Teen Drinking The Focus Of Town Hall Meeting

Chris Doty's brief investigation revealed that 19 Sebring Middle School students had been drinking on campus during one day.

The former SMS assistant principal said he had a good relationship with the students and each confessed to what they had done.

"Not one of them lied," said Doty, who is now the principal of Hill-Gustat Middle School. "They all came in and said, 'Yes sir, I did.' Those kids ended up going up for expulsion."

Doty shared that story as one of six panelists who spoke at a Sebring town hall meeting Thursday night about the dangers of underage drinking.

The meeting was part of the Highlands County Sheriff's Office's "Be the Wall" campaign and included speakers from areas of law enforcement, education and the judicial system.

"You guys are not the ones who need to hear this," said Doty to an audience of about 40 adults. "The folks who really need to hear it aren't in the room."

He recalled walking his own children to their first day of elementary school because he was scared for them. Doty told the audience this parental fear should continue when children are entering middle and high school.

"These kids are taking their first steps into becoming young people, young adults," he said. "That is a very, very difficult time because they're getting their adult bodies and they still have their kid minds."

The body may be maturing as children enter puberty and adolescence, but the brain does not reach maturity until well after the age of 21, assuming it's unaffected by alcohol, according to Doty.

Dr. Charles Nelson, who works with the local correctional institution through a program called Jail Alternative to Substance Abuse, said the brain develops "fight or flight" responses until 11 or 12 and then begins developing more reasoning abilities.

"The fact is, alcohol interrupts that process," Nelson said. "Approximately 40 percent of Americans are genetically predisposed to alcoholism."

The men and women incarcerated in jails "overwhelmingly" have addictions to alcohol or other substances that often started when they were teenagers, according to Nelson.

Those inmates have common themes, he said, like impulsive decision making, a disregard and lack of awareness of the consequences connected to their behaviors, responding more emotionally than rationally to life events and believing they're justified in every behavior they engage in.

"I just described every 14, 15 or 16-year-old kid on the planet," Nelson said.

John Varady, the alcohol reduction grand coordinator for the Heartland Educational Consortium, said a survey conducted in Highlands County in 2008 showed that 33.7 percent of underage children reported drinking in the past 30 days.

Still, that meant 66 percent of their peers did not.

"It's very powerful for kids to know not everyone does it," Varady said.

Those teenagers who do drink could face a second-degree misdemeanor charge if caught, according to Courtney Lenhart with the state attorney's office.

The penalty for possession of alcohol while underage, first offense, is up to 60 days in jail or six months probation.

"Typically, if it's a first offense and the teenager has no prior record, we will give them probation," Lenhart said.

Sebring Police Chief Tom Dettman said a second-degree misdemeanor charge could also apply to a "house party" where underage drinking is happening.

After 38 years in law enforcement, Dettman told the crowd he hates thinking about the notifications he's made to parents about the death of a child because of illegal drinking.

"I hate to think of arriving at the accident scene and then finding that teenage daughter or son either trapped in the vehicle or already passed on," Dettman said. "Thirty-eight years is a long time to see that type of thing occur."

The last speaker at the meeting was Ricki Albritton, a senior at Sebring High School, who was there to offer the teenage perspective.

An enthusiastic Albritton used a dog bone, which she called the "dream bone," to illustrate a point about attaining goals. She said when playing fetch with her own dog, she'll encourage the four-legged friend to go out there and bring back that bone, the dream bone.

If she simply threw the bone and walked away, Albritton said the dog would have no motivation to achieve the goal.

"When you're talking to your children, encourage them in their goals," Albritton said. "If you don't know their goals, find out their goals."

The senior also encouraged parents that when talking to their children about drugs and alcohol, incorporate stories from their own youth.

"I want to hear their story," Albritton said. "If my parents want to come talk to me about drugs and alcohol, I want to know what they went through."