Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 18, 1995 TAG: 9510180050
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: LESLIE HAGER-SMITH SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Approximately 30 people held a Teen-Adult Dialogue organized by youths and designed to explore what teens want from adults, and vice versa.
Janice McGuire, a junior at Christiansburg High School, led the exchange, titled "Memos from a Teen." All four county high schools were represented in small-group discussions led by youths who are active in peer counseling programs at the schools.
"I like [the dialogues] because I actually learn something from the adults, but I wish my parents would participate in stuff like this, too ... because I think the teens here have something important to say," said Auburn junior Stacie Boothe.
Dialogues are sponsored quarterly by the Montgomery County Youth-Adult Partnership, a citizens' group that seeks to prevent violence, substance abuse, pregnancy and other health problems that affect teen-agers.
Kathy Kenley of Community Education and Prevention Services coordinates the partnership's efforts. Kenley said, "These dialogues are a direct response to the voiced needs of teen-agers in our county. High schoolers expressed a sense of disconnectedness with adults. And a needs assessment of eighth-graders found stress, youth suicides and threats, and pressure to be sexually active among the greatest concerns.
"If we listen to what they're telling us, we'll know how to help them," Kenley said.
Tom Johnson, a grandfather whose three children are grown, heard of the partnership when Kenley spoke at the Christiansburg Kiwanis club. "It sounded like something worthwhile - something I'd like to get into."
Monday night's dialogue was his first, and "It's good. It's needed. And it needs to grow: more kids, more parents - both."
Mike Lee, a Radford arsenal engineer and father of two boys, was surprised to hear teens admit to wishing for boundaries on their behavior. Several youths nodded their support for the view.
More controversial was whether youths ought to be shielded from the consequences of their actions.
Jennifer Easter, a Christiansburg junior, spoke for many when she said much of what she and her peers do "is none of their parents' business."
"Realize that you are their business," responded Chuck Jones, a father of two young children who was attending his fourth dialogue. He is a member of the partnership as well as other community groups that focus on prevention.
Jones plans to open Fun Challenge, an indoor play area and arcade, near Wal-Mart in December. "We wanted to make sure that we were more than just a business. We wanted to be part of what was happening in the youth community and to understand some of the concerns and needs of the teen-agers in this area. I just felt this was a fine way to do it," he said. Jones said he hopes to sponsor weekly teen nights when the business opens.
The topic of consistency in parenting drew lively interaction from a table of disgruntled teens until one boy quietly gave new definition to the term by describing his own home life.
"We've moved maybe six times in the past year and a half ... I live with my mother, my sister, and my mom's boyfriend - whichever one it is right now."
He was uncertain of his father's whereabouts. Of the dialogue, he said, "To hear these different viewpoints, it was good." The viewpoints he was referring to were not those of the adults but of his peers, whose backgrounds were so unlike his own.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***