Welcome back to the snow belt, Mark Wagner!
So. . . which state does Mark like better? When we asked him, he looked like he couldn't believe the question. Turns out he'd grown quite accustomed to West Palm Beach. (Go figure.) Mark said his best subject at Columbus Junior High School is computer science. He hopes to get a computer of his own soon. But Mark isn't entirely a techno-dude. He also has an artistic side ­ having acted in the school musical, "Tom Sawyer," earlier this school year. (He played Huck Finn.) As a seventh grader, Mark appeared in "HMS Pinafore," where he took the part of a common sailor. Don't blame boysRemoving boys from the classroom fails to improve girls' performance in school even though it leaves them more confident, says a new study. The report released by the American Association of University Women comes six years after the group asserted that girls were receiving an inferior education in the nation's public schools. The results: Interest in all-girls' schools and girls-only math and science classes. The AAUW surveyed dozens of studies on single-sex education and found that while girls prefer single-sex education and report increased confidence and improved attitudes about math and science, they do not show a measurable improvement in academic skill. So girls, if you are flunking, don't blame it on guys. As the guys say: "No duh!" "FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE"New teen coffee house opens it's door once a month, starting April 17, at 6 p.m. "Crooked Smile" band, food, movies, mime ... and fun! FNL event will be in the Geneva Community Center, $5 at the door. It's located on Rt. 20, next to the Dairy Mart, parking in back. There is also the lure of some great door prizes. Check it out. |
Leslie Anne Baltz had been drinking heavily before she died last November in a fall down a flight of stairs. In fact, the 21-year-old honors student may have died after observing what some students claim is a longtime custom among University of Virginia (UVA) seniors ­ the "fourth-year fifth" ­ downing a fifth of liquor before the football team's last home game.
Baltz's friends left her sleeping on an upstairs couch and went to the game. Upon returning, they found her unconscious at the foot of the stairs. She was rushed to the university medical center, where she died. Her blood-alcohol level was 0.27 percent ­ more than three times the state's legal limit for intoxication.
Baltz, of Reston, Va., was the fifth Virginia college student in less than two months to die following a night of heavy drinking. A few weeks earlier, Melinda Somers, a Virginia Polytechnic Institute (VPI) freshman, apparently rolled out of bed and through an open eighth-floor dormitory window. She had been drinking heavily at a Halloween party.
Somers' death prompted Virginia's attorney general to form a task force of college presidents, students and health experts to find ways of curbing alcohol abuse on campuses. UVA President John Casteen sent out a letter after Baltz's death calling for the community "to learn how to change a culture that too often considers alcohol abuse a normal stage of growing up."
The deaths of Somers and Baltz were the latest in a string of campus alcohol-related tragedies. In September, 18-year-old Massachusetts Insti-tute of Technology (MIT) freshman Scott Krueger died after an off-campus party at the fraternity he was pledging. He had an alcohol level of 0.41 ­ more than five times the legal limit. A month earlier, fraternity pledge Benjamin Wynne died after a Sigma Alpha Epsilon party at Louisiana State University. He had an alcohol level of 0.58, nearly six times the state's legal limit.
Just how widespread alcohol abuse is on campus depends on whom you ask and how you define "binge drinking."
According to a 1993 Harvard School of Public Health study of more than 17,000 students, 44 percent had engaged in binge drinking, or five drinks in a row within a short period for men, and four drinks for women.
"While there has been an overall decline in drinking in American society as a whole, recent studies have shown no proportionate decline among college students," said Henry Wechsler, director of College Alcohol Studies at the Harvard Department of Health and Social Behavior. "The same student can be a healthy drinker or a binge drinker, depending on who writes the story," says Michael Haines, coordinator of Health Enhancement Services at Northern Illinois University, in DeKalb. He argues that the term "binge drinking" conjures up images of "the lost weekend" and being intoxicated for long periods. He defines binge drinking as taking 14-21 drinks in a 12-to-24-hour period.
Furthermore, Haines says, Wechsler's Harvard study creates the impression that binge drinking is the norm, when the reality is that most students do not harm themselves by their drinking. Indeed, he says, exaggerating the severity of the problem makes it worse, because youths tend to follow what they think their peers are doing.
Wechsler defends his study's binge-drinking definition, pointing to the health, social and academic problems connected with binge drinking. Students defined as binge drinkers in the study were up to 10 times more likely to drive after drinking compared with non-binge drinkers. And they had up to a 25 percent greater chance of experiencing at least one of several alcohol-related problems, he says, such as getting behind in schoolwork and unplanned and unprotected sexual activity. Binge drinkers also cause problems for other students, Wechsler says, ranging from "date rape" to having to baby-sit a drunken friend.
In light of such problems, college administrators consider reducing alcohol abuse as one of their biggest challenges. Many find that the age-21 drinking minimum makes it difficult to teach students responsible drinking when most of them are not supposed to be drinking in the first place. Some argue that a lower drinking age would help colleges monitor student drinking and help promote more moderate drinking behavior.
Yet when Virginia's then-Attorney General Richard Cullen suggested last November that the state task force should consider looking into lowering the drinking age, lawmakers strongly objected. Many pointed to national traffic-fatality statistics that show a sharp drop in alcohol-related fatalities for drivers ages 18-20 since the age-21 limit was adopted nationwide.
Because of the drinking-age law, colleges are often faced with one of two options, neither very appealing: trying to ban alcohol and running the risk of off-campus parties that turn tragic; or looking the other way when underage students imbibe while trying to teach them how to drink responsibly.
For many students, heavy drinking is part of the college experience. "A lot of students have no intention of having only two or three drinks but drink to get plastered, ploughed, blitzed ­ there are a thousand and one words for it," says Rich Zeolia, a 22-year-old senior at the University of Maryland at College Park. "They say, 'I want to get so drunk I get sick.' That's the culture."
When it comes to drinking, studies show that many kids take their first drink in middle school between the ages of 10 and 14. Yet many parents don't even bring up the subject of alcohol until high school. And when they do, they're often not sure what to say. But experts say that just telling kids to say ``No'' to underage drinking isn't always enough.
In an effort to help parents teach their children about drinking, several organizations ­ including some affiliated with the alcohol industry ­ produce materials and videos aimed at helping parents talk about alcohol with their children.
In the 30-minute video ``Ready or Not: Talking with Kids about Alcohol,'' middle-school students cite several reasons why they or their friends drink, such as curiosity, peer pressure, looking for excitement, stress reduction, rebellion and trying to be an adult.
The video also outlines five ways parents can prevent underage drinking:
It is also important to set clear consequences for drinking and to enforce them. And kids need help dealing with peer pressure to drink, according to the video.
If parents discover that a child has been drinking, they should find out how much they had and make sure they are safe, the video advises. Parents should remain calm and discuss the matter after the child's intoxication ­ and the parent's anger ­ wear off.
There were plenty of people who did drink on campus, many of whom were underage. There were also weekend parties and binge drinking. A dormitory resident assistant remembers having to take a student to the hospital for alcohol poisoning.
Kathy Cunningham, a religious educator and writer in Bowie who has two sons, says it is important for parents to talk with their teens about drinking. ``Telling your kids the 'facts of life' involves talking about a whole lot more than sex,'' she says. She has talked with her sons, 17-year-old Dan and his brother Kyle, 13, about drinking and its consequences.
Drinking and driving is one of her biggest concerns. When Dan goes to parties, she asks if alcohol is being served and tells him he can always call for a ride home. She knows Dan doesn't drink but that other teens do and might want him to get in the car with them.
``It's hard to tell a friend, 'You're too drunk to drive' `` she says. ``I would even have a hard time with that.''
When Dan has parties at their house, no alcohol is served, and he tells his friends not to bring any.
Thinking back to her drinking experiences in college, Cunningham admits she did drink and drive.
``I didn't think much about it. And I was a smart kid,'' she says. ``Now I think what an idiot I was.''
Mark, 14, moved back to the Ashtabula Harbor two years ago,
after a brief residence in the Sunshine State (a.k.a. Florida).