Protecting them from themselves

Barbara Diamond

Kids party. It’s a given.

The Laguna Beach Unified School District and the Police Department

have held a meeting with parents to forge a team to make sure that

teenage partying is legal and not fatal. The consequences of how the

kids party, with whom, what and where were laid out for the parents.

“Kids will party,” said Capt. Danell Adams of the Laguna Beach

Police Department. “We have to recognize that. But someone has to be

responsible.

“We have to be a team,” she said. “It takes a village to raise a

child.”

Unfortunately, sometimes the village ignores danger signals, and

the most dedicated of parents are not always aware of what’s

happening.

“Maybe they don’t want to see, or maybe they don’t want to get

involved, but we have to lift the blinders,” Adams said. “Even if the

parents have a perfect child, that child has friends, and outside the

home is not as protected. Parents should know where their kids are

going, that an adult will be present, and when the kids are coming

home.

“And God help any adult who provides them with illegal

substances,” Adams said. “If you are 18 or older and contribute to

the delinquency of a minor, there will be consequences.”

Drugs and alcohol are all too often part of the Laguna Beach party

scene.

“Marijuana use is on the increase,” Adams said. “We are still

picking up LSD. We’ve had date-rape drugs, but rarely in the high

school. Heroin is a concern. Kids think if they are not injecting it,

it is not as addictive.

“Some parents who grew up in the ‘60s probably project that

marijuana is no big deal. It is,” she said. “Growing methods have

changed to make the high higher and longer lasting. There are some

438 chemicals in marijuana. It is the gateway drug.”

Kids will party and they prefer to do it in homes with no adult

supervisor.

“I have known about the party house problem for a long time, but I

don’t think it will be solved until all the parents cooperate and

agree not to allow teenage parties with alcohol whether they are

there or not,” said parent Diane Kloke, a longtime member of the

Laguna Beach Scholarship Society. “And although it is overused, it

does take a village to raise a child.

“Parents can empower neighbors to be responsive. No one wants to

see a child hurt.”

Laguna Beach High School Principal Nancy Blade said she also has

heard of parties being held in vacant homes, which adds a new

dimension. It is called breaking and entering. It’s crime, but it’s

nothing new.

“When I was growing up in Laguna Beach, we found empty houses,”

Adams said. “Two of my friends were the sons of a contractor, and

they would get the keys to empty houses without their dad knowing

about it. That doesn’t make it right.”

With the best intentions to provide safe locations for kids,

danger lurks.

An attempt several years ago to provide a nonalcoholic nightclub

for kids led to one of the worst crimes committed in Laguna Beach.

Club Post Nuclear, built specifically by a parent as a place for

teens to party, was alcohol free. But the parking lot wasn’t. And it

was there that a plan was hatched to attack a gay man, a vicious

assault that left the man permanently impaired.

Kids will party, claiming there is nothing else in town to do but

party. Some of the parents also make the claim.

“Many parents have been pleading forever that there is nothing for

the kids to do in Laguna Beach,” Kloke said. “Maybe the school

district could provide nighttime activities such as dances. But they

probably would have to be over by 11 p.m., and the kids are out later

than that.”

Laguna Beach has a 10 p.m. curfew, which surprised Kloke.

“That’s pretty early, but it is a tool to protect kids,” she said.

Adams said the curfew simply means that kids can’t roam around the

beaches, the parks or city streets after 10 p.m.

“It’s not necessarily that we don’t trust the kids; it’s the

outsiders we don’t trust,” Adams said. “There are bad people out

there. If the kids are going straight home after being out past

curfew at a party or at work or a friend’s house, there is not a

problem.”

Adams has heard for years that there’s nothing to do in Laguna

Beach.

“ I don’t buy that,” she said. “There is hiking and biking, sports

and recreation programs -- not to mention the beach. Sometimes as a

kid, I didn’t leave town for weeks.”

Which is not to say she didn’t party as a youngster. She did. And

she won’t lie to the kids about it.

“My personal take is to get the kids into activities in locations

that are supervised -- such as the proposed skateboard park,” Adams

said. “Parents need to identify their kids’ interests whether it is

music or art or skateboarding and work with that.

“They should look to their own youth,” she said. “How did we get

through it?”

Parents know better than cops or teachers what activity best fits

this generation of kids, Adams said.

“There is a huge difference between parents and teachers,” she

said. “Parents are the first line. Teachers and cops are the

backups.”

Kids will party, but the essential ingredient in a child-parent

relationship is trust.

“It is important for kids to know that if they have a couple of

drinks, they can call their parents to pick them up rather than

driving home under the influence,” Adams said.

Some parents are loath to call the police to report underage

drinking or parties because they fear their child will be arrested.

Could happen.

“I had one high school student who graduated last year tell me

that Laguna Beach is just one huge car accident waiting to happen,”

Adams said. “When it does, parents say how the hell did that happen?

The schools are stuck with counseling and the kids are overwhelmed

with remorse and guilt because they knew what was going on.

“Parents can use that as a tool to teach their children

responsibility for themselves and for their friends,” she said.

The school district’s policy is that if a violation occurs outside

of school hours, the student is suspended for five days from all

extra-curricular activities, Blade said. The second violation is

suspension of all extra-curricular activities for the school year.

Laguna Beach High School has the “Safe Rides,” a student

organization that will pick up kids who should not be behind the

wheel.

“I am not into hand-slaps,” Adams said. “I am into consequences.

We might pick up a vanload of kids and call their parents and leave

the consequences up to the parents.”

Police can confiscate drivers’ licenses, enforce community service

or counseling. A Youth Services Program counselor works in Laguna

Beach 24 hours a week, paid for by the police department.

Underage drinkers can call on the services of the police

department without fear of reprisal.

“Kids partying in the north end of town who live in the south end

of town at some point have to get home,” Adams said. “But if they are

responsible enough to call us and say, ‘I have had too much to drink

to drive or walk home,’ we will get them home and there will be no

consequences.”

Trust does not mean turning a blind eye. Parents and teachers need

to take note of behavioral changes that signify more than just a

one-time hangover or bouncing hormones.

The police department this year offered to train teachers, school

administrators and parents to recognize the objective symptoms of

inebriation from alcohol or drugs. Adams, who has a degree in

education, said that in the five years she spent at Cal State Long

Beach , she was never taught the importance of behavioral change.

“We took teams to Thurston Middle School and to Laguna Beach High

School,” Adams said. “Thurston Principal Chris Duddy and high school

principal Nancy Blade really came through. There must have been 25

teachers at the Thurston meeting and maybe 30 at the high school.

“The teams showed examples of various narcotics, pipes used to

smoke cocaine or methamphetamines, tangible things to look for,” she

said.

Blade said the training raised teachers awareness and reminded

them of the their obligations.

“Once the teachers recognize the behavioral changes, they have a

responsibility to report them,” Adams said.

“Schools do not have the same threshold for probable cause that

the police department has,” she said. “But they don’t have to know

the cause. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, figure it’s

a duck.

“The weird thing is that people will say they don’t want to bother

the police,” she said.

Law enforcement, particularly in a department that pioneered the

community-policing concept of partnering with the citizens, is not

only about jail time.

“It also about education and prevention,” Adams said.

Adams and Police Chief James Spriene are members the joint school

district and police department Youth Substance Abuse Task Force

Steering Committee. Other members are Theresa O’Hare, school

principals Blade and Duddy, district Supt. Theresa Daum and Mayor

Cheryl Kinsman.

“The goal is to ensure that kids are not illegally using drugs and

alcohol at the parties,” Kinsman said. “The value of the committee is

that it has fostered cooperation between the city’s police department

and the school district.”

The Dec. 1 meeting for the parents at City Hall grew out of the

quarterly meetings of the steering committee, Adams said.

“Our purpose was to make sure that parents, teachers and the

police were all in concert,” Adams said. “I had no idea how many

people would show up, but God bless the parents, 125 of them were there.

“They were all ears and full of questions. Usually the police

department gets attacked at meeting like this. There wasn’t one. And

there was not one ‘not my kid.’”

Blade, who has been on both sides of the issue, as the parent of

four children who attended the high school where she has been

principal for three years, was extremely pleased with the turnout.

“The discussion was rich with examples of how we can understand

the problems,” Blade said.

No names were taken at the meeting. The public and the press were

not notified, which allowed for a free discussion and a quiet way for

parents with a problem to get some help, Adams said. She gave them

leave to contact her privately. She can be reached at (949) 497-0701,

ext. 0.