Louisiana’s prevention funds may not be enough

Feature type- news
Group: Hannah, Kelsy, Addie
Feature Writer: Hannah Schilling

Money is the root of all evil.

In Louisiana’s case, money is just the opposite— it is the tool that assures the evil caused by substance abuse does not take root in people.

There are over one million teenagers in Louisiana. Over 90,000 of those teenagers abuse some kind of, or a combination of, substances like alcohol, cocaine, heroin and meth.

Programs in Louisiana like Project Northland are making sure the numbers continue to decrease as they have been doing since the start of the program.

A poster made by a student going through Project Northland program.

Tommy Grafton, a professor in Louisiana Tech’s kinesiology department and also a director at Project Northland says since the start of the program, the number of middle school kids drinking alcohol regularly has decreased from 10 percent to 5.6 percent.

But is the $204,000 trickled between four parishes enough to keep the prevention going?

“We could always use more money,” Grafton said. “We could use it to provide more activities, but for more activities, we need more personnel. Teachers are already overloaded because of the mandates by the state and government, and they can’t do anything extra.”

Teachers that are continuously working to achieve those high standards is the reason Project Northland must send their own teachers to inform the students about the dangers of drug abuse.

A student’s elaborate poster showing the consequences of drinking and driving he created during the Project Northland program.

“We are paid so much money per pupil,” Grafton explained. “If our pupil numbers go up, we can go up to a certain amount of money. If our numbers don’t add up to that, we get a smaller budget.”

The balance between budget and students insures that Project Northland never goes into the negative.

The $204,000 is sent from the state’s budget, which comes from the federal government, for prevention is for Project Northland specifically.

Then who funds Lives Lost to Alcohol, the 38 silhouettes that graced the field from March to May, reminding others to think before they act? Who paid for the fake blood and make up that warned the teenagers at Choudrant High School not to drink and drive on prom night?

Grafton said it’s all thanks to the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission.

“If it wasn’t for them, Project Northland would be our only activity,” he said. “We have partnered with them to keep activities going like Click It or Ticket or Lives Lost to Alcohol.”

Grafton said Louisiana receives a couple million dollars for abuse prevention for the year.

NBC charges an average of $3.5 million for each 30 second spot for advertisements during the Super Bowl.

That means Budweiser’s one minute commercial with their signature Clydesdale horses during the 2012 Super Bowl cost them $7 million.
“They spend more in one day on an ad than we spend in one year on prevention,” Grafton said.

Ten seconds of a Super Bowl commercial can pay for Louisiana’s entire year of prevention programs.

According to the numbers, the alcohol companies have the deeper root, and the small amount of money set aside for prevention may not be enough to dig that deep.

Then There was Only an Empty Field Again

Just as any Louisiana day in the month of May, the sun blazed down in a hot fury. The 89°F weather did not stop Partners in Prevention from accomplishing their task.

“Man, it is so hot, and everyone is sweaty but it has to be done,” said Lives Lost to Alcohol coordinator, Jenny Crume. “The day is not going to get any cooler.”

At exactly 3 p.m., Crume and Partners in Prevention student worker Kate Warner leaned against their small maroon car in hopes that some men would show up with trucks and trailers soon.

“We are supposed to have about 5-10 trucks and trailers to help haul all of the silhouettes to the warehouse, but it is three and no one is here,” said Crume anxiously as sweat began to appear on her shirt.

As 3:05 p.m. approached, four young men pulled onto the field, relieving Crume’s fear of no one showing up.

Men pull trailer as close as they can to the silhouettes for easy loading.

Partners in Prevention placed the Lives Lost to Alcohol silhouettes in the ground on March 22, 2012.  Placed in the field between Temple Baptist Church and Rabbs Bar and Grill, the people of Lincoln Parish are reminded of all 38 lives lost to alcohol related accidents in the past 10 years.

38 silhouettes stand in memory of those lost due to alcohol related accidents.

Over the past two months, Partners in Prevention have hosted several awareness events in order to help ensure the safety of the Lincoln Parish community. Events such as the Lives Lost to Alcohol workday, Choudrant High School Mock Crash, and a Lives Lost to Alcohol Display Dedication have been held in respect of those lost.

On May 3, 2012 Partners in Prevention, along with various fraternities, remove the silhouettes from the field.

As 3:15 p.m. approached, the first load was being hauled by two Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity members and two kinesiology students to the Community Trust Warehouse for safe keeping as another truck pulled up.

“The Inner Fraternity Council always helps us out by doing the heavy lifting and Community Trust Bank serves by donating a warehouse to us.” said Warner.

As the three Sigma Nu young men stepped out of the truck, an irritated Crume put them straight to work lifting and loading the heavy silhouettes.

With only three large ply board pieces left to be loaded, one more vehicle pulled onto the scene.

Silhouettes are hauled to the trailer one by one.

It was now 3:20 p.m. and the two Kappa Alpha men were in charge of the last few pieces of heavy ply board.

Sweat poured down everyone’s face as the sun only beamed brighter in the sky, but the young men continued to load each heavy piece into the truck.

“It is sad to see the silhouettes go because we need them here all year round,” Kappa Alpha sophomore A.T. Emery said. “This is a college town and people drive drunk.”

By 3:30 p.m. everything was loaded, the vehicles were dispersing and all that was left was an empty field once again.

And the field was empty once again.

Fountain family suffers alcohol abuse…literally

Kelsy Kershaw, Addie Martin and Hannah Schilling

April 27, 2012

Journalism 210 Service Project – LLTA:  Extremities of alcohol abuse and the problems it causes

Feature Writer:  Kelsy Kershaw

Late at night when she would return home from hours at the dance studio, she would brace herself for the danger that awaited her on the other side of the door.  Not sure whether she was going to be dodging a punch or mediating a parental brawl always plagued her mind.  This was a typical evening in the life of Krystal Gail Fountain, Louisiana Tech freshman and Regal Blue, whose father is an alcoholic.

“My father has drank alcohol since he was young, like middle school young,” Fountain said. “He dropped out of high school in 10^th grade and everything has pretty much gone downhill from there.”

Fountain’s father has been a diagnosed alcoholic since 1998, when he first attended rehab, and is currently attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings to receive help for his abuse problem.

“Dad’s alcohol abuse has been a problem as far back as I can remember,” Fountain said. “I just remember being really young and really scared, especially when he would hit my mom.”

It is a popular opinion that alcohol abuse causes social problems.  A few examples of these social problems are ill health, family violence or behavioral changes.  Well, Bruce K. Alexander, Ph. D and creator of the Alcohol:  Problems and Solutions website, said that alcoholism is a result of these social problems.

“Not to defend his alcoholic ways, but my dad didn’t start drinking just because; his mom, sister and brother all committed suicide when he was still a teenager and his dad left,” Fountain said. “I do not agree with his drinking at all, nor do I like it, but it’s the mechanism he chose to deal with his problems and because of it our family has suffered.”

According to the Ending Violence Everywhere Foundation website, every one in four women experiences domestic violence in her lifetime.  The website for the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism shows that 42 percent of that one-in-four is alcohol-related.

“Alcohol isn’t the only thing my dad abused all my life.  He’s physically hit my mom since I can remember, but he never hit me until high school,” Fountain said. “His drinking has been a huge problem throughout my life but it was at its worst one summer of high school when he got put on probation for literally trying to kill me; he had always pushed and hurt me but never physically assaulted me until then.  He had drank too much alcohol and smoked too much weed and tried to choke me and I blacked out.”

Fountain’s dad is a high school dropout, lacking a college degree and doing maintenance work for the state.  He’s suffered the loss of his entire immediate family—three suicidal deaths and one abandonment—before the age of 18.  He’s been admitted to rehab once and now attends weekly AA meetings, but he still drinks.

“All I ever wanted was to get a hug from my dad, instead I got bruises, cuts and scarred emotions,” Fountain said. “All because of alcohol.”

Fireman recalls drunk driving scenes

Jones on his day off.

Group: Hannah, Kelsey, Addie
Story Writer: Hannah Schilling
Date: April 18, 2012

The gray blue eyes under his tan baseball cap are set on the orange dot in a sea of brown water.

Mitchel Jones is at home; the soft chirping of crickets and cicadas buzz around him, one hand keeps a firm grip on a fishing pole, the clear line extending far out into the pond, ending at the orange bobber. His other hand rests relaxed in his blue jeans pocket.

This is Jones’s day off. His second home is at the Ruston Fire Station.

“I love it,” Jones said in his slow, southern drawl– but he isn’t talking about fishing.

Jones first allure toward being a fireman was the fact he could quit college, and jump right into the business after a few months of training.

Now, he’s in it for the way he gets to serve the community.

“When someone calls us, it’s because they need help,” Jones said. “No one doesn’t like us, because we help people. I like to help.”

Jones on the job.

After two days off, the rugged Choudrant native trades his blue jeans for a fire suit, and his fishing pole for the jaws of life.

When the laid back air of the fire house is penetrated by a call, the following actions are done within two minutes and 30 seconds.

The fire house gets the call from the sheriff’s office. They dispatch what and who needs to go where; an ambulance, fire truck or police car.

For this crash, the worst one Jones has ever worked, he called all of them.

“I know what we had wouldn’t do it,” he said, “so we called everyone.”

The firemen step into their outfit, feet nestle into the boots, then arms through the sleeves and lastly, the signature orange hat.

“When you answer the phone, you can tell by the way they sound if it is going to be bad or not,” Jones said.

Sirens wail as all units head for Highway 167, and already Jones is in the zone.

“You know what you’re going to do within the five minutes it takes to get there,” he said.

What Jones must do lies within the crash that has already happened.

It was dark, as expected at 3 a.m. in Lincoln Parish after a harsh rain had just passed through. A Ford Explorer, a color Jones cannot remember because the darkness and the blood has blotted the memory out, drove south bound on Highway 167.

A driver, a passenger in the passenger seat, and another in the backseat, ascended then descended a big hill, went over a water culvert, flipped multiple times, went over a creek and landed upside down.

The driver was drunk.

“I think everyone that drinks and drives should have a wreck,” Jones said, “preferably one that doesn’t harm other people. They should learn a lesson.”

The backseat passenger was the only one not trapped. He crawled out of the window, crossed the south bound lanes, then the northbound lanes, and knocked on the door of a house.

Right after he told the family to call the police, he collapsed on their front porch.

At this moment, the firemen arrive on the scene.

“The man that crawled across the highway was dead,” Jones recalls. “Dead bodies are easier to handle than almost dead bodies. With almost dead bodies, every move we make determines life or death.”

Jones remembers every detail of the wreck when he arrived at the scene.

“I went to the driver’s side, and the drunk man was half pinned under the car,” Jones describes. “He was screaming. I went to the other side, and all I could see was a head. They weren’t talking. I thought I had just seen my first decapitated head, but they were alive, just unconscious and pinned.”

The firemen had to figure out how to rip the sides and top of the vehicle off to release the trapped people without the vehicle falling into the creek, filled with water after the heavy rain.

Three helicopters were called, and after a complicated combination of chains being hooked on different parts of the vehicle, raising it in the air, then ripping off the roof and both doors, the injured people were freed.

Despite the extensive efforts of the firemen and Jones, no lives were saved that night.

“The driver died a week later,” Jones said. “The other guy was basically a vegetable.”

When asked about drunk driving wrecks, Jones just shakes his head and confesses he has no sympathy for the drivers.

“You drink, you drive, you pay a price,” he said.

Unfortunately, many drivers don’t pay a price like the victims.

“Usually the person drunk doesn’t even get hurt,” he said. With his arm, he illustrated a sober person’s muscles during a wreck, “See, when a sober person gets in a wreck, their muscles tense, so they don’t give, so things break. When a person is drunk, their muscles are relaxed, so they give and don’t absorb so much of the shock.”

Jones recalls one wreck where the man was so drunk he was still asleep after hitting two cars and almost splitting his truck in half with a power pole.

“He refused to go to the hospital, but the police took him in handcuffs,” he said. “That was the night half of Ruston blacked out because of that wreck.”

After the day is over, he slips his boots off, and goes home to enjoy his next two days of hunting and fishing, but for some like Jones, the job doesn’t stop when the uniform comes off.

“Some calls,” he paused, and with grey eyes still visited by jobs of the past, finished,”they’ll haunt you.”

Lives Lost To Alcohol Dedication

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On-campus alcohol problems and actions being taken to solve them

Feature #2 – News feature

Group members:  Addie Martin, Kelsy Kershaw, Hannah Schilling

April 6, 2012

Feature writer:  Kelsy Kershaw

Don’t be a Winner at a Losing Game

By deciding to consume alcohol, students are choosing to play a losing game.

“It’s crazy, alcohol is like a never ending fad that college students are obsessed with,” Abby Hill, Louisiana Tech University Panhellenic Council president, said “I’m a student worker in Student Life and during the week I’ll hear co-workers talking about how they can’t wait for Thursday to get here so they can get hammered.”

Why is it that the drunken festivities of the weekend are the motive carrying college students through their weeks?

“Students think it is the social norm to drink heavily from Thursday night to Saturday night because they think all their peers are doing it too,” Chris Medley, Alcohol and other drug Counselor said.

Alcohol continues to pose problems on Louisiana Tech’s campus.  For instance, people who live with just one kidney can function and live a normal, healthy life with just that one, but things are much easier and not as stressful if they have both of their kidneys.

“The mindset of students who abuse alcohol is similar to this,” Hill said, “Even though living an alcohol-free life is much healthier, they think it is easier, more fun and less stressful to remain in an intoxicated state of mind for the majority of their weekend.”

The real problem with alcohol lies within the effects of it, and it’s not just a problem on Tech’s campus.  However, Tech does have organizations established to help diminish the alcohol-related problems.

“We have a lot to offer on-campus in regards to being responsible with alcohol,” Medley said, “Not only do we have the counseling services but we also have GAMMA—Greeks Advocating the Mature Management of Alcohol—and AIM—Alcohol and other drug Individualized Management.”

In a brochure about GAMMA it reads that GAMMA is the oldest and largest collegiate peer education program designed to focus on student health and safety.  It was started in 1975 and now graces the campuses of 1000 universities in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

“We conduct programs and hold seminars to advocate our message to as many students as possible and we try to plan the programs according to our campus,” Medley said, “But the unique quality about GAMMA is that the students play a very active leadership role within the network and hearing something from your peers leaves a greater impact.”

While the Greeks advertise the importance of mature alcohol management, AIM is personally touching and helping the lives of students on Tech’s campus.

“AIM occurs twice quarterly in two separate segments that each have four weekly group meetings prior to completion,” Medley said, “After members complete the six sessions they receive a certificate as well as written documentation as proof of completion.”

The brochure about AIM explains that it consists of group meetings composed of members from Louisiana Tech and is mandated by either judicial affairs or the District Attorney’s office. 

“Members are asked to complete one outside assignment, alcohol 101+ and one intake screening interview for a total of six group hours,” Medley said, “And these meetings help them gain insight about their patterns of usage and provide resources that can help them better understand their addictions.”

A survey conducted by Counseling Services at the beginning of each school year shows that 38 percent of incoming freshmen are classified as binge drinkers.  This survey also showed that freshman drink more than sophomores, sophomores more than juniors and juniors more than seniors.

“75 percent of students on campus partake in alcohol-related activities and the survey shows that 38 percent are binge drinkers,” Medley said, “That’s half of the percentage of students who actually drink.  With so many excessive drinkers, these organizations are a prized possession of Tech, and their implementation is essential.”

The problem is not only in the consumption of alcohol but in the lack of education thereof.

“Although the education and prevention efforts won’t be able to reach the amount of drinkers on campus, at least the word is spreading and awareness is being raised,” Hill said.

As the organizations continue to grow and impact campus, we hope that fewer students will be winners at this losing game.

               

Choudrant High shows reality of drunk driving

The green truck on the right doesn’t have a hood anymore. It is scrunched up like a crushed coke can, and just above it you can see the mangled bodies of Choudrant High School students.

The small black mustang on the left is in the same condition, except their passengers are in prom dresses and tuxedos, and on the hood lays a small girl in a yellow dress, with softball tan lines and blood spilling from her head.

In between the two vehicles on the ground lays Haley Colvin, a Choudrant High senior, student council president, cheerleader,  and softball first baseman. She lays motionless, what police officers call “dead on impact”.

This is Choudrant High School’s mock crash. The blood is dyed corn syrup, the cuts and broken bones are all expertly done make up, and Colvin can add really good actress to her list of achievements. The beer cans scattered around the scene were not emptied by the driver of the green truck, but even though this is all fake, the dangers of drunk driving are still very real.
“Prom is coming up,” Calyn Bennett, a senior at Choudrant High, said as fake blood dripped out of her head wound. “I think it will make people think twice about drinking this weekend.”
Bennett was the girl laying on the black mustang in a yellow, blood spattered dress. She also got air lifted by a real helicopter from the softball field beside the crash. Watching this smiley, beautiful girl clinging to life was horrific.
“People look up to us,” Bennett said, “so I think it will make a great impact.”
Colvin gets ejected through the windshield of the drunk car. She was playing the part of the sober girl that couldn’t drive the stick shift, and later gets put into a body bag and taken away by a hearse.
“I am dead on arrival,” Colvin said. “It will be realer than seeing just random people. It can happen to someone you know.”
Tyler Hogan is a hilarious, upbeat senior that does not stop cracking jokes even while having fake blood run down his face five minutes before he is transformed into the drunk driver that causes the crash.
“I’m the drunk driver,” Hogan said as he waited for his turn to get his makeup done. “I am going to be driving after splitting a 6-pack with my friend. I’m mad because they wouldn’t let us into prom because we were drunk. I wasn’t supposed to drive but the truck is a stick, so I had to drive. I text a buddy about how mad I am, drop my phone, and when I bend down to pick it up I am blinded by headlights.”
Even though the students in the stands in front of the crash don’t see the actual crash, a narrator explains the situation over a speaker.
“I hope it helps because everyone should see what harm this has,” Hogan said. “I want them to remember this and how it can hurt other people. Knowing that someone’s life can be saved by this is big.”
Three make-up artists from Tech’s theater department transformed these spirited softball players, student council members, and average high school kids into victims barely holding onto life.
“I hope it looks real enough for kids to know that the injuries can be real,” Payton Wilburn, a junior theater major, said. “Drunk driving is not a joke.”
It certainly didn’t look like a joke with firefighters prying the roof off of the black mustang, and watching the bright pink and blue prom dresses being strapped to a stretcher and carted away in an ambulance.

Officer J.A. Lewis has worked several crashes, and has seen reactions range from laughing hysterically to crying uncontrollably.
“Everyone handles stress differently,” Lewis said as we stood in the middle of the crash as it was staged. “It’s your peers, and many look up to them. It’s deep.”
The state police’s role in the mock crash is to conduct field sobriety tests on Hogan and arrest him after he fails.
“Prom is this weekend, and we aren’t naïve,” Lewis said. “Kids shouldn’t drink, but they will, and this will show them the impact of drinking and driving. If someone that was supposed to drive is drinking, call a parent. They’d rather get that call from you than get a death call from us.”
Lewis said vehicle crashes are the number one killer of kids, and they are completely preventable.
After the crash was over, and the bloody kids that were carried away by the ambulance came back and the students walked out of the bleachers and back to class, the shock on the students’ faces didn’t go away.

“It was devastating, sad, and shocking,” said senior Katelyn Scott. “It felt real to me.”
The message meant to be portrayed by the crash got through to junior Ally Ammons.
“I feel like it moved a lot of people,” Ammons said. “It made me realize that I need to DD, and help people with this problem.”
The red corn syrup is washed off their skin, the gelatin gashes are pulled away, and the mangled cars are towed, but the message of “Don’t drink and drive” still echoes through the halls.

Setting Up to Remember and Take Awareness

Feature #2 – “Lives Lost to Alcohol” Work Day

Group members: Addie Martin, Kelsy Kershaw, Hannah Schilling

March 22, 2012

Feature Writer – Addie Martin

Setting Up to Remember and Take Awareness

                At 8 am on Thursday morning, the cool air was not the only thing sending chills down the spines of Louisiana Tech students and the people of the Lincoln Parish community.  In the middle of a field between Temple Baptist Church and Rabbs Bar and Grill, students from several Louisiana Tech classes and organizations worked together to set up the “Lives Lost to Alcohol” silhouettes.

“I have to be here because it is a field project for my Kinesiology class but I want to be here because it means something more to me,” sophomore medical technology student Carolyn Davis said, “I have been hit by a drunk driver before.”

When Davis was only a sophomore in high school a drunk driver made an impact on her life. While sitting at an intersection waiting for her turn to go, a senseless drunk driver crashed into her car, frightening Davis and her friend. Though there were no fatalities, the wreck was more than enough proof to Davis that things, such as drunk driving, do happen everywhere, even home.

“Hopefully, since you have to drive past the display when going to the top three liquor locations and drive past it when coming back, people will think twice about their nightly plans. I know that the silhouettes make me think,” freshman construction engineering student Brendon Womack said, “we are just trying to save lives, you know, say a little prayer for those who drive drunk.”

Ironically located between a church and a bar, “Lives Lost to Alcohol” obtains the main purpose of raising awareness about drinking and driving. It is a display of all of the fatalities due to alcohol related car wrecks in the past ten years.

“Statistics are one thing but when there is a visual of all of the lives lost and the effect of the victim’s families and friends that come out to see the silhouettes, something about the entire thing becomes more real,” Partners in Prevention student worker Kate Warner said.

Displayed as large black bodily figures, the silhouettes for all thirty-eight fatalities are drilled into the ground of the large field next to the freeway one-by-one.

“I have friends who drink and drive, even though they know it is dangerous, so the silhouettes mean saving at least one of my friend’s life,” sophomore computer science major Taneka Henderson said.

As the sun rises, each silhouette forms a long shadow on the flourishing green grass, causing every student and adult to take in every aspect of “Lives Lost to Alcohol.”

“There is just something solemn about the reactions that the silhouettes cause. Most students come to ‘work day’ because they need community service hours for an organization or it is part of their class,” Warner said, “but after Jenny explains the meaning of the silhouettes and the entire display is compete, they leave with an understanding of the awareness being portrayed.”

With the silhouettes in the ground, “Lives Lost to Alcohol” is ready to change every drinker’s mind.  It reminds them, for each dark figure, one person lost their life due to an alcohol related crash. For each dark figure, one person’s family lost a loved one. For each dark figure, one person’s friend lost a companion. For each dark figure, life ended abruptly for one person.