Teen drinking on the rise in Santa Rosa
BY PAM BRANNON Gulf Breeze News news@gulfbreezenews.com

Pam Brannon/Gulf Breeze News Thomas Roche of Gulf Breeze High School (left) and Kirsten Holley of Pace High School addressed members of the Adult Roundtable for Violence Prevention in Milton last week to report about an alcohol abuse prevention teen conference they recently attended in Orlando. Members of the roundtable include Santa Rosa County School Board officials and Santa Rosa County Sheriff Wendell Hall.

More Santa Rosa County teens are consuming alcohol than their counterparts in other counties in Florida. Santa Rosa is one of 15 of Florida's 67 counties with the highest alcohol use among teens within 30 days of a state survey conducted in 2006. And 57 percent of students in Santa Rosa high schools report using alcohol at least once in their lifetime, with 47.9 percent of those saying they had used within the last 30 days from the time of the survey in 2006.

A group of concerned county leaders are trying to find ways to change those statistics reported by the Florida Department of Children and Families from a substance abuse survey conducted statewide in 2006.

"That is one list we do not want to be at the top of in the state," said Santa Rosa School Superintendent John Rogers.

Hall

What started in 1998 as an annual Roundtable for Violence Prevention has expanded into a twice a year meeting of 38 county leaders. These officials from the school board, sheriff's office and county agencies are trying to share resources to find ways to not only cut down on illegal alcohol use by minors in the county, but also cut down on marijuana and illegal prescription drug use among teens.

The group's latest meeting was Oct. 17 in Milton. They heard from several agencies for several hours on what has been done so far this year in projects and grants and what the goals are for next year. They will meet again in January to see how far some goals have come. The roundtable was co-chaired by Superintendent Rogers and Sheriff Wendell Hall.

The group heard from some students who are living and working in Santa Rosa high schools and are part of the Florida Y o u t h Prevention Delegation. Thomas Roche of Gulf Breeze and Kirsten Holley of Pace reported on the conference they recently attended in Orlando on how to stop underage drinking among peers.

"We were all talking about how easy it was to get alcohol from parents and friends," Roche said. "At one point in the conference they loaded 35 delegates onto a bus and let us watch on closed circuit TV two minors going into a store to buy alcohol and how a sting is done by police."

Last year the Santa Rosa Sheriff's Office did a sting operation involving 64 stores who sell liquor in the county. In those stores, 22 percent sold to an undercover minor.

"We even went back to one store twice, after they told us they had fired the clerk who didn't check IDs," Sheriff Hall said. "So we went back the next day, and got another clerk, and the store still failed."

The sheriff said for 2006 Santa Rosa County showed higher use of alcohol or other illicit drug use among minors than the state average, with Santa Rosa registering an average for the year of 37.8 percent and the state average is 35 percent of teens using.

The roundtable discussed programs being implemented and grants recently received to help with the fight, including a community awareness event on Blab TV on Nov., 17 and some billboards being purchased near Gulf Breeze High School and on Avalon Blvd.