It’s sad that we still have to have SADD

Published 6:17 pm Wednesday, November 1, 2006

By Staff
I guess kids will always do dumb things and make poor decisions.
Unfortunately, these choices sometimes have a lasting negative effect on their lives and even can cause their lives to be cut short.
Twenty-five years ago SADD was formed. I always thought it stood for Students Against Drunk Driving, but I understand it is now Students Against Destructive Decisions.
Today, as was the situation 25 years ago, teens are faced with tough decisions every day.
This week, SADD chapters throughout the country have anniversary activities which focus on some key issues, such as underage drinking, drug use and safe driving.
Because peer pressure is so high in the teen years, SADD members offer support to other students who find it hard to stand on their own.
SADD was founded in the fall of 1981 at Wayland High School in Wayland, Mass. following the tragic deaths of two students in separate alcohol-related crashes that happened less than two weeks apart.
Hockey coach Bob Anastas and a group of students decided to name their group Students Against Driving Drunk to capture the responsibility teens themselves had for their behavior.
"If the problem is mine, then the solution lies with me," became their popular slogan. Realizing that parents needed to be more involved with their teens, a contract called the "Contract for Life" was developed and continues to be widely used today.
My parents always told me to call if I needed them. It didn't matter what time of the night, they would much rather wake to come and pick me up than to answer the door to a policeman who might tell them I was lying in a morgue somewhere.
I was the same with my kids. Mistakes shouldn't have to kill.
If someone finds they are unable to drive home, there are other alternatives, like cab fare home, which are far less costly than thinking they can make it. After all, its only a few blocks.
Unfortunately I have also heard stories where kids joined SADD for only one reason, to fool their parents into thinking they were good kids and would never think to indulge in bad behavior. The story I heard was the student with the worse drug problem was president of a local SADD group.
Hopefully that was an isolated incident.
Encourage your students to talk to you and support the SADD groups in our local high schools. Ask your child to take the pledge and sign a contract.
It won't guarantee good behavior, but I still remember Catholic guilt helped me.
SADD is a student-led effort turned into a national movement. In SADD's first two years, 6,000 high schools across the country created chapters.
It worked. The number of teen deaths from drunk driving started dropping.
In 1981, about half the states had drinking ages under 21. "Drunk" driving was the number-one killer of teens – more than 100 teens per week were killed in alcohol-related crashes.
Over the next 10 years, through the efforts of SADD and similar organizations, the number of teen deaths dropped by almost 60 percent.
In 1997, in response to feedback from students themselves, SADD expanded its mission and adopted a new name, Students Against Destructive Decisions. Today, there are more than 10,000 chapters in middle schools, high schools and colleges.
While reducing impaired driving remains a focus, SADD is dedicated to preventing all behaviors and attitudes that are harmful to young people, including underage drinking, other drug use and teen violence and suicide.
More information about SADD is available at www.sadd.org.