Monday, December 01, 2008

Survey results show TV, peers not biggest influence

By ROSALIO AHUMADA
rahumada@modbee.com

last updated: April 17, 2008 02:47:37 AM

The biggest influence pushing Stanislaus County teens toward alcohol isn't TV or the Internet, celebrities or music. It's not even gang or peer pressure.

According to survey results presented Wednesday night at a teen alcohol forum, it's the attitude of parents that most often drives teens to drink.

Michael Rokaitis and Sydney Featherstone, both 17-year-old high school students, provided the results at a public discussion about underage drinking sponsored by the Center for Human Services and the Stanislaus County Office of Education.

About 30 people attended the town-hall style discussion at the Martin G. Petersen Event Center in downtown Modesto.

This negative influence comes from parents ignoring underage drinking, abusing alcohol themselves or hosting drinking parties for their children and their friends, said Michael, a Beyer High senior.

"And that's just contributing to teen alcoholism," he said about parents who host drinking parties for minors. "That's still breaking the law."

About 75 high school students from throughout the county attended a previous teen forum in March. That was the second year for the forum, but it was the first time teen facilitators like Sydney and Michael led the frank conversations.

"We wanted a safe atmosphere, so they could come and talk openly and honestly," said Sydney, a Ceres High senior.

A panel of experts from law enforcement, education, the medical community and substance abuse treatment programs joined the students on stage Wednesday. They answered questions on underage drinking issues such as talking to children about alcohol, abuse recovery programs, party patrol and social host ordinances.

Edwin Rivera, a county behavioral health specialist, said the effort to punish adults who host drinking parties for minors has gained a lot of momentum, with Modesto and several other cities passing social host ordinances. Patterson adopted such an ordinance Tuesday.

Cultural tradition also appeared in the survey results as a way parents influence their children. Sydney shared a story of another teen who drank shots of tequila with his parents and grandparents.

"A lot of parents don't talk to their kids about alcohol, because they don't think it's wrong for teens to be drinking," said Jenny Bates of Mental Health Systems Inc., a Modesto teen recovery center. "It's a rite of passage."

Party patrol is another enforcement strategy to reduce the number of underage drinking parties, said Modesto police Detective Jim Rokaitis, who coordinates party patrol operations.

"We focus most of our attention around graduation season," Rokaitis said. "Also after school starts and during football season. We were out very Friday and Saturday in May, June and July of last year."

Rokaitis manages a state grant for Modesto police that funds alcohol enforcement operations throughout the county. Curbing teenage drinking runs in the Rokaitis family; Michael Rokaitis is his son.

Michael said he has found himself at parties where his friends drink alcohol, but he turns down their offers to join them. He said he nominates himself as the designated driver and offered this piece of advice to other teenagers facing peer pressure: "An easy way out is saying if my parents catch me, I'm dead."

Bee staff writer Rosalio Ahumada can be reached at rahumada@modbee.com or 578-2394.

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