Group's ads urge parents to face reality of teen drinking

A staged "arrest" that will be used for TAP anti-drinking ads. photo by Jim Mitchell Sisters teens drink. Yet many parents prefer to think that the problems associated with teens and alcohol won't affect their kid.

A community activist group wants to get parents to think again about that assumption.

The group calls itself TAP: for "Think Again Parents." Formerly known as the Community Assets Coalition Committee, the group looked for a more descriptive and dynamic name with an easily recognized acronym. Al Boyette, committee member, came up with TAP.

The group has focused on an upcoming media campaign to alert parents that all may not be right with their teenagers.

With the guidance of Robin Marshall of the Commission on Children and Families, TAP, through regular meetings and interviews with Sisters school personnel, juvenile officers, and teenagers themselves, has zeroed in on a frequently mentioned problem: Students have revealed that getting alcohol in Sisters is not a problem for underage drinkers. Many say it is available from older friends.

But a significant number mention parents as a source -- with or without the parents' knowledge.

According to teens, some parents willingly offer alcohol to their children with the belief that, "If they get it here, we will know about it, we can control it, and they won't have to go elsewhere to experiment." Other parents make it readily available through unwillingness to control the alcohol they keep in their homes. And then there are those who just don't care or who may have an alcohol-related problem that prevents them from seeing outside themselves.

Students say there is a general denial by parents when it comes to the extent of teen drinking in Sisters. TAP says, Think again parents. Do you really know where your teens are when they've gone "camping?" To "oldsters" camping means tents, campfires, sleeping out. But to many of today's teens, camping has come to mean partying in the woods. And partying equates to drinking.

Many parents deny that their children drink alcohol outside their home. TAP says, Think again parents.

Sisters students, relocated from larger cities, have cited "nothing to do" as the reason for partying and drinking. One visiting out-of-towner, when asked what there was to do in Sisters, was told by a local gas station attendant, "self-medicate." The TAP committee, SOAR, and others are researching additional recreational outlets for the youth of Sisters.

Eric Beckwith, Community Justice Officer for Deschutes County, works with Sisters Teens Organizing Prevention (STOP), a group of Sisters High School students who are also looking for a solution to teen drinking. Recently he supervised six STOP students in the recording of several radio ads with the Think Again Parents theme. The Oregon Partnership financed a schedule of 40 spots which KBND matched for a total of 80.

TAP followed up with a photo shoot in Sisters to provide material for a series of newspaper ads with the same theme. Funding comes through a grant from the Commission on Children and Families. TAP committee members' time is donated.

Next will be a video shoot by Bob and Rick Johnson of Sisters' Fluid Images to create television ads to support the program. Fluid Images is charging only for their filming crews for which, again, the Oregon Partnership will provide funding.

The Oregon Partnership is a non-profit organization whose mission is to help Oregon communities prevent substance abuse. It has released statistics about underage alcohol use: In the last month 42 percent of Oregon 11th graders and 26 percent of Oregon eighth graders used alcohol.

The Commission on Children and Families of Deschutes County "promotes local responsibility for the health of our communities, our children and families."

Beckwith summed up the goal of TAP: "Our goal is to help kids be safe by reaching their parents and start them thinking about what their kids are really up to when they are out and about."

Al Boyette, the idea-man behind the media campaign, added, "We took a long hard look at what is the best way to attack the issue of substance abuse with young people. We decided we would focus on the parents, getting the parents to realize what is going on, and getting them to 'think again' about it.

"In many cases, the kids really do have the parents trained."

Jim Mitchell is a member of the Assets Coalition/TAP Committee.