Troubled Teens Resources

A New England public high school is conducting a series of parental forums to discuss how the schools could intervene to prevent a teenager from ever starting down the road to drug abuse to begin with. Attended by only a dozen parents, it is yet one small example of thousands of schools across the country grappling with the seemingly never ending cycle of drug abuse that still plagues too many generations of America’s young.

Intervention sounds so intrusive, so likely to violate the rights and privacy of the individual. In a perfect world, the state’s intervention into a teenager’s life wouldn’t be necessary. In a perfect world, parents would devise their own solutions to dealing with troubled teens. One has to look at the state’s involvement in the private lives of families as a mixed blessing. The fact of the matter is, too many parents have abdicated their roles as guides and mentors and disciplinarians and have instead chosen to be their teenagers best bud. Some parents use drugs and alcohol themselves and find it easier to join their teens rather than accept responsibility for either their or their troubled teen’s behavior.

“… One of her biggest beefs…is that so many parents are out there saying, ‘As long as I know they’re here and I have their keys, they’re not driving and drinking. And it’s OK for them to drink.’ That’s not acceptable.” “But it happens,” … “This is not acceptable from either a legal or an educational standpoint, but we see it a lot. There are parents who drink with their children. There are parents who smoke marijuana with their children. For educators, it’s very frustrating.”
(Source)

Teen crisis intervention by institutions that were meant to educate , not rehabilitate, have simply become a fact of life. In many cases, it has been the only doorway available for a teen to exit a troubled home and find access to constructive behavioral models and alternative coping skills.