Community Conversation Takes Up Underage Drinking

By Eliza Hallabeck

Almost four months after this year’s first Community Conversation meeting was held to discuss the issue of underage drinking, community members met again to discuss the topic further and to come up with action items to move the conversation forward.

The Saturday, April 10, morning meeting of the conversation had people sitting in Reed Intermediate School’s library for breakfast before being introduced, or in most cases reintroduced as returning Community Conversation participants, to the topic.

Assistant Superintendent of Schools Linda Gejda spoke during the morning’s introduction. Dr Gejda explained that a slideshow, which had been playing while people ate and arrived at the meeting, showed information gathered during the most recent yearly survey of students in Newtown asking them to respond on the topic of alcohol and drug use.

The survey was conducted in April 2009, and the yearly gathered information is used to both track usage and compare Newtown to what is happening at a national level.

“Just to summarize,” Dr Gejda said, “30 percent of students who responded to the survey, between the ages of 12 and 17, have responded that they have used alcohol. Of those who responded they have used alcohol, approximately 17 percent of them say they were drinking to get drunk.”

As Dr Gejda continued her introduction, she said the survey also showed students who had parents who remained active in their school career showed to be the most successful students in the survey.

“There are effective programs,” she said, “that can address these issues, and they should be supported by communities. Because those who get community support will most likely reach more positive results.”

Underage drinking has been shown to have negative impacts on family, school, and community experiences, said Dr Gejda.

Speaking after Dr Gejda, District Health Coordinator Judy Blanchard explained the first meeting of the community conversation briefly. In January, more than 100 people had discussed opinions on underage drinking, identified points of agreement and areas of concern, and suggested next steps for reducing underage drinking in Newtown.

“We really tried on our first conversation to open the discussion to various points of view, to nonjudgmentally allow people to voice their opinions of underage drinking in Newtown,” said Ms Blanchard.

Areas of agreement and disagreement were discovered during that meeting, said Ms Blanchard, and those were used to move the conversation further on Saturday. Participants received a list of the reoccurring points of interest from the first meeting to begin the second conversation.

After the shared breakfast, participants broke into small groups to work on initiatives for students, families, school, and the community. Small group plans were then shared with the larger group. The Newtown Prevention Council will use these results to initiate programs in the area.

The event was sponsored by the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund, the Newtown Prevention Council and Newtown Public Schools.