The Safe Community Coalition’s Teen Summit, held last week at the Old Firehouse in McLean, brought out 90 people to address six topics of concern to teenagers: eating disorders, alcohol, stress management, school policies, drug abuse, and “safe social alternatives.”
The groups, evenly divided between adults and teenagers, spent the day addressing the topics in small groups with student facilitators. Adults took notes, and Safe Community Coalition President Jan Auerbach compiled a report with their findings.
“The final report summarizes what came out of what people wrote, and captured virtually everything,” said Auerbach.
Their recommendations included several suggestions for better ways to use the Old Firehouse in McLean, which is dedicated to use by teenagers and maintained by county funds from Small Tax District in McLean, but doesn’t get enough use, many residents say.
Among the adults attending were Dranesville District Supervisor Stuart Mendelsohn; School Board Representative Jane Strauss, former School Board Chairman Mark Emery; Langley High School Principal Bill Clendaniel; McLean High School Principal Don Weinheimer; McLean Youth Inc. President Forrest Horton, McLean Community Center Director Bill Bersie, and Auerbach, president of the Safe Community Coalition.
The students came from Langley and McLean High Schools, with one student from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.
“They were a fantastic group of kids,” said Auerback. “They selected the topics that were of interest to them,” and went to their teachers and coaches to get suggestions for names of other students to invite.
“They came up with the issues, facilitated the groups, and made the recommendations,” said Auerbach.
“It was student-run, as much as it could have been.”
Their suggestions will be forwarded to the groups who can implement them, she said.
FOR EXAMPLE, the group’s assessment of the causes of eating disorders included this exhaustive list:
* Low self-esteem
* Stress
* The misperception that the victim is selfish
* Psychological problems
* Large mal portions
* Competition among friends to look thin,
* Looking good in tight jeans, or date a skinny girl
* Misperception between athletically thin and eating problem thin
* Cafeterias serve unhealthy food choices
* 38 hours per week on average of TV messages on body image
* Thin being equated with success
* Body changing shape in middle school with no education that this is normal and not a sign of getting fat
* 38% of girls in grades 5-8 reported being on a diet
* Parents don’t serve healthy meals and families don’t always eat together
* Some parents tell their children they are getting fat
* Insufficient understanding that people have different shapes and not everyone can or should be thin -- in one class a teacher asked who thought they were fat and all but two girls raised their hands
* People don’t know whether to say anything if they think someone might be having a problem.
THE GROUPS ALSO MADE recommendations for strategies and next steps to take for each of the six topics.
For more information, or to receive an electronic copy of the full summary report, email SCC@crosslink.net and request a copy of the Teen Summit Final Report.
The Safe Community Coalition, funded from federal sources, combats problems confronting young people in the Langley and McLean High School Pyramids.