Learn about East County by watching video

By Svetlana Tskanova

, Nov 14, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

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Three very special people were doing drugs and drinking during high school. I changed their names, but you might recognize their stories. They are from our community, and they made critical choices. Frank, Emily and Ariel were teens who used drugs and alcohol, and it impacted their future. Frank had a very tough early life, Emily was bored and Ariel started out with the encouragement of her friends.

Frank was a very smart guy. He was in foster care and felt that he was unloved and uncared for. His foster family had four foster kids ranging in age, and because he was the oldest, he didn’t get much attention. He didn’t have people guiding him, and he hung out with the wrong crowd that was into drugs, so he got involved in them as well. He was caught a few times on campus doing drugs and was suspended. After the second suspension he realized that he had to change, for himself and to have a better life and a better future. He stopped doing drugs and stopped hanging out with most of his old friends. He was on track. One day he found a pocket knife on his way to class and put it in his back pack. In class, a teacher was passing out papers. Frank’s backpack was open and when the teacher saw the knife he called security. Last I heard he had spent time in juvenile detention.

Emily was a spoiled only child from a wealthy family. While other students needed to work to get good grades she felt she didn’t need to. She had no desire to work. She was an average student, and she was bored. Because many of her friends were studying or working, she found other friends who would keep her entertained. She started to ditch school and to get in trouble when she was at school doing drugs for fun. She got pregnant and today she is trying to finish high school and raise a 3-year-old boy all by herself.

Ariel was about 16 when she got to our bigger school, it was all new to her and she wanted to be popular. Because she wanted to grow up fast, in her freshmen year she started hanging out with the popular older group. She was doing everything they were doing – trying to fit in. She knew that doing drugs and drinking was wrong, but she believed that it was the cool thing to do and that if she found other friends she would just be unpopular again. She saw her dream of school and friends disappear as the alcohol became the most important thing to her. She went to rehab to try to beat the hold that the alcohol had on her.

I am in college now and while I knew all three of these people very personally then, I have lost regular contact with them. I hope they are still plowing through their problems, that they are clean and sober, keeping their head above water. I never wanted to drink or try drugs because I understood it would impact my future. My community and my school were important, and I knew I had to work hard. My family doesn’t drink, and I saw my friends making mistakes. I hope teens think twice before they decide to take a shot, a sip or a dose. Our community needs to make the right choices to protect kids like Frank, Emily and Ariel too.

View the video Community of Choice on Channel 21 at 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16, to learn more about East County and how we can work together to prevent substance abuse. For more information go to www.GGAPP.org.

Svetlana Tskanova is a Centennial High School graduate and a student at Mt. Hood Community College