LOCAL NEWS

November 18, 2009

‘Party’ teaches teens reality

By Kasey Fowler, Staff Writer

POND CREEK — “Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop.”

Make it stop, was the message Wednesday evening during a “Reality Party” in Pond Creek. Local teens por- trayed a typical teenage drinking party in a home. The idea of the staged drama was to encourage parents to help reduce teen drinking and push for a social host ordinance in Grant County.

Concerned parents were able to walk through a portrayal of a typical high school party scene. The party began with teenagers hanging out with beers. Soon the partygoers were encouraging a girl to chug a beer using a beer bong, a funnel with a tube attached used to consume beer as quickly as possible.

“Chug, chug, chug ...,” the group chanted as a boy emptied a beer into the bong.

The party moved into another room and partygoers began playing drinking games. First up was beer pong, a game with a triangle of beer filled cups at each end of table. Players bounce ping pong balls across the table trying to get the ball into the other player’s cups. If the ball goes into the cup, the player whose cup it lands in must drink.

“Things get pretty competitive at these parties,” said the leader of the tour, as partygoers played another drink- ing game, and a boy asked who dared him to drink the entire bottle of vodka.

The party spilled out into the pool area where a keg was set up. The partygoers encouraged a girl to do a keg stand. A couple of boys lifted the girl’s legs up so she was upside down, while another partygoer put the keg spout in the girl’s mouth to drink.

Once inside again, the party had calmed down because several of the teenagers had passed out around the room. An older man wandered through the party, he turned to the group of onlookers and said, “I bet you are wondering who I am. Your 17-year-old daughter thinks I’m a teen from Enid, so I got the address to the party.” As he sat down by a passed out teenage and began to stroke her hair, he added, “Don’t worry, I won’t hurt her. I’m a lover not a fighter.”

Onlookers moved into a dark bedroom where teens talked about the sexual decisions they made while drunk. One boy said he had sex with his best friend, Allison, when he was drunk. He said he didn’t even remember. He found out at school the next week. A girl said she remembered her clothes being taken off but not much else. She said she is glad she doesn’t remember what happened.

Back in the living room of the house, the host of the party, a mother of one of the teenage girls, walked through with a bowl of keys, making sure no one drinks and drives. There was a knock on the door, as the host opened the door a police officer entered.

“Is this your house?” the officer asked. He pointed out there are several underage people drinking.

“They are going to drink anyway. At least they are safe here,” the host replied.

Teens began running out of another room crying, “He’s not breathing.” One of the partygoers wasn’t breathing and the officer ran to attend to the unresponsive teen.

“Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop,” the group began chanting. The group told the onlookers they need to take action to stop teen drinking parties.

Following the tour, the parents were given an opportunity for discussion with a representative from local agen- cies.

“As adults, we say we did that as kids and we made it through. That is the problem,” said Sean Byrne, execu- tive director of United Way of Enid and Northwest Oklahoma. “Looking back at your high school class, there is always one that isn’t around now, that didn’t make it.”

The “Reality Party’s” message was about implementing a social host ordinance in Grant County.

“The whole state is trying to get as many social host ordinances passed as possible. Since Garfield County al- ready has one, we decided to do it in Grant County,” said Tammy Grantz, Prevention Workz executive direc- tor.

According to Grantz, 78 communities in Oklahoma have passed social host ordinances. A social host ordi- nance holds ac-countable any person who knowingly hosts or allows a party where youth are consuming alco- holic beverages. This type of ordinance addressed the place underage drinking occurs, not the furnishing of alcohol.

The teens portraying the party said what they acted out for the concerned parents was pretty realistic.

“Parents don’t realize how bad it is,” said Grace Krepel, a member of Teens Awareness Group in Kingfisher. “Teen who do go to these parties will downplay them to their parents.”

Callan Christian, a member of Teens Need Teens, an Enid-based drama group, said it should open parents’ eyes.

“It is pretty close to real,” Christian said. “It has a lot of shock and awe for parents.”

The “Reality Party” was coordinated by Prevention Workz and North Central Coalition for Drug Prevention.