Marysville High students warn peers about bad choices

Published 11:05 pm Sunday, May 18, 2008

MARYSVILLE — Standing in front of the entire student body of Marysville Middle School on Wednesday, 17-year-old Angie talked about coming home from a doctor’s appointment to find her dad, high on drugs, sleeping with a neighbor.

Dustin shared stories about trying drugs and losing important friendships in the process.

Taylor recalled when she was 14, drinking, doing drugs and dating a 19-year-old man.

Alisha described being bullied for seven years, and Amanda talked about being a bully.

Different choices, one message: Think about it.

Determined to make teens think before making life-changing decisions, more than a dozen students from Marysville-Pilchuck High School are going public with intimately personal stories about how choices they and others made affected them. As part of a DECA marketing leadership class, the students wrote speeches, designed “Think about it” T-shirts and ordered black wrist bands that they distribute to every student who attends one of their assemblies.

So far they have taken their message to two schoolwide assemblies, but the group is considering events at other schools.

“All we ask of you is to think about it,” junior Jamara Neubauer told Marysville Middle School students Wednesday. “Think about your decisions because you never know. It may affect someone forever.”

She helped organize the event, but did not share a personal story. The Herald is identifying students who shared personal stories only by their first names to protect them. The newspaper did not independently verify the details of their stories.

After sharing their experiences with suicide, partying or homelessness, the high school speakers played a sideshow of photos of Marysville Middle School students. Then, with fire marshals watching, they lit 972 candles that were arranged on the gym floor in the shape of a Marysville Wildcat paw print. A card under each candle listed the name of a Marysville Middle School student. When members of the group addressed their own school in February, they lit 3,000 candles.

“Nobody really gets, in a good way, the power of what’s going to happen here until you see it,” said Jim Pankiewicz, who teaches DECA and helps organize the assemblies.

Teens talking to their peers about mistakes they’ve made can have mixed results, according to Stephen Wallace, chairman and chief executive of Students Against Destructive Decisions, a national peer leadership organization.

Some kids who hear these sorts of presentations are profoundly moved and vow to avoid risky behavior, but others decide that, like the presenters, they can try drugs or teen sex and wind up OK, he said.

Because of this, Wallace’s group generally prefers to use teen speakers who haven’t made major mistakes and who can talk to their peers about avoiding risky behavior.

“My experience tells me the ‘shock and awe’ approach of presentations has a fairly short shelf life,” Wallace said. “That being said, hearing messages from your peers can be very powerful.”

Samantha Lasky believes the approach works.

After watching the high school assembly in February, the Marysville Middle School seventh-grader helped bring the group to her school. As part of the presentation, her older sister, Jessica Lasky, handed her a black wrist band and asked her to think about her choices.

Samantha has worn the band since February. She says she takes it off only when she showers.

“Since the assembly, I’ve become a much better person,” she said. “Every time I’m about to make a bad decision, I look at my bracelet and think, ‘It’s not worth it.’ “

Marysville Middle School Principal Pete Lundberg had some reservations about bringing the program to his school. He worried about the risky topics and he was concerned the presentation could possibly have a negative impact on his students.

After discussing his concerns with Pankiewicz, he ultimately decided the assembly would benefit his kids.

“It reached the kids,” he said, standing in the hallway after the assembly. “I think their behavior proved it. Whenever you can get 970 11- to 14-year-olds sitting in a room and have them behave for an hour, you know you had a powerful message. You know they’re listening.”

Reporter Kaitlin Manry: 425-339-3292 or kmanry@heraldnet.com.