EDITORIAL

Educating our youth about the dangers of controlled substances is the No.

1 goal this year in the national fight against drug and alcohol abuse. As

part of Red Ribbon Week, it is our job to do the same at home.

Like many districts across the country, the Newport-Mesa Unified School

District unfortunately has to deal with drug and alcohol problems among

its teenage students. School officials acknowledge that during many

weekends throughout the year there are parties where underage students

get access to alcohol and drugs.

Making the problem worse are the scores of parents who leave their homes

empty on weekends so these parties can flourish. One principal rightly

called their action “benign neglect.”

While this is not the norm in the district -- many parents are fighting

the good fight -- Red Ribbon Week should be a time where parents examine

their children’s access to drugs, and it should spark a change -- however

small. Even if one family sits down to really talk about the problem and

therefore prevents one child from experimenting with drugs at an early

age, the Red Ribbon campaign will have served its purpose.

Judy Davis, a Newport Beach mother who lost her 21-year-old son to a

heroine overdose, will join Daniel Headrick from Hoag Hospital’s Chemical

Dependency Unit this week to deliver their educational message to Corona

del Mar High School eighth-graders. At first glance, their target

audience may seem too young. But experts believe students first begin

experimenting with drugs in the seventh and eighth grades.

Red Ribbon Week’s focus should not only be on the nationwide scourges of

heroin, methamphetamine and alcohol. District officials have also

recently acknowledged the use of Ritalin -- the drug widely prescribed to

children with attention deficit disorder -- among Corona del Mar High

School students as a weight-loss agent. This week’s awareness campaign

should not neglect that increasingly popular and very dangerous problem.

The only downside of Red Ribbon Week is that it ends Friday when the last

school bell rings. Rather than settle for one week, everyone -- schools,

parents and students -- should strive to make a permanent commitment to

fighting this problem.