Parents: Sign-up for SafeHomes!
Your Involvement Needed to Combat Teen Drinking
by Janet Buchbinder
(
October 30, 2002) Preventing teen drinking requires
parent involvement, and the SafeHomes program is an
easy way for Mamroneck parents to get involved.
It seems almost daily that the newspaper is running
yet another report on teenagers in our towns involved
in parties or accidents involving illegal use of alcohol.
It is very disturbing that even though our schools are
doing a good job on drug and alcohol education, and
police are cracking down on offenders, our children's
problems with substance abuse have not lessened. Studies
show that prevention programs done only at school are
not enough. Students increase their knowledge about
the dangers of alcohol and other drugs, but this alone
cannot prevent our children from using.
Prevention programs must involve the parents. No responsible
and informed adult today can deny that the use of alcohol
and illegal drugs poses a real and unacceptable danger
for our teens. Yet, as individual parents, we frequently
feel helpless to protect our teens without standing
in the way of social opportunity. We are caught in a
real dilemma.
The SafeHomes Program is a tool to address this problem.
It offers an opportunity for parents too join together
to help provide a safer environment for our children.
SafeHomes does not require a commitment of time, money
or extra effort for already busy families. It is simply
a public agreement between us to follow some simple
principles that will provide a genuinely safer world
for our children to grow in.
RADAR (Responsible Action: Drug and Alcohol Resource)
has begun a SafeHomes Program for our Larchmont/Mamaroneck
community. For further information please call Helene
Fremder at (914)698-9000 ext. 346 or go online at www.mamkschools.org
and click on Drug & Alcohol Prevention Initiatives.
Janet Buchbinder at 834-6041 and Sarah Wise at 899-3178
are also available to answer any questions you may have
about SafeHomes and to help parents sign up.
Working together parents can make a difference!
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