Seattle Schools Community Forum

Teen Drinking Rates Drop in NE (from the Office of Public Affairs) During the past four years, drinking rates among northeast Seattle youth have decreased, including a 19 percent drop at Nathan Hale High School and 13 percent decline at Roosevelt High School. These numbers far exceed a statewide average decrease of 5 percent during the same time period. What happened? A panel of students, school administrators, parents, and health and public safety officials will share what they’ve done to prevent underage drinking and support healthy decision-making among teens in Northeast Seattle – and how others can replicate their activities – during a “Celebrate Healthy Youth” community meeting on Monday, Oct. 10. This event is presented by Prevention WINS, a community coalition with the mission of preventing youth substance abuse in northeast Seattle. Monday, Oct. 10th at Nathan Hale High School, 10750 30 th Ave. N.E., from 6:30 - 8:00 p.m .  For more info,   Inga Ma...

I have written about this before but now there is a reason to return to this topic of teen drinking. As you may have heard, there was an incident over at Central Washington U at a house party where a dozen young people, mostlly women, passed out and were taken to a hospital. Initially the thought was that they had been slipped a roofie (date-rape drug) but they weren't. So what was it? It was a type of energy drink called Four Loko. I don't know how this name came about but according to CBS news it has 4 times the caffeine of a soda and 4 times the alcohol level of a beer. So typically, if you are drinking too much, you may get drowsy before you pass out but this thing takes you from zero to sixty and that's why so many of these women just dropped. The University has banned them from campus and now there's a call for them to be banned by the FDA. Both the Governor and state Attorney General Rob McKenna want to ban alcoholic energy drinks. From the Seattle Times: ...

( Update : you'll note, if you take the survey, that it asks a lot of questions about these issues as it pertains to the NE. But Inga said they would be happy to hear from all parents. If you don't feel you can answer those questions, skip them. I think they would like to hear from parents about what you do/don't do in terms of talking to your children about alcohol and drugs.) From our friends at Prevention Works in Seattle, a survey on youth substance abuse. Prevention Works in Seattle , a coalition to prevent youth substance abuse in northeast Seattle, is interested in your views about issues of youth alcohol and marijuana use in our community. Your opinion is important to us. It will help us plan effective substance abuse prevention programs in our community. We would appreciate if you could complete this 10-15 minute survey . We know that individuals might have different opinions about the issues in this survey, so we would like each adult in your household to comp...

In a recent thread, we had some discussion about teens and alcohol/substance abuse. I stated that this is a problem at ALL high schools and I wanted to make clear I meant private schools as well. It is not just a public school problem. There is a group here in Seattle that has been working long and hard on this issue. It's called Prevention Works in Seattle and their program is called Underage Drinking: Not a Minor Problem. It has a NE group and a SW group. It is lead by a smart and hard-working woman named Inga Manskopf who works out of Eckstein. They also have a blog . Here are some events they have coming up: General Coalition Meeting Thursdsay, February 25, 2010 7:30 - 9:00 a.m. Eckstein Middle School Free! Guiding Good Choices parenting workshops Five Thursdays, February 25, March 4, 11, 18, 25, 2010 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. John Rogers Elementary School To register email Lisa Sharp at Seattle Public Schools by clicking here . Free! Guiding Good Choices paren...