Karen Perry tells the story of losing her son to a drug overdose while he was away at college. It is a gut-wrenching thing to hear, her anguish in sharing that it all began with him smoking marijuana when he was about 15. That she and her son’s father got him into treatment, transferred him to another college, and still … a middle-of-the-night visit from the police brought the awful news.
Perry told her story to a recent gathering of parents at Spanish River High School. She is a co-founder of the nonprofit NOPE (Narcotics Overdose Prevention & Education) Task Force, which visits schools and parent groups all over Palm Beach County. Your middle- or high-school student may have seen the NOPE program in recent weeks.
As an educated parent, you may think you’ve heard it all before. But a couple of the task force’s messages were startling:
This has become the leading cause of non-natural death in Palm Beach County, with someone dying of an overdose every 28 hours.
What’s new about that? Eighty-five percent of them had more than one drug in their system. And that is a real danger for kids, who are experimenting with prescription drugs stolen from their parents – or bought from their peers.
Gary Martin, an associate dean at Lynn University and a former drug agent and homicide detective with the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office, said, “The kids think they’re invincible. They think they know about drugs and what they can handle. But no one knows what will happen when they mix them,” Martin said, adding that it’s not an issue of trust, but a matter of “risk ignorance.”
Many instances can be traced back to the home, which is the main source of drugs and alcohol used by kids age 12-14. (Solution: Keep track of how much you have and lock it up; throw out what you don’t need).
In 2006, the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse reported that a third of teens have attended parties where parents were present and alcohol was served to minors. (Remember October 2010 when two Boca Raton parties involving high-schoolers got out of control? Parents were arrested in both cases.)
It is against the law to serve alcohol to minors in your home – and opens you up to civil liability if anything goes wrong.
“You have to be the parent. You have to take control. You have to know what your kids are doing all the time,” said PBSO Capt.Jeffery Lindskoog.
The middle school years are prime for experimentation. The average age of the first use of alcohol or drugs is 13 in Palm Beach County. It used to be 11.
What to do
If you find drugs or alcohol in child’s belongings, Martin advises:
How to talk to your kids about drugs
Lynn Guelzow from The Hanley Center, a treatment facility in West Palm Beach, gave some guidance:
Guelzow said it’s also important to tell other parents when you know their child is using drugs or alcohol. They may not speak to you any more, but it’s the right thing to do.
Perry later learned that her son had a prior non-fatal overdose earlier and several people knew about it. No one told her.
To Learn More
For more information or to get help, visit NOPE’s website www.nopetaskforce.org, call 561-478-1055 or visit NOPE’s Facebook page.
- CHARLENE PACENTI
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If you are the parent of a high school student, you most likely know that service learning has been incorporated into the requirements for graduation – and for some scholarships, up to 100 hours.
Volunteering can help students gain valuable real world experience, strengthen their leadership skills and connect with their local community.
But where to start?
Depending on their individual interest and availability students can volunteer at numerous nonprofit agencies, governmental organizations, school campuses and charitable organizations. With so many volunteering opportunities available it can sometimes be difficult for students to find the right organization to partner with.
Websites like VolunTeens.com and SweatMonkey.com have been designed to help students connect with organizations that are in need of volunteers. Both websites are free for students and have made finding local volunteer opportunities easier than ever.
The Boca Raton-based VolunTeens website provides detailed information on more than 100 prospective organizations in Palm Beach and Broward counties. The organizers will also compile a personalized list of opportunities for your child based on their interest and location.
Some local organizations that they have connected volunteers to include: Swept Away Media, JARC Community Garden, and Boca Raton’s Promise.
At SweatMonkey.com, students can sign up for a free account, link to their school and begin searching for community service opportunities. Once students are working with an organization, their hours will be logged on their account, which can be easily accessed online. School administrators can easily track the status of a community service project and verify a student’s hours. The site also offers a downloadable resume that showcases each community service activity.
TIME TO SERVE
If your organization offers volunteer opportunities for high school students, post in the comments.
- MERCEDES COPPIN
The Gumbo Limbo Nature Center’s annual Sea Turtle Day is March 3.
The event runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and includes environmentally friendly vendors, a performance by Sol Children Theatre Troupe, arts and crafts, guided strolls and more.
You can also see the new tanks. Gumbo Limbo hopes to have at least one of them filled for the event.
Read more and get a full schedule at GumboLimbo.org.
Parents often ask how they can get their kids involved in giving back – especially this time of year. The truth is, beyond the holiday food and toy drives, there aren’t many volunteer opportunities where kids can do hands-on work – mostly due to liability issues.
But one organization puts kid involvement front and center: Roots and Shoots. This international service organization for kids was started by Jane Goodall, the famous chimp researcher. The Boca Raton community chapter is run by the nonprofit Sunflower Creative Arts.
You may have seen them in the Boca Raton Holiday Street Parade, carrying Sunny, their big peace dove.
The group aims to give kids the opportunity to implement their own service projects, many centered around an appreciation for nature and the environment. Since the fall, the kids have been working in the Pearl City Community Garden, planting seeds in the lettuce patch, shoveling mulch and packing dirt for tomato plants. They will harvest the food later and donate it to Boca Helping Hands, as they have done for the past couple of years.
On Dec. 17, Roots and Shoots took a field trip to Belle Glade to help C.R.O.S. Ministries glean corn for the hungry. Many commercial farms use machines to harvest their vegetables – a process that misses some of the food. Because it isn’t cost-effective for the companies to harvest the leftovers, some of them allow charities to come in and pick it for donation to families who need it.
Roots and Shoots kids helped other volunteers in gleaning a truckload of corn – by hand.
Later on, they’ll be creating enrichment toys for the primates at Lion Country Safari and attending a primate workshop.
The women who run Roots and Shoots at Sunflower – Susan Caruso, Ellen Stone and master gardener Betsy Pickup – have years of experience in education and child development.
Sunflower offers Roots and Shoots for two age groups – 9 and younger, and 10 to 18. They meet a couple of times a month. Membership is free.
To join, visit SunflowerCreativeArts.org, or call 561-482-3412. (Sunflower also offers a host of other programs for all ages, including an alternative to preschool and discussion groups for parents. Get the details on its website.)
Read more about Roots and Shoots international at RootsandShoots.org.
These local schools also have Roots and Shoots chapters: West Boca High, Claremont Montessori School, Pine Crest, American Heritage and Sunrise Park Elementary. - CHARLENE PACENTI
If you know a youth 12 or older who could use a friend right now, get him or her to the Sugar Sand Park Community Center on Nov. 12.
Boca’s Friends group will have its monthly gathering to help kids who may be having problems at home, or getting bullied at school, or struggling with ADHD or bipolar disorder, or experiencing other stressful situations.
They are encouraged to talk about their problems with other kids and get professional support in an informal, social setting. They learn to feel comfortable about who they are, and accept each other as friends, said Rita Thrasher, executive director of Boca Raton’s Promise.
Parents are welcome, too.
Five schools had after-school Friends programs, but the funding was cut.
IF YOU GO
The meeting is 1:30-3:30 p.m. Nov. 12 in the Maple Room at the Sugar Sand Park Community Center, 300 S. Military Tr. It is free, and pizza will be served. For more information, call 561-866-1850. Read more about Boca Raton’s Promise at www.bocaratonspromise.org.
