UPDATE: 'Dialogue' On Teen Drinking on Tues. Night

UPDATE: On Tuesday night at 7 p.m., the Bernards Township Municipal Alliance Against Substance Abuse is scheduled to host a "Dialogue Night" for adults to center on the topic of teen alcohol use, and how to discuss the issue with their children.

The evening's discussion — to focus on “It’s 21 for a Reason” initiative, which has a goal of delaying the age of first alcohol use in teens, is scheduled for 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the

Small group discussions will center around teen alcohol use, its impact on the developing adolescent brain, and reasonable rules that both teens and adults can agree on. The discussions will be led by trained facilitators, with the participation of high school teenagers who will be there to share their perspective and experience.

Following an introduction to the evening’s themes, participants will break into small group discussions, before coming back together as a large group to wrap up the session.

The night before, on Monday, the Municipal Alliance Against Substance Abuse had focused on some key findings in a student survey about drug and alcohol use already released earlier this year, while delving further in a presentation before the about plans to address the persistent problem.

That problem includes a statistic of high school seniors surveyed last February apparently showing that 70 percent had used alcohol in the previous month, and 49 percent had gotten drunk during that time, according to key statistics from the survey released during Monday's report. Twenty-eight percent of last year's seniors also reportedly admitted smoking marijuana during the previous month — and all of those statistics put the Ridge 12th-graders ahead of the national average in substance abuse.

Looking ahead after Dialogue Night, "There will be more discussion groups centered around 'It's 21 For a Reason,'" said Kathy Kelly, vice-chair of the Municipal Alliance.

The alliance, under the auspices of the and with teen and township representatives, has had a campaign in place for more than a year about the dangers of underage drinking, especially for young adolescents.

Lucy Forgione, the Bernard Township health officer, again told the board that studies show that the younger students are when they begin to drink, the more likely they are to have problems with alcohol later in life.

Meanwhile, the figure released from last year's survey put the average age of first-time alcohol use among township students at 14.

Kelly said the detailed survey, which has been conducted in some form in township schools for about 20 years, showed that students felt it is easy to acquire either alcohol or marijuana.

The good news, said both presenters, is that the survey showed that nearly all sixth and eighth graders reported no use of drug or alcohol, or having tried a substance but not using it, a drop from a few years ago.

But Kelly said the use patterns for older teens was "unmoving." The anonymous survey was adminstered to students in grades six, eight, 10 and 12 in the Bernards Township school district.

Kelly pointed to a perception by only about 15 percent of surveyed seniors that regular use of alcohol will lead to a lot of harm, and 33 percent that using marijuana regularly would lead to a lot of harm. "I think that's really low," Kelly told the school board.

Another key statistic, Kelly said, is that 42 percent of students said they drank alcohol in their own home, with their parents' knowledge.

Kelly and Forgione talked about some parents' attitude that it is better for their teens to drink at home; that the teens should learn how to drink before leaving for college and that some parents feel safer having their children drink at home because they can take away their car keys.

That issue and others have been discussed for the past decade or so at Neighborhood Coffees, attended by about 300 participants in 37 informal meetings in township homes last spring, Forgione said.

Kelly said those coffees and the "dialogue nights," which she described as "mini-coffees," will continue.

She told the board that other "next steps" to be taken by the Municipal Alliance will be an attempt to showcase negative data about teen drinking to try to change social norms and the notion that "everyone is drinking."

The alliance also is working with school officials to consider how "student stressors" might affect high-risk behavior.

Following the presentation, Board Member Mike Byrne told the group, "We have been talking about drug and alcohol use for a long time."

Yet Byrne said community members and a majority of the board two or three years ago turned down a proposal to initiate mandatory drug testing in the district, which he said would make an impact in reducing substance abuse.

"It's politically unacceptable in Bernards Township to talk about drug testing," Byrne said. He added he was "disappointed" in the program. He said he suspects that five or 10 years from now, "You are going to see the same sorry numbers" when it comes to substance abuse.

Forgione responded that it is not up to the Municipal Alliance to weigh decisions of how to implement the survey results and other information it passes along to the Board of Education.

"It's a difficult situation, but a difficult problem," Forgione said. She said that school officials have the benefit of making decisions in light of information passed along by the Municipal Alliance.