Jan Auerbach and Sheri Berman also gave support.
Sharon Burdick and Susan Perla assisted with registration.
Members of the Northern Virginia Junior League helped distribute lunch.

Funding

Funding was provided by the Rotary Club and a Federal Safe and Drug Free Schools and Community Act grant.

Invitations and Attendance

Students

Guidance counselors at McLean High School, Langley High School, Thomas Jefferson School for Science and Technology and the Potomac School were requested to provide a list of students to invite. The counselors were asked to nominate students who represented a good cross-section of the student body. Langley counselors nominated 22 students. McLean counselors nominated 38 students. The Potomac school nominated 6 students. No nominations were received from Thomas Jefferson. Each nominated student received a written invitation. The Student Connection Coordinators also mailed registration forms to their peers and classmates.

Besides the five topic student facilitators, seven students registered for the summit. Of those, six actually attended. In addition, eight students came who had not registered. A total of 20 students attended the summit.

Adults

Invitations were mailed to community, educational, and business leaders as follows:

• Langley High School Administrators
• Langley High School PTSA Officers
• McLean High School Administrators
• McLean High School PTSA Officers
• Potomac School Administrators
• Rotary Club
• Chamber of Commerce
• McLean Citizens Association
• Religious Community
• Police Department
• FCPS Officers and School Board
• Dranesville District Supervisor and staff
• McLean Community Center Governing Board
• Teen Center staff
• Safe Community Coalition Board
• Community Leaders and other adults

Of 176 invitation letters mailed, 21adults registered for the summit. Thirteen adults came who had not registered. A total of 34 adults attended the summit.

Topics and Discussions

1. Pre-College and Process Stress

Helen Li and Esabel Khoury, Teen Facilitators
Bill Regan and Beth Reisig, Adult Facilitators

1. Standardized tests, administered at younger and younger ages, can affect student confidence. Taking these tests multiple times makes it worse. Anxiety is heightened by the TJ placement test. Extracurricular activities add to stress.

2. Source of stress- parents! They use old models for the college application process. Parents need to be educated to the realities of the admissions process. Parents need to realize that a college should be the best fit for the child, not the most prestigious “prize” for kids (or parents). The admissions challenge is even greater for families from other countries who are not familiar with the US system.

3. There is a disconnect between academic expectations, and what employers actually want. There is the perception that brand-name colleges are the key to future success, but that does not always pan out. Students need to use their high school college career centers.

4. Early decision is a source of stress.

5. For some families with economic pressures, there is the additional pressure of wanting their child to get into elite public universities.

6. Stress starts in Middle School – pressure to get good grades, get into GT programs, honors, etc.

7. In high school the choice is only between regular classes and AP classes; there is no middle road. There need to be electives that are challenging but not extreme.

8. Teens want study hall where they can get homework done, and relieve the pressure on nights and weekends. This desire is in conflict with the need for more classes to graduate from high school and get into good colleges.

9. Guidance Counselors are overwhelmed. They have less attention/time for students. Students then rely on alumni to provide a reality check.

2. Safe Social Alternatives & Understanding Your Place

Kathleen Clement, Teen Facilitator
Joan Morton, Adult Facilitator/Notetaker

• Alcohol parties are not school wide, but usually involve the same few groups. They typically are held at homes where parents away.
• Possible Solutions- Make parents aware of the problem. Suggest, when going away, that parents ask a neighbor to check periodically or when they see unusual activity. Let student know this is being done.
• Educate parents about serving alcohol to minors: $500.00 per person fine for serving alcohol to a minor.
• If alcohol/drinking occurs, parents should either require students to sleep over or drive students home.
• If a student arrives intoxicated or shows signs of drinking when arriving at a party, parent should require the student to hand over his/her car keys.
• Parents need to set an example of responsible drinking as well as keep talking with their young people to ensure trust.
• Reason for alcohol abuse- Students (especially shy students) feel they won’t have fun if they don’t drink. Also, parents/adults who abuse alcohol at their parties set a bad example.

Recommendations:

• Encourage tailgate parties before games. Offer free food. Obtain support of a community organization.
• After games, especially the McLean/Langley football game, hold a “Battle of the Bands” party at a neutral location such as the McLean Community Center.
• Advertise (need for better publicity) dry parties and make parents aware of these opportunities.
• A student must be firm in letting friends know he/she will not involve in negative activities.
• Select friends a student feels comfortable with (someone interested in similar activities such as sports, drama group, music, etc.)
• Create imaginative activities, i.e., creating videos of your group, fun skits, etc.
• The McLean Community Center is a good neutral location for teen activities. It can sponsor events on at least a monthly basis (especially after the new renovation) or after important school activities such as the football games. Other suggested ideas are:
• Battle of the Bands
• Movie night with refreshments
• Technology Night
• Teen Care with School Musical groups performing
• Open Mic Night
• The Community Center is the best location in McLean capable of providing a safe environment/place for Teen activities.
• Activities need to be student driven. Encourage students to support student events.
• There appear to be numerous things to do in McLean or the surrounding community. The problem seems not to be with the HS students, but with the MS students as they anticipate attending HS and what their perception of that is. The group felt that this perception is a result of what comes out of Hollywood and TV. Both are having a frightenly negative influence on young people.
• The students feel that there is a need to get to the middle school students before they reach High School.
• Recommend assigning mentors to new/incoming high school students.
• HS students could speak at a MS assembly or to a MS class about what they can expect at HS.
• HS students could answer questions and hopefully alleviate fears that MS students have about not being able to measure up or make friends- in short, what will be expected of them.

3. Bullying in High School?

Tracey Shulman and Shaan Singh, Teen Facilitators
Don Morton, Adult Facilitator/Notetaker

Types of bullying:

• Physical (mostly males)
• Psychological (mostly females)
• Gay supporters are often bullied even though they are not gay.
• Psychological bullying can involve spreading rumors, internet threats, and formations of cliques.
• Bullying is not widespread but, when it occurs, is distracting to the educational experience and can have long-term effects.
• Students do not like bullies, and often tell them so.
• Bullying causes victims not to feel good about themselves.

Recommendations:

• Get kids to talk to kids.
• Write articles in school newspapers.
• Include in Sexual Harassment lectures.
• Encourage vigorous exercise to vent rage.
• Have student leaders discuss.
• Make teachers/coaches/counselors sensitive (not very effective).

4. Alcohol and Drugs

Shaan Singh and Kathleen Clement, Teen Facilitators
Jerry Tankel and Vance Zavela, Adult Facilitator/Notetakers

Discussion on alcohol use

• More and more drinking in junior and senior years, maybe more in freshmen and sophomore years as well.
• Fake IDs very prevalent—are laminated, can get templates—easy to get them from seniors and older siblings, although counties and states are making them more difficult to duplicate.
• Focus on various sources of alcohol. Kids steal alcohol from their parents; parents are not keyed to their liquor being so available.
• Seniors appear to be the biggest problem; they make alcohol available to younger partygoers.
• Drinking is some aspect of rebellion; students are disgusted by those who are very drunk--that is not considered cool; some students feel obligated to drink to be “in”.
• Parents take keys away from students coming to a party and then disappear; parent supervision of a party should be a must.
• We are missing the mark; we need to alert all parents to the problem, put more and more responsibility on parents.
• In the summer at swimming pools teens have booze in coke cans; opportunities prevail for getting liquor into situations, especially for late arrivals and older students.

Discussion on drugs

• Drug deals occur right in classes; dealers are in the school and in the area; they are known entities and not strangers.
• Marijuana and prescription drugs like Adderal are the most common drugs.
• Students with legitimate prescriptions for some drugs share the drugs with others.
• Drug education in the schools is not considered effective.

General discussion

• Police have strong awareness at McLean High, not so at Langley; better line of communication at McLean High.
• Some parents are away working and are not in touch with their children for days.
• Even when not traveling, parents are busy working and are not aware of what their children are doing; they are in denial that the child could be doing something illegal.
• Closeness of family is a positive factor but even some involved parents are naïve as to what is going on; open relationships with parents are not the norm.

Recommendations

• Educate parents to the problem; sensitize them to what is going on.
• Talk to lower grades, before high school.
• Need effective speakers.
• Safe Prom Week.
• Students know what is going on; staff need to get close to them to learn what is happening and stop the drugs.

• Males as well as females affected.
• Athletic weight considerations (wrestling, football, crew).
• Goes down to elementary school level.
• HS athletic trainers keep track of Body Mass Index (BMI) to reduce/eliminate weight gain or loss problems; trainers track and monitor athletes’ injuries to prevent returning to sport too soon.
• Students confirmed that eating disorders are a problem in school; if they saw someone purging in a bathroom they might not report it to school staff but might try to talk with the student.
• Media are a big influence.
• People feel insecure about how they look – suggestion to offer alternatives (even at younger ages) to raise self-esteem.
• Teens need access to programs and information for safe weight loss (nutrition, exercise equipment).
• Name calling based on body shape/weight (either direction – heavy or slim).
• Body image more important to boys now than it was? Body hair.

Mental Health –

• Depression likely to be reported? Probably not – easy to mask it. Even kids suffering from it don’t necessarily know they have it.
• Self Mutilation (“cutting”).
• Perception is that “only Goths” do it.
• Happens after school, not at school.
• Not as prevalent as it was a few years ago.
• Sleep Deprivation.
• Affects depression.
• Important for families to discuss.

General Health –

• Health component of 10th grade PE: focus seems to be more on the dangers of drugs/alcohol and not so much on basic health and nutrition. School is losing its authority as the major source of information on diet.
• Health habits start at home but can be changed.
• PE required in 9th and 10th grades (one semester is health in 10th grade); elective in 11th and 12th grades.
• Home life – cultural differences, adult supervision at home overlooking diet, eating habits.
• Parents can avoid problems when their children are teens by discussing nutrition and fitness when children are at a young age; should health get more attention in the elementary curriculum?; why do kids as young as elementary school start to drink alcohol?
• Kids don’t want others to see health problems.
• Health is not a high priority for teenagers.
• There needs to be more opportunities for exercise outside of sports – boys have more opportunities (pick-up games) than girls.

Recommendations:

• Bring high school alumni back to schools to talk to kids about eating disorders, depression, etc. Good times would be after FCPS winter break, before college students return to school, and in late spring before HS graduation but after colleges have finished spring semester.
• Continue Wellness Week at high schools.
• Make health classes more interesting and relevant to high school students.
• Organize focus groups or support groups for various health-related issues – at McLean classes start at 8:00 on Friday but buses arrive at 7:20 so that time could be available.

6. Peer Pressure

Tracey Shulman, Teen Facilitator
Sherry Wells, Adult Facilitator/Notetaker

The group discussed positive and negative forms of peer pressure in high school such as pressure to get good grades, to conform to a group’s “activity” or image, to drink or have sex, to submit to certain fashions, or to conform to other social pressures from movies and Hollywood. They felt there was a good acceptance of persons who were individuals and wished not to conform and that there was a lot of freedom for a student to be his/her own person. But the students agreed that many students felt the need to be accepted and therefore conformed in some ways; that there was more group pressure than individual pressure; that there was less pressure in high school than in middle school, as there were more individual choices or groups to belong to which allowed you to be the person you wished to be; and that a lot of pressure such as for good grades was self-imposed. The current drugs in schools are crack, pot, cigarettes, and ecstasy, but no heroin, or meth.

Strategies for dealing with peer pressure:

• Mentoring of middle school students by high school students to confront the problem of peer pressure before high school.
• Mentoring or befriending new students to give them a friend upon arrival.
• Strict enforcement of rules set by coaches or teams re: drinking and partying.
• Surround yourself with like-minded students to diminish pressure from others.
• School administrators and student leaders should use positive peer pressure to encourage obedience to rules, such as no fighting in the school halls or skipping class.
• Help students develop the self-confidence needed to resist peer pressures.
• Sponsor talks by persons with AIDS to help students resist pressure to have sex.
• Encourage parents to develop rules and understandings that help students avoid or be extricated from bad situations such as having agreements that students can call home anytime and ask to be picked up. Students can say, “My parents made me come home.”

Evaluation Summary

Evaluation Forms were given to all of those present for the summit. The forms were compiled and reviewed by Kavita Mittapalli, a George Mason University graduate student under contract to the Safe Community Coalition.
14 out of 16 (response rate= 88%) students and 20 out of 29 (response rate= 69%) adults filled out a one-page feedback form. There was a combination of open and closed-ended questions regarding the summit in general and the various sessions in it.
The first section of the feedback form asked questions on the overall summit including the importance, relevance and impact of the discussions held, and the location of the summit. Participants circled Yes or No.
Results indicate that the topics covered at the summit were considered important and relevant by all the participants. They rated it the highest (sum=33, mean=1.00, sd=0.000), followed by the location of the summit (sum=31, mean=.94, sd=0.242). Table 1 illustrates the results.

Table 1