Groups look to change fact that Gilroy kids rank in top quarter
percentile within the state
Gilroy – Local teens are drinking at consistently higher rates than the state average and Gilroy ranks in the top quarter percentile for binge drinking, according to the latest results of the California Healthy Kids Survey.
Student responses indicate that alcohol is easy to obtain and many believe using is not a big deal. Meanwhile, local school officials are noticing drug use is on the rise, especially methamphetamine and ecstasy.
However, some are trying to change all that.
The South County Collaborative, a group of local nonprofits and social service agencies, is sponsoring a substance abuse prevention plan for youth and adults designed to change the attitudes individuals in the city have towards drug and alcohol use, creating a healthier environment in the process. The group received a $75,000 grant to start the prevention plan.
“I think right now drugs are talked about nonchalantly,” said Tom Hernandez, academic counselor for El Portal Leadership Academy. “I think it kind of trickles down to the youth and they become desensitized to it. We’re seeing more drug use from the freshman class than we have had in the past,” he said. “We’ve seen a rise in meth(ampehtamine) use and ecstasy use.”
These were not habits students learned upon entering ninth grade, they were problems developed while still in middle school, he explained.
“It was students you wouldn’t think either,” he said. “These are the kids that if they had some prevention, maybe wouldn’t have started using.”
Hernandez joined the prevention partnership with six El Portal students and is hoping the group will be able to establish an anti-drug movement.
“I would like to see a change in the culture in Gilroy, in the mindset of people,” he said. “If we can just get a lot of students against (drugs), I know it would make a difference.”
He believes the group needs to find ways to create drug and alcohol free activities at risk students will want to attend.
The El Portal students participating in the group helped devise a questionnaire students in focus groups across the city will take to help figure out what kids want and need.
According to figures in the 2003-04 Healthy Kids Survey, 25 percent of freshman responded that they drank at least four times in the past year. By junior year, almost half of students used alcohol within the past month and even more said they had been sick from being drunk.
Perhaps more frightening is that 37 percent of juniors responded they had driven after drinking and 60 percent said it was very easy to obtain alcohol.
The rising use of drugs and alcohol among students is not isolated to one school or one specific area of town.
“They’re noticing it all over,” said Dina Campeau, chairperson for South County Collaborative. “It’s been a real difficult year in terms of use.”
According to Campeau, the county and federal government have determined that prevention programs have more of a long term effect on the community.
“What we’re hoping to do is to create prevention activities and then have enough momentum to plan for more intervention,” she explained. “We’re targeting adults as well because we know this is just as big an issue for the adult here as well as with youth.”
The substance abuse prevention program’s focus is on implementing environmental strategies that will alter the way the community views alcohol and drugs use.
For example, one way might be to talk to liquor stores about removing advertisements that target teens or promote a fantasy associated with alcohol.
According to Campeau, one San Jose neighborhood organized and spoke with the wine maker of a brand of fortified wine that local convenience stores were selling to homeless users who would get drunk and loiter in the park. The company offered to stop selling it to the stores.
“That’s the kind of environmental things that we’re talking about,” she said.
By July the group intends to have an assessment of what the community needs and determine a plan of action for making it happen. Surveys will be distributed to schools, parents, and at the migrant camps.
But the plan will not stop with just prevention. Campeau is hoping the group will gain enough momentum and push for more intervention services in South County.
Currently, there are no Narcotics Anonymous or Alcoholics Anonymous programs for youth in South County. There is only one counselor designated for students with substance abuse problems at both Mount Madonna Continuation High School and Gilroy High School.
Both the federal and county budgets went sour about five years ago, forcing a lot of preventative programs to fall by the wayside, said President of Community Solutions Erin O’Brien.
Adolescent treatment preventative education programs were slashed and the human services nonprofit had to limit its services three years ago, she said.
But the problem was not just rolling back program offerings, but not having enough in the first place.
“I don’t think in South County we’ve ever had enough,” O’Brien said.
However, Community Solutions has started accepting referrals from the juvenile probation office for intervention treatment.
But that is treating problems that already exist, not preventing them.
“There’s just a real dearth of substance abuse programs and educational programs for kids,” she said. “It’s a big issue for kids and it’s not something the community is comfortable with, but it is a common issue.”
She believes part of solving the problem is to provide a different picture of what is acceptable and what is not for teens.
“If we were to pick, do you want prevention, or do you want intervention?” she asked. “You need it all along the way.”
