Sixty-nine percent of South Dakota high school students had one or more drinks of alcohol at least once in their life, according to a youth risk behavior study.

Thirty-nine percent of South Dakota high school students had at least one drink of alcohol within the last month.

In order to help prevent teenage drinking in the area, officials from Lewis and Clark Behavioral Health Services (LCBHS) have been working with the Yankton School District (YSD) and community members to raise awareness on the dangers of underage drinking.

In August, Tiffany Kashas was hired as a school based drug and alcohol counselor for YSD and has worked on curriculum, school activities, contact with parents and meeting with students one-on-one to help combat drug and alcohol among underage students in Yankton.

“The first year of this program has gone really well,” she said. “There has been a lot of neat things we did, and I think students had fun with some of the activities we put on.”

With the new addition of a new counselor, Yankton High School (YHS) officials made a substantial change to one of their alcohol policies.

“With longer suspensions, students are now able to serve the suspension on a week in, week out basis,” Kashas said. “In other words, instead of needing to serve the suspension all at once, a student can rotate five days in, five days out. On the days they are out of school, students are also able to work at the Alternative Learning Center (ALC) to do homework and catch-up on other work.”

Wayne Kindle, principal at YHS, said the first year of having a drug and alcohol counselor in the school has been a resounding success.

“Our students and parents have both benefited from having access to the counselor,” he said. “Another crucial part of the relationship between LCBHS and YSD has been the steps taken by both parents and students to seek out the counselor before a situation has taken a bad turn. Our parents and students know we have an extremely valuable resource on campus who is readily available to assist them with their concerns.”

Jennifer Berg, community prevention networker for LCBHS and coordinator for the Coalition for a Drug Free Yankton, said the coalition deals with drug and alcohol issues in the community and has a prevention plan that is in its second year of implementation.

“We want to broaden our membership and let people know about the goals of the Coalition and help reduce the social access for underage drinking, which includes kids getting alcohol from parents and friends,” she said. “We also have been advocating for a policy change on the retail side of alcohol sales and have been working with the Yankton Police Department (YPD) to help them implement retail compliance checks.”

To simulate social access to alcohol, officials are working to implement a “Reality Party” next year.

“We will have an actual house and students from the theater department will act out various party scenarios throughout the house as if its a real party,” Berg said. “Because it will be in a house, there will be a limited number of spots available so individuals interested will have to apply to attend.”

In Yankton County, 32 juveniles were arrested for Minor in Consumption violations in 2012. In addition, there were 13 juveniles arrested for liquor violations that year. Liquor arrests were up from six arrests in 2011, while Minor in Consumption arrests were down from 44 in 2011.

These arrests typically spike during the summer months.

“In June, typically students do not have any activities going on, they don’t have to go to school every day, while parents still have to work,” Berg said. “When teenagers get bored, they may resort to alcohol and other substances to kill time.”

She added that programs like the Boys and Girls Club, the archery complex and Summit Center are greatly important because they are places kids can go during the summer with supervision and feel occupied, leading to fewer underage alcohol and drug related incidents.

Berg said there are numerous ways that community members can help prevent teenagers from getting alcohol.

“If retail stores are selling to minors, compliance checks will create a fear factor for businesses, making them less likely to sell to underage individuals,” she said. “This also goes for minors, when compliance checks are going on, they’ll become less likely to try to buy alcohol from retailers.”

Berg added that creating a value system with family members will carry on for their children throughout their lives.

“Parents of children can drink alcohol and feel it’s fine if parents are drinking responsibly. In this situation, the family is probably less likely to have issues with their children using alcohol,” she said. “However, if the same person feels as if it is okay for their youth(s) to use, as long as a parent is present, the message parents are sending to their children is that it’s okay for kids to use alcohol or other substances.”

Berg and Kashas both said that parents in the community need to practice what they preach to their children.

“If you tell your kids that you don’t want them to drink until they’re 21 and that, if they get caught or are using alcohol, you need to have an expectation for them and clearly tell them that,” Berg said. “They need to have consequences at home and, if parents’ expectations aren’t met, they need to follow through with consequences.”

She added that parents need to get to know their children’s friends and parents.

“Even if the parents say there won’t be alcohol or drugs involved at a party, parents should still call them and ask about the party,” Berg said. “They should exchange phone numbers and say, ‘if my son or daughter needs a ride home for whatever reason, to give them a call.’ Although kids might be embarrassed by this call, at least parents will know they are likely reducing the chances of drugs or alcohol being consumed at the party.”

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