Falmouth High School - Clipper Compact Yearbook (Falmouth, MA)

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for your help. A Drug and Alcohol Program was held for the FHS winter athletes where once again Mr. and Mrs. McGuire spoke along with Falmouth Police Chief Paulino Rodriques. I ' m the last person you want to run into, Chief Rodriques told the ath- letes. You kids have to realize, however, that everyone is here to help you. You students, he contin- ; ued, do not have any right to alco- holic beverages, period. And I ' m going to try as hard as I can to pre- vent you from buying alcohol. Even in sociology the problems of alcoholism were addressed by guest speaker Jack Demello, the newely elected Barnstable County Sherriff. When speaking to Mrs. Courtney ' s class he said that all al- coholics are sick because alcohol- ism is a disease, but it is the sober alcoholic who must realize and face his or her problem with alcohol. Mr. Demello said that alcoholism is a progressive disease, this means that as an alcoholic gets older, the prob- lem worsens. He encouraged stu- dents to go into an alcoholism clinic if they or someone they know has a drug or alcohol problem. Guilt en- ergizes; shame paralysis, he said, urging students to take action to help an alcoholic. Mrs. Courtney took an in-class survey on the num- ber of students who drink alcohol. Only five out of twenty-two (less than 23%) students said that they do not drink. According to the sur- vey, almost all of the students who drink on weekends do not drink on week days. The variety and amount of alcohol consumed ranges from a six-pack of beer or a four-pack of wine coolers to a pint of Jack Dan- iels whiskey or three-quarters of a bottle of vodka. 15

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lem of chugging alcohol alone. Mrs. McGuire stated that in her opinion the student leaders are the kids who are the most vulnerable to drinking too much alcohol. She said that these kids are under great stress to perform well, whether on tests or in sports. In her remarks to the teach- ers, Mrs. McGuire asked, How can we make alcohol seem uncool to students?” and answered, We have to reach the real leaders - our student athaletes to make this hap- pen. My husband and I are commit- ted to saving other lives. We are doing it for Ted and we are asking 14

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In the school newspaper, The Stu- dent Intelligencer, there was an av- erage of almost an article a week on the subject of drugs, ranging from Alternatives Needed For Weekend Activities ' ' to As Abuse Problem Becomes Clearer, Preven- tative Measures Increase. ' ' The first article mentioned, dealt with why teenagers reverted to alcohol for weekend fun”. Is it because there are not many alternatives, or are we just not looking?” In the article, writer Lorrie Coronella discusses, What else is there to do? Most of us are tired of the movies scene week- teams to refrain from alcohol use. Weekend parties do not aid in this commitment. Each year the prob- lem of alcohol use increases among youth. Kids have to realize that the consumption of alcohol is not re- quired. I hope that, with the recent death of Ted McGuire, kids have re- considered their definition of a good time”. I realize the voices of kids often go unheard, but the fac- ulty is with us in the effort to create alternatives for weekend activities. In an article in Septembers Time Magazine The topic is the problem ure sulks in an alley and holds an odd contraption to his mouth. The voice- over cites statistics on the use of something called crack , speaks of billions spent this year alone on illegal drugs, of the alarming rise of this, the terrifying appearance of that. Green fields in Columbia. Boliv- ia. John Belushi. Len Bias. Not the world of Ozzie and Harriet but the world alongside it. A small world within a world where the pop- ulation looks either sinister or dead, and the language is jazz or chemis- try. Set me straight, man” Got any splim? red? strawberry? I got 16 end after weekend. This is not only a great concern of parents, faculty and coaches, but also a concern of many students. It is true that we need alternatives for weekend ac- tivity, but the community can not do it alone. Not only is the help of kids needed to create the new ac- tivities, but their effort to participate in them is needed as well. Along with a new athletic season comes the responsibility of athletes to their of drug abuse on a national level. It reveals drug abuse as the worst problem in the nation and calls it “The Enemy Within; A nation wres- tles with the dark recesses of it ' s soul. Other wordly pictures on TV: policemen stand before a table dis- playing sacks of white powder. A teenage mother sits with the back of her head to the camera and dis- cusses her heroin addiction and vows to lick this scourge. A gray fig- the rams man. Don ' t give me no rooster brand. Officials warn of fentenyl and phenyllalkylamines. It is all arcane. It and dreams, freedom and addiction. The drug addict holds a peculiar place in society, not unlike the AIDS victim; the impulse to shun collides with the impulse to em- brace. If the addict happens to be your collegue or your daughter, the confusion doubles; there are no im- poverished minorities to pity or