Teens in the Media: Barrington? or Borringtown?

Talking Points # 7

Barrington? Or Borringtown? According to an article from SADD entitled ‘Rhode Island Students Against Destructive Decisions Chapter Honored for Promoting Safe and Healthy Decision Making Among Teens’ http://www.sadd.org/press/activity07.htm Barrington’s SADD Program (Students Against Destructive Decisions) received the 2007 National Activity of the Year Award. With this good press promoting teen-to-teen drug and alcohol awareness, it is hard to forget the several teen accident cases related to alcohol just this year http://www.projo.com/ri/barrington/content/EB_BARRBEER18_03-18-08_HQ9DPVC_v9.357d219.html.

The articles I found have two very different takes on teens and their influence to their peer population as well as how the whole community views them. The article on the SADD program in Barrington demonstrated teens efforts to create a campaign called ‘Borrington’ which was put in place “to challenge the idea that the town is boring – an excuse many students give for drinking on the weekends.” Joanne Royley, SADD advisor reports, “Teenagers here blame high rates of underage drinking on a lack of activities for people their age. Our idea was to teach teens that the town is really not boring at all and with a little creativity and imagination, they can find fun, interesting and substance- free activities here.” Students across several ages made T-shirts and posters to paint the town orange to promote their SADD group ‘Borrington!’ They went as far as making a webpage www.borrington.org as well as ran ads in the paper to promote healthy teen activities. What is awesome about the webpage is that it also has a blogish feel with pictures and videos with a forum where students came share their opinion about SADDs ideas. The ‘Borrington’ Group has also tried to raise awareness through open mike ‘nights on the town.’ Penny Wells, President and Executive Director of SADD reports, “The innovation, creativity, and dedication of these SADD students is truly inspiring. They have empowered their friends to make safe, healthy decisions.” This campaign has supported students within the town to challenge the stereotypical drinking activities and “empower” others to do the same. Rock on SADD of Barrington!

On the other hand, there always has to be someone to give teens a bad rap! The article from Projo, entitled ‘5 teens in 2 incidents face alcohol possession counts in Barrington’ begins with such drama. The article opens with “In two Friday night incidents within 40 minutes of each other, the police confiscated more than 150 cans of beer from 10 local teens. Five of them were changes with underage possession of alcohol.” First off, REWIND! Why the dramatic introduction? Where did their parents think they were going? Who gave them the beer? Shocking but some adults actually provide substances to teens ‘as long as they drink in the house!’ Hello! What are we telling our kids? We have to build a good foundation of healthy decisions at home. The article then reports of Joshua Milich was “charged as an adult because he is 18. The other four were sent to Family Court—and their names were withheld by the police—because they are minors.” There goes the Projo belittling teens’ calling them “minors, and COVERING UP their actions.” Projo goes on to mention, “a car was found, and all the passengers were released to their parents, who were called to the scene.” What do the parents have to say? What are the teens involved saying? The article concludes with the police officer reporting that after chasing several teens into the woods, “I observed four very muddy and wet juveniles. All four, two ages 16 and two age 15, were released to the custody of their parents.” This article does a great job at painting a picture that teens are just “juvenile and sneaky” but never once do were hear from a teen or their parents. The flow of the article itself focuses on authority “police and parents” roles to capture reckless teens that “cover up” their actions. I want to know if this is true! I would like to see teens submit an article to describe what happened that night inside of adults who are never willing to learn the other side of a teen’s story! Perhaps, SADD can help!