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Community offers many resources for youth
By Kathy Winkelman
Inherent in drug usage and underage tobacco and alcohol use are consequences like the bust that occurred at Los Gatos High. What the community of Los Gatos must be aware of, is that these consequences are an important part of a vast program of prevention that we have in our town. The elementary and high school districts provide health education to our students each year for the 15 years they are in our schools.
In the last few years, our elementary schools have incorporated character education, concentrating on a character trait each month. D.A.R.E. (Drug Awareness Resistance Education) has been in place in our fifth grades for the past six years, and the majority of the students will write that this program is a significant deterrent to making bad choices about alcohol, tobacco and other drug usage.
Fisher Middle School has offered Club Live for the past nine years. This is a student-run club facilitated by parent and teacher advisors for the purpose of supporting the peer group of non-users. The students plan a social activity each month and participate in community service, such as the Coastal Clean Up, the Peckler Memorial, Los Gatos Beautification Day and more. Once a year Club Live members encourage students to make pledges to stay away from drugs and alcohol and recognize their gifts and goals for the future.
Each year the membership is around 600 students. The Skills For Adolescents Program at Fisher Middle School provides prevention education for all students and their parents. Triad Counselors on campus support the elementary and middle school students.
Los Gatos High School provides prevention education through state and local classes. A couple of years ago, community and school personnel worked to bring the "Every Fifteen Minutes" program to the entire school. This was a two-day dramatization of drunken driving injury, death and jail followed by a mock memorial service attended by the whole school.
There is an annual health fair and speakers several times each year encouraging students to make healthy choices. Counselors and youth workers are on hand. Counseling services are available on campus through the Teen and Family Counseling Center. LGHS has a vice principal of discipline and a resource officer from the Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Department on campus. The school has incorporated the high school D.A.R.E. program into the state and local curriculum.
A mentoring program matching needy youth and adults in the community has been instituted this year. The Link Crew and Peer Counselor programs are also available to students, along with many club and athletic opportunities.
As a community, Community Against Substance Abuse (CASA) provides about $60,000 per year for prevention education, positive alternative social activities for youth, peers helping peers, and parent networking. This organization has been active in Los Gatos for 18 years. Through CASA and the school districts, a nationwide program known as Red Ribbon Week is observed in October of each year. In March, the educational materials, speakers and events are back on campus during Drug Awareness Week. Hundreds of students each year participate in essay and poster contests with drug/alcohol/tobacco prevention themes.
CASA funds Club Live at Fisher and the high school equivalent, known as Friday Night Live, at Los Gatos High. The Club Live News is published at the end of each school year and distributed to each middle school student. Here students can read and see the commitment of their peers to remaining drug and alcohol free. The CASA Column is published five times per year and sent to each middle school and high school family, including CT English and St. Mary's. The CASA Column II is provided twice a year for elementary school families. The latest information is provided on the drug/alcohol climate in our town, resources for parent support, and the calendars for positive social activities for youth, including Club Live, Friday Night Live, and the Outhouse, A Place For Teens.
The Outhouse is a healthy environment for teens and links our local teens with the YMCA for many of that organization's programs. In addition, our local churches have junior high and high school youth programs. Among those churches are St. Mary's, Calvary Church, Los Gatos United Methodist and Los Gatos Presbyterian.
The Los Gatos High and Fisher administration join the local police, Kiwanis, Lions, Rotary, the Teen and Family Counseling Center, church representatives, administration from other schools, such as Leigh High School and Union Middle School, The Outhouse representatives, CASA, and other community members for monthly Drug Free Community Committee meetings run by Chief Larry Todd at the police department.
Our local police are exemplary in their prevention efforts. They teach and finance the D.A.R.E. programs, have resource officers, canine units, a diversion program and now the new Restorative Justice Program, specifically targeted at preventing youth from "losing their lives" to drugs, alcohol and other crimes.
If our Los Gatos youth don't get it after all these efforts, well then there will be consequences. And most often these consequences will be life saving. What parents can do is stay involved throughout their child's middle school and high school years. Please look for a way to be aware of the realities regarding teen alcohol, tobacco and other drug use and get involved in prevention.
Kathy Winkelman is chairman of Community Against Substance Abuse.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
