A Homestead High School sophomore regularly sees students buying drugs during the six-minute period between classes at her school. The halls are swarming with students, and teachers can’t see what’s going on.
A Shorewood sophomore who opposes drug use has been threatened by former friends who use. He’s also been asked by friends’ parents to mediate between them and their children about drug issues, and this makes his father uncomfortable.
The mother of a Whitefish Bay high school student declined to talk with The Chronicle about teen drug use in her community, though she said she’s been talking about it with other mothers. She’s afraid that she or they will be identified if she is quoted.
A Shorewood mother whose child has struggled with drugs says that alcohol, marijuana and prescription drugs are prevalent there. The assistant principal told her he knows there are drugs at the school. But the mother didn’t want to discuss her child’s experiences out of fear of being identified.
Three Nicolet students — a freshman, a junior and a senior — at a March 20 afternoon B’nai B’rith Youth Organization social gathering at the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center told The Chronicle that drugs are also widely available among Nicolet students. There had been a lockdown and search using drug-sniffing dogs that day at Nicolet — the second in two weeks.
These members of the Jewish community shared their thoughts and experiences with The Chronicle last week as parents, counselors and teens in the North Shore suburbs were still pondering the drug-induced death of 15-year-old Whitefish Bay freshman Madison Kiefer on March 1.
Kiefer’s death followed the drug overdose death of Ben Paliafito last fall, a year-and-a-half after his graduation from Whitefish Bay High School.
Several things were clear from the 13 interviews The Chronicle conducted with North Shore teens, parents, guidance counselors and a police officer.
One is that the answers are complex to the question of what leads some teens to use drugs and others to dabble and walk away or avoid them completely.
Another is that drugs are easily obtainable at all the high schools, among some middle school students, at parties and around the North Shore suburbs.
In addition, many parents and school representatives are afraid to discuss the subject openly or in other than broad generalities.
Many opportunities
Though there was some disagreement, most felt that there is no difference between non-orthodox Jews and non-Jews in the North Shore.
Though most of the students and some parents gave permission to use their names, The Chronicle has chosen to keep them anonymous to ensure that those who spoke openly suffer no negative consequences in their schools or communities.
The students interviewed attend Homestead and Nicolet. All of them said they know that many students buy and use drugs and alcohol — and the using mostly happens before and after school and at parties.
Parents from Whitefish Bay and Shorewood, which have open campuses during the lunch hour, suspect that this provides an opportunity for student drug use during the school day.
Two of the Nicolet students at the BBYO meeting and the Homestead student interviewed by telephone said he or she has a core group of friends who don’t use drugs.
They said they don’t feel pressured to drink or take drugs, but all said that if they wanted to use drugs, they could easily obtain them.
The Homestead student who attended BBYO meetings earlier in the year said the students who are involved in BBYO don’t use drugs.
The Nicolet freshman said she knows students who experiment with drugs and alcohol, a behavior she believes is normal for kids her age. Most of them are smoking pot, which she said she has “heard doesn’t do anything to you.”
She said parents can’t stop this behavior, but they should be aware of it.
She noted that her parents aren’t strict with her and she “doesn’t really talk with them that much,” but since they give her freedom, she would be stupid to abuse it and take drugs.
The Chronicle spoke with guidance counselors at Maple Dale School, the Milwaukee Jewish Day School, Whitefish Bay Middle School and Nicolet High School.
They said that some kids who get involved in drug use do so for a variety of complex psychological reasons and others just seem to get caught up when an opportunity arises.
Some noted that there has been a change in teen drug use in the last five years. Teens are abusing more prescription narcotics, like OxyContin and Vicodin, and stimulants, according to Nicolet psychologist Barbara Bornstein.
Several mentioned that many of their students are under increasing pressure to achieve in multiple areas, and to look like models or celebrities.
Clinical psychologist Ceva Katz specializes in treating anxiety and depression in children and adolescents. She believes that Jewish families are subject to the same conditions and pressures as all other families in the area.
She said that teens are vulnerable to drug use because, developmentally, it is a time when they are trying to find themselves. Their brains are not yet fully developed, so they may behave impulsively.
“Parents should be watchful,” Katz said. “And they should spend some fun time together with their kids and keep the lines of communication open.”
Trudy Sirkis, MJDS middle school counselor, said that students at that school are sheltered from the world of drug use a little longer than students in public schools, giving them more time to develop good decision making skills and become well-educated before entering high school.
“Kids who are really educated about drugs and how they work are more likely to make good choices when faced with drug use in high school,” Sirkis said in a telephone interview.
A Shorewood father whose son graduated from MJDS said he thinks Jewish kids are less likely to become involved, especially if they went to MJDS because there “they have had a lot of education, counseling and loving care. They have respect for the danger that can happen.”
Though Kiefer reportedly got involved in serious drug use in middle school, while she was attending St. Monica School, Jeff Bohacek, the guidance counselor at Maple Dale School, said he has seen no indication nor heard any rumors of drug use at his school. The Nicolet senior who attended Maple Dale agreed that there were no drugs present during his years there.
But the Shorewood mother whose child has struggled with drug issues said one of her concerns is that the schools don’t seem to know how to respond to the prevalence of drugs there.
“Parents can talk to other parents, but if you don’t have a kid with a problem, it’s hard to see what’s happening. They are really clueless,” she said.
“Jewish or not-Jewish, our kids are all hanging out together,” said Renee Wendt, middle school counselor and Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug Abuse Prevention liaison in the Whitefish Bay school district.
Parents should get to know their classmates’ and friends’ parents and siblings, she said, adding that with teens now in constant immediate communication with one another, parents cannot track their children’s contacts.
But, she suggests, parents should stay up and meet their children when they come home at night, lock up all prescription drugs, get as much information about teen drug issues as possible and emphasize the dangers of mixing prescription drugs and alcohol.
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