Youngsters still fall prey to alcohol

I read the news today, oh boy.

With apologies to John Lennon and the Beatles, it is the time of year again to discuss young people – who may be athletes or not – and the many pitfalls of consuming alcohol and driving drunk.

Like most spring and summer months, the news is filled again with the tragic end-result of drinking and driving.

I spent 34 years in the professions of teaching and coaching. It was spring which always gave me pause for concern and made me the most nervous.

For the record, I have received too many late night calls about a student or a player who died after a night of merriment. The erroneous assumption of invincibility among this age group has led to more than one disaster.

I don’t apologize for this annual message. In fact, as an educator, this theme was always constant, regardless of the season.

Some of the saddest days in my personal and professional life centered around funerals and wakes for those young people, who never had the opportunity to blossom into adulthood, raise families, or pursue careers.

Thoughts today, then, turn to possible solutions educators and parents can turn to in an effort to help alleviate and eliminate this terrible dilemma which Maine and other states face.

From my perspective, parents can never speak to this issue too much. A parent’s greatest fear is that phone call, telling them about an automobile accident incident involving one of their precious children. Knowing the full picture and schedule before a teenager departs is pretty much standard procedure in most households. Not knowing the sundry interruptions and stops along the way is often where the trouble begins.

Cell phones can alleviate a lot of the mystery, but they can be turned off by kids. Stress to your kids the need for keeping lines of communication open during their entire night out.

Parents, do not – I repeat -do not succumb to the trendy notion of purchasing alcoholic beverages for minors and hosting the so-called party for safety purposes.

Not only are you breaking the law, but you are also opening up another can of worms by giving these young people an opportunity to slip away drunk and have their own party with the booze you purchased.

For coaches and school personnel, it is a prudent idea to call on your student leaders to begin the message of smart decisions. Athletes may often be the guilty parties, but many of their peers look up to and admire this select group of young people in a school building.

Make sure any decision you make along these lines is cleared by an administrator. Don’t leave your boss hanging with his or her school superintendent or school committee by taking it upon yourself to take such action.

And finally, group efforts by all of the aforementioned parties to stem the flow of alcohol this time of the year can help.

As an educator, I never felt I could preach enough about the dangers of the season. Beating that drum daily when in the company of young people may save one life or prevent an accident. And that, my friends, would make the effort worthwhile.

30-Second Time Out

I couldn’t help thinking about longtime Piscataquis Community High School of Guilford teacher and baseball coach Dave Gaw as I watched the Red Sox go from a winning streak to a losing streak and then back to winning three times before dropping Sunday’s final game in Arizona.

“Streaks follow streaks,” Dave used to say. The former UMaine hardball slugger knew his stuff. In the high school ranks in Maine, there may never have been a better coach.

BDN columnist Ron Brown, a retired high school basketball coach, can be reached at bdnsports@bangordailynews.net