By Joyce Coronel
As a new school year gets underway, the Tempe Coalition wants parents to know there’s plenty they can do to help keep their kids safe and drug-free. And they’re not just talking about it—they’re offering concrete assistance:
A “Keep Your Kids Safe” town hall meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 12 at Corona del Sol High School, 1001 E. Knox Road.
Dara Gibson, Tempe Coalition Coordinator, spoke to Wrangler News about how the organization seeks to educate and inform parents.
“We are a group of 25 community-minded individuals that work to keep our youth safe,” Gibson said.
“Our goal is to reduce underage drinking and drug abuse.”
The town hall meeting at Corona will feature several presenters, including Stephanie Siete, director of community education for Community Bridges Inc., a behavioral health provider. Siete will address the use of drugs and alcohol by youth and how risky behaviors can affect brain development.
Gibson hammered home the point. “We try to work to educate parents about the current trends and the harm that drugs do to developing brains—the brain is still developing and will be until they’re 25 years old.”
Representatives from Drug Free Kids AZ, The Pathway Program, the Arizona Liquor Control Board and other organizations will also be on hand to answer questions.
Catherine Anaya, a local media personality and former TV news anchor, will moderate the event.
Topics such as recognizing the signs or symptoms of abuse, how to safeguard the home and where to drop off unused prescription drugs will also be examined. The drug-drop-off information is crucial: 80 percent of heroin users report that they started out by using prescription pain relievers.
Another focus of the Tempe Coalition and the town hall meeting is to help parents develop guidelines for teens’ social media use, a potential minefield.
Katey McPherson, executive director of Gurian Institute, will explain how to manage kids’ social media and how to minimize their risk. Dr. Norman Saba, a pediatrician, will lend his expertise on peer pressure and mental health as it pertains to social media use.
According to the Megan Meir Foundation, named for a 13-year-old girl who committed suicide in 2006, 43 percent of students report experiencing cyber bullying during their lifetime and some 22 million students in grades 9-12 experienced cyber bullying in 2011.
According to her parents, she was a victim of cyber bullying through the social media website MySpace.
Bullying isn’t the only social media pitfall, however. The town hall will address the apps teens use to hide other apps, sexting, and what to do if a child is attracting the attention of a predator.
“What we hope for parents to gain is for them to understand that social media does influence kids, that drugs and alcohol can influence their grades, their future and have long-term consequences,” Gibson said. “A lot of our messaging is around what we call positive community norms.”
Rather than shaming and blaming, in other words, the coalition tells parents that 40 percent of kids who don’t use drugs say their reason is that they wouldn’t want to disappoint their parents.
“We tell parents, ‘Keep talking to your kids,’” Gibson said. “We try to reinforce what they’re doing positive so they know that they are taking steps to influence their children’s lives.”
Tempe Coalition works in partnership with the city of Tempe and the Tempe Community Council and is funded by a grant from the Drug Free Communities Support Program. To learn more about Tempe Coalition’s substance abuse initiatives, visit tempecoalition.org or email Dara_Gibson@tempe.gov.
