Tips for Parenting Teens

Adolescence is a fascinating and crazy time of life. It reminds me in some ways of the very early space probes that blasted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida. I remember my excitement when Col. John Glenn and the other astronauts embarked on their perilous journeys into space. It was a thrilling time to be an American.

People who lived through those years will recall that a period of maximum danger occurred as each spacecraft was re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The flier inside was entirely dependent on the heat shield on the bottom of the capsule to protect him from temperatures in excess of 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. If the craft descended at the wrong angle, the astronaut would be burned to cinders.

At that precise moment of anxiety, negative ions would accumulate around the capsule and prevent all communication with the earth for approximately seven minutes. The world waited breathlessly for news of the astronaut's safety. Presently, the reassuring voice of Chris Craft would break in to say, "This is Mission Control. We have made contact with Friendship Seven. Everything is A-okay. Splashdown is imminent." Cheers and prayers went up in restaurants, banks, airports and millions of homes across the country. Even Walter Cronkite seemed relieved.

The analogy to adolescence is not so difficult to recognize. After the training and preparation of childhood are over, a pubescent youngster marches out to the launching pad. His parents watch apprehensively as he climbs aboard a capsule called adolescence and waits for his rockets to fire. His father and mother wish they could go with him, but there is room for just one person in the spacecraft. Besides, nobody invited them. Without warning, the mighty rocket engines begin to roar and the "umbilical cord" falls away. "Liftoff! We have liftoff!" screams the boy's father.

Junior, who was a baby only yesterday, is on his way to the edge of the universe. A few weeks later...

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-Dr. James Dobson, Focus on The Family

Teens' School Questions Answered

This week school bells will be ringing in many area districts. That means anxious students fretting about their wardrobes, school dances, social issues and homework.

To help ease some of their worries, we asked Angela Brace, a counselor specializing in issues dealing with children and adolescents at Kent's Counseling for Wellness, to answer inquiries from local students.

The questions are from members of the Beacon Journal's Teen Group, a team of 12- to 19-year-olds who are helping us define and tell stories affecting teens.

The following queries are from those entering middle school, high school and college:

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-By Kim Hone-McMahan, Beacon Journal staff writer

Back to school: Stressing Over a New School?

Does “back to school” mean a new school to one of your teens or preteens? This is a stress for everyone, not just your teen.

Depending on how many of your teens friends are going to advance to the same school, or how social your teen is, makes the world of difference on how they will get on.

The stress of a new school can be major, but it’s not something that cannot be dealt with. First...

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-By: Richard Hills, examiner.com

Methadone: The latest teen threat

The last thing 15-year-old Austin Riley Jones told his mother was “good night” and that he loved her.

“I love you, too, Bubba,” Cathy Bandoni told her son, who had spent the day cleaning to raise $20 to take his girlfriend to the movies and then had dinner with his parents.

But the next morning, Jan. 18, Austin did not wake up. Bandoni and her husband, Davy Jones, discovered their only son died in his sleep of a methadone overdose.

Austin’s parents have teamed up with local anti-drug coalition members to warn the public about the dangers of methadone — a prescription painkiller that authorities say is cheap, accessible and increasingly has been causing fatal overdoses.

Local drug abuse task force officials will be meeting Monday to discuss ideas for a public anti-methadone abuse campaign that will also extend throughout the school district. They are hoping it will be as successful as the recent anti-methamphetamine efforts in Washoe County that authorities say contributed to a decline in its use.

Bandoni and Jones learned that the two tiny methadone pills their 6-foot, 200-pound son took after a party the night before created a deadly combination with his routine depression medication.

Washoe County Medical Examiner Dr. Ellen Clark ruled Austin’s death accidental and found that he died of acute combined methadone and fluoxetine intoxication. He had a prescription for the latter drug. Clark described him in her autopsy report as a “naive user,” meaning that deadly dose likely was his first time trying it.

“Our son died on two methadone tablets,” Bandoni said. “He didn’t know what he was getting himself into. This is just so shocking. I never thought in a million years this would happen to us.”

“It wasn’t a handful of pills he took, he took two and was just experimenting,” said Jones, who memorialized his son by having a tattoo of his face etched into his arm. “It’s insane. There is no forgiveness to this drug. It’s deadly. Austin had the whole world in front of him.”

Sgt. Mac Venzon, who heads the regional Street Enforcement Team, which targets drug and prostitution activity, said more local youths are experimenting with prescription drugs in general and believe they are safer than drugs purchased on the street.

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-By Jaclyn O'Malley

Teens will face driving test, extra restrictions in September

A new state law that goes into effect Sept. 1 will require all new drivers younger than age of 21 to pass the state driving exam, reinstating a policy the state ended in 1995.

If teens are issued their learner’s permit by Aug. 31, they don’t have to take the driving test.

The law, H.B. 339, also requires students enrolled in a driver’s ed course to have 20 more hours of behind-the-wheel practice before being issued a license. This means 34 hours of driving practice instead of 14 to pass the course.

In addition, the law will extend the restrictions on provisional licenses, which are issued to teens who have held a learner’s permit for six months, from six months to one year. Restrictions include banning teens from driving with more than one passenger younger than age 21 or from driving between the hours of 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. except for work, school-related activities or emergency situations.

Edith Galan, 16, of Waco High School, does not have her license yet. She said she had not decided whether she would take driver’s ed or simply take the driving test.

“I don’t know what to think of that, if it’s a good or bad thing (to have to take the driving test),” Edith said.

State officials think the changes will improve teens’ safety on the road. The number of fatal car crashes in which teenagers were the drivers decreased by 32.9 percent from 2002 to 2007, according to a new study released by the Texas Transportation Institute, part of the Texas A&M University System.

-By Regina Dennis Tribune-Herald staff writer

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