Every year, volunteers from local emergency services departments make a series of PARTY (Prevent Alcohol and Risk-Related Trauma in Youth) program presentations to Grade 9 students in the area outlining the importance of making safe choices — and they give students some knowledge to help them do just that.
No matter how you slice it, it’s great advice. We all face some tough choices in our lives, and going the smart, safe route rarely if ever turns out to be the wrong one. But even with bad choices we have some options.
Drinking to excess is definitely not a smart choice. But even within this obviously boneheaded course of action, there are degrees.
If you get too drunk, walk home and fall asleep in your own bed and you might wake up with a nasty headache. Get into a car with a driver who’s been drinking and you might not get home at all. Both are bad choices, but one is obviously better.
It’s good that rather than preaching the abstinence-only course of action with respect to alcohol and drugs, we’re taking steps to acknowledge that like it or not kids in our schools are exposed to them, and some even choose to experiment with them.
We must be honest with them about the potential risks, because if they don’t hear it from us they’ll hear it from their peers.
Of course, peer pressure isn’t what it used to be. It would come from inside and outside the school, from kids at the bus stop, or maybe at the ball diamond. But at the end of the day, kids headed home and could get away from it all.
These days, though, a lot of kids head home and hop on their favourite social media websites, where they can be exposed to more peer pressure. The silly neknomination fad is one example — it’s a dare-based game that emphasizes reckless alcohol consumption, it has been linked to a couple deaths in the U.K.
Anyone familiar with Westlock social media circles will know that it’s made an appearance around these parts, as well.
We can’t prevent our kids being exposed to these kinds of potentially dangerous messages, whether in person or online.
All we can do is make sure they have all the knowledge they need to make the right choices for themselves.
