering them on as they boarded the bus afterward.

"I love Sean Farrell," Seiple said. "He was one of my favorites when he played here, and he still is."

Farrell was allowed to practice with the Redhawks during his suspension and prepare for the next level. The punishment did not ruin his baseball career. Entering Saturday, Farrell had made 23 starts for a 28-17 Xavier team and was hitting .286 with 13 RBI.

"Sean had an issue, and we dealt with it. It didn't diminish at all what kind of player, what kind of man he is," Seiple said. "You'll never get me saying anything bad about him."

Farrell, a liberal arts major, is nine credits away from graduation. Baseball was taken away from him before, and it will be again.

"It's really flying by," Farrell said. "I always catch myself sitting back and looking from the outside in, thinking I got three weeks left of baseball, and I'm done."

Farrell, who might one day see a part of himself in those teenagers, wants to wear a blue uniform now.

[gatordog]

a related article


Teens back on bottle
Alcohol proving that it has staying power as teens' major drug of choice

Comments

May 10, 2009
By TIM WALDORF [e-mail]
Striding through Naperville Central High School's parking lot -- five, maybe 10 minutes before the dismissal bell sounds -- was a kid who looked like a rock star: dark clothing, dark sun glasses, dark spikey hair, a scraggly goatee and a black lightning bolt for an earring.

Surely he's a boozer.

"I decided a long time ago that I didn't want to drink because my buddy became an alcoholic," said the 17-year-old, seated behind the wheel of his SUV, waiting for friends to arrive. "He got sent away to a detox clinic, got kicked out of his house and eventually fell back into it. So it kind of just gave me an example of why not to do it. So I don't drink.

"And my parents brought me up pretty well," he added. "I don't feed into the whole peer pressure thing. I figure you don't have to drink to be cool."

A few cars down, though, it's a different story.

Two girls -- long blonde hair, flip-flops, shorts, T-shirts, just like most other girls streaming out of the school -- chatted away, just to kill time after class. They openly admit they imbibe. One of them -- an 18-year-old -- admits to having stopped for a while because of the trouble it cause her. But she recently took up the bottle again, despite the price she has paid.

"I got in trouble," she said. "One of my friends, after coming home from my house, he was drunk. He got thrown out of a car, and he was declared clinically dead for five minutes. I got into a lot of trouble for that," she said. "I didn't get into any trouble with the law or anything that time, but my parents wanted me to go to an alcohol and drug education class ... and also they said if you get caught with this (expletive) again, you're in so much trouble.

"Then another time, I got a drinking ticket, and they said, 'That's it,'" she added. "They made me go to Alcoholics Anonymous. They made me go to rehab. They made me go to the drug and alcohol class again ... It scared the (expletive) out of me."

The fear was temporary. She's an adult (18 or over) now, and her parents can't tell her what to do, she said. So she'll have a drink if she wants one.

"I was totally sober for like a year, and then I just started drinking again," she said. "It is not every single weekend like it used to be freshman and sophomore year. No, it's just every so often."

Then there's the student waiting to catch a ride. Baggy shorts, T-shirt and a mop of brown hair tucked beneath a backward baseball cap. He's obviously younger than the others. He doesn't drink, and he tells his friends they shouldn't, but some of them still do, he said.

"I don't because I don't want to regret anything," he said.

So two out of three don't drink.

Funny, that's what the statistics say, too.

Not a small number
Those stats are promoted on posters placed all over area high schools as part of the "Power of Choice" advertising campaign. "Power of Choice" is a product of the five-year Social Norms Marketing Campaign conducted by NCO Youth and Family Services, school districts 203 and 204, Breaking Free, the Naperville Police Department, the DuPage County Health Department, Linden Oaks Hospital and Center for Prevention Research and Development at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
And that Social Norms Marketing campaign was built upon surveys -- surveys taken anonymously every year by every Naperville area high school student of the past five years. Those surveys consistently show that two out of three kids haven't had so much as a sip of alcohol in the past month.

Do the math, though. It's not exactly a small number.

Combined, there are about 15,000 students attending Naperville Central, Naperville North, Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley high schools. This month, school will wind down, summer vacation will start and about 5,000 of them will go to parties and illegally partake of some form of alcohol.

Sound good to you?

"We always say if we were lying to them, we'd make the numbers better," said Sany Stelmach, a retired Naperville School District 203 administrator who has been an organizer of these campaigns since their inception.

Still, there's good news in these numbers.

First and foremost, there are the 10,000 students who won't drink. They're the foundation of the campaign, which aims to address teen substance abuse problems by using facts to adjust students' perceptions of issues like smoking, drug abuse and, of course, underage drinking. The idea is that facts will empower kids to make better, healthier choices.

"Then intent of the whole campaign is to tell them, 'This is what is true, so make your decision based on the facts, not what you think is happening," Stelmach said.

For instance, in their surveys, students said they suspected only 19 percent of their peers hadn't had a drink in the past 30 days, but the same survey showed that 69 percent of them hadn't had a drink in the past month.

"We have to let them know that the majority of students still aren't drinking," Stelmach said. "That most kids are making healthy decisions."

What parents said
But the campaign didn't stop with kids. It polled parents, too -- 52 percent of them responded.
And, contrary to what your kids might tell you, they aren't that relaxed and ready to party.

"What we found in the parent surveys, just as in the student surveys, is that their perceptions are wrong," Stelmach said.

According to these survey results, 87 percent of the parents set up curfews for their kids, and 76 percent don't go to sleep at night until their kids come home. Also, 78 percent regularly discuss family rules about drinking with their kids, and 81 percent outline the consequences of breaking those rules.

Also, these surveys indicate that kids don't cite co-curricular codes and strict local laws as the reasons they don't drink.

"My parents would kill me," said a 16-year-old Neuqua teen when asked to explain why he doesn't drink.

Seventy-three percent of all students surveyed -- and 92 percent of the students who said they didn't drink -- said they choose not because they didn't want to get in trouble with their parents. Also, 72 percent said they didn't drink because they didn't want to disappoint their parents.

"I don't think I'd be as afraid of getting in trouble with my parents I was would be of letting them down," a 15-year-old girl said. "I really respect my parents, and I value how they have raised me, and I think I would kind of be letting them down."

Skeptics say these surveys produce stats that paint a picture of Naperville's teen drinking problem that's far rosier than reality.

"I don't know where they get those numbers from, but, to be honest with you, I really don't think those numbers are true," said a 17-year-old Neuqua student as he climbed into his car. "There's a lot more drinking than most people would think ... It is usually at a lot of places where I go."

Begrudgingly, he admitted that he drinks from time to time.

"If I do drink, it is usually done responsibly," he said." I don't have to worry about driving. I won't drink if I have to drive."

Other students are a bit surprise by the results, but they don't doubt their credibility.

"Usually the kids that say the statistics are bogus are the kids that hang out with a lot of drinkers," said a 16-year-old Neuqua girl.

She, of course, doesn't drink and doesn't often hang out with kids who do.

"I play sports, and I'm in other school activities, so I don't want to get into any trouble," she said. "I don't want to disappoint myself. I don't want to disappoint my parents."

Another 15-year-old Neuqua girl recalled the first time she saw these survey results. She didn't believe them at first, but, after thinking about it, concluded that they're probably accurate.

But she said, that doesn't necessarily make life any easier for the two out of three students who don't drink.

"It's kind of tough sometimes being someone that doesn't do that, and then you're surround by people who do," she said. "It is kind of like, 'Well, maybe I'm missing out.'"

Then again, she said, she sees how some kids behave when they've been drinking and the problems it has caused them.

"With some of them, you see what it does to them, and you go, 'Oh, I don't want to do that,' because some of them are pretty screwed up."