Los Gatos Weekly-Times

New era of parental authority?

By Dale Bryant

For the nation, release of a federal report in August showing drug use up 78 percent among 12- to 17-year-olds from 1992 to 1995 seems to have been a wake-up call. In schools across the country, parents are beginning to demand--and get--drug testing of high-school athletes and others involved in extracurricular activities.

Some Los Gatos parents had their own wake-up call this summer.

And recent approval of drug-testing for LGHS football players is one indication that these parents intend to make themselves a force in the community. When they met last week, copies of the Sept. 5 USA Today cover article on the growing use of drug testing in high schools were distributed.

The group came together in the aftermath of a summer incident that resulted in the arrest of a 17-year-old on charges of assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer. The youth ran into the police officer with his car at a Monte Sereno home where young people had thrown rocks and beer cans at a home, apparently a follow-up to an earlier confrontation.

The LGPD did not release the youth's name, nor did the Los Gatos Weekly-Times use the name in reporting the incident. But Los Gatos being a small town, word got around.

And then a surprising thing happened. The mother of the young man--a single mom--began to get phone calls from other parents--50 or 60 phone calls, many from parents whose children had partied with her son.

And what they said to the mother was: "It could have been my child."

They gave her moral support as well as financial help for legal expenses. They also donated food, and one woman drove her to juvenile hall for visits with her son. Many even accompanied her to the juvenile court hearings. One of these parents told the Weekly-Times: "The incident happened right under our noses; it was our fault."

It was a wake-up call for parents who agreed that it was time to take a long hard look at their children's involvement with drugs and alcohol.

When the parents first came together, they realized most of them were strangers to each other.

One parent said later: "It helped remind us that we have to know who our kids' friends are. We have to be comfortable picking up the phone and calling their parents."

But once parents started talking, they also learned that they shared many frustrations, including the high school's open campus and a senior ball that last year was held in San Francisco even though many parents understood that it was to be held in San Jose.

Challenging open campus

Now the group, which has no official name, but which meets weekly at Fisher Middle School, is going to take on the high school's open campus. Tom Gremore, who took a leadership role in working with LGHS football coach Butch Cattolico to win the school board's "blessing" for random drug testing of football players, seems destined to play a leadership role in this battle as well.

And if the effort succeeds, the campus issue--first closed, then open, then closed again--will have come full circle.

Through 1972, students went to the local high school in the morning and stayed until the last bell rang at the end of the day. But those were the heady days of student rebellion. And among the young lions who challenged the closed campus was a young Tom Gremore.

"We got signatures and talked to merchants," a slightly chagrined Gremore admitted to the 16 parents at the recent meeting. "The next year, they opened the campus."

Now that he's a parent, things look different. "Sometimes what seems like a good idea at the time turns out not to be so good after all," he told the Weekly-Times.

The strategy that worked for the students in 1972, however, will likely be repeated by parents as they try to close the campus. At the end of the meeting, parents had accepted assignments and were due to report back. After they've completed their homework, they plan to ask for a meeting with the administration.

In their discussion about the current open campus, these are some issues that were raised:

* Safety is a major concern: Students only have 35 minutes for lunch; they rush out in their cars and hurry to get back.

* Tardiness is a major problem after lunch.

* Los Gatos Blvd. is a dangerous place to be when the students are hurrying to and from lunch.

* Other campuses that were open have now closed: Leigh is closed, and Saratoga has closed for freshmen and sophomores.

* Some students return after lunch under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

* The school used to use volunteer campus monitors, but the program died; why not resurrect it to help enforce the closed campus?

Where does CASA fit in?

As this group of parents organizes, shares information and support, and challenges the high school administration to work with them, one question begs asking: When parents got their wake-up call this summer, why didn't they contact Community Against Substance Abuse? After all, CASA has worked for a decade to educate students and parents alike. CASA even offers parenting classes and puts out a handbook to help parents recognize the signs of abuse.

In fact, if these newly committed parents had heeded the advice of CASA, they would not have been sitting in a room full of strangers when they came together last summer.

The easy answer is that they relied on their own resources because it was summer and CASA was not meeting.

But the two groups are continuing to meet separately--CASA at the high school, with school administrators in attendance; the other group feeling its way along with weekly meetings, occasionally picking up a new member or two. One person who participates in both groups plays a liaison role.

At the CASA membership meeting two weeks ago, members seemed curious about the new group, and perhaps just a bit annoyed. CASA volunteers have worked tirelessly to sponsor a number of drug awareness activities, including GymJam and Red Ribbon Week, poster contests and other programs. And some CASA members claim parental attitudes in the past have been a barrier to their work; they say formation of the new group is good news in that it may mean "Los Gatos parents are beginning to move beyond denial."

Still, some CASA members are looking with interest at the early success of the new group which convinced a lukewarm school board to permit drug testing of football players.

Many CASA volunteers admit their frustration that no matter what they do, the drug and alcohol situation continues to worsen. And they are frustrated by their negative image among students.

Insiders, outsiders

Over the years, CASA has worked hard to develop a good relationship with the high school administration. And the point was made at the recent meeting, both by CASA President Kathie Friedland and by Vice Principal Craig Heimbichner, that their relationship is a good one.

In fact, one key difference between the two groups right now is that CASA works with the administration while the other group could better be compared with the students in 1972 who were willing to take on the administration.

CASA is more likely to ask: How can we help? The other group is more inclined to decide what they want and then approach the administration. That's why, when the new group met recently, they talked about the strategy they would use when they approached the administration about a closed campus, and when CASA held its September membership meeting, Heimbichner was given time to list his objections, although he started his comments by saying he was "not philosophically opposed to a closed campus."

One could argue that CASA's approach makes sense because the group found out what proponents of closing the campus will be up against from the start. The other group, however, might be more unified in its resolve if it takes the more "parental" approach. What's at issue, in large part, is how much weight parents' opinions should have.

Among Heimbichner's objections:

* Because it is illegal to offer a smoking area on campus, students who now smoke off campus will head for the bathrooms to smoke.

* Smoke alarms in the bathrooms would be very expensive to install.

* It would be impossible to enforce a closed campus because the school can't afford the six monitors that would be required to police the campus.

* A compromise that would leave the campus open but keep cars from leaving the parking lot would be impossible to enforce.

In what seemed a threat, but, in reality, was probably a fact, Heimbichner ominously warned CASA: "If you're worried about your image problem now, try closing the campus."

Last Thursday, the CASA board voted to facilitate a task force to allow various segments of the community to explore the issue of a closed campus.

With the latest statistics on teen drug use sending shock waves across the country, it will be interesting to see how local parents react.

Last summer, a lot of advice CASA's been dispensing for years finally made sense to a group of Los Gatos parents.

Now that they've had their wake-up call, how effective will they be in reclaiming parental power?

Dale Bryant is editor of the Los Gatos Weekly-Times.