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by Will Gottlieb
Coastal Journal staff
BATH - WGME 13 broadcast a very alarming story on Thursday, January 7, about Morse High School. The story was slugged "Airing Dirty Laundry To Make A Difference" online, but once the cameras rolled, the audience saw a picture of Morse, above the words "Substance Use High."
Anchor Gregg Lagerquist set the mood for the story with the words, "Booze, pot and pills: They're all a problem at our high schools, particularly Morse High School in Bath, which according to a recent survey, ranks higher than the statewide average for substance abuse."
To which Kim Block chimed in: "So how bad is it? So bad, that the principal wants to share what he calls the school's dirty laundry in order to clean things up."
Cut to a shot of a bottle of Sam Adams being opened, over which reporter Giovanna Bechard intones, "If you thought drinking and drug use wasn¹t a problem at Morse High School, just listen to the kids."
Indeed. In the story, Bechard talks to a couple of students, and hears the terrible news: Some kids at Morse High School are doing drugs! However, Bechard doesn't get into all that journalistic "Who, What, Where and Why" stuff; just the where, and to a lesser extent the what - much to the dismay of school administrators.
"I didn't expect anything less from Channel 13," said Morse Principal Peter Kahl. "I kind of asked them not to be inflammatory when I talked to Giovanna Bechard. But I was a little angry, my favorite line was at the very beginning: 'Booze, pills and something else, and then they said, it's a bad problem -- particularly bad at Morse High School.' Oh, my God! Thanks a lot the way Channel 13 released it was, "Here's a sensational problem, and Morse High School is a den of iniquity."
And it's true: Statistically speaking, there's more use and abuse of drugs, cigarettes and alcohol at Morse than at other Maine schools. Of course, Bechard might have asked why things were that way, but the question didn't get asked.
"My supposition," said Kahl, "is that it's associated with poverty. When you have lower social economic areas, drug, alcohol and tobacco use is higher. And Bath, despite all its pretty houses and beautiful historic homes and Washington Street, has the largest number of subsidized housing in the state of Maine. And, consequently, we suffer from many of the problems that are associated with lower economic areas."
"You have to look at the demographics," said Sagadahoc Sheriff Joel Merry. "Bath, for example, does have a fair amount of subsidized properties I think that there's a fair amount of blue-collar, working-class folks here. Whether it be fishermen from the peninsulas and island communities, or whether it's folks who work at BIW, that's the fabric of the community."
At the end of the WGME story, Bechard sums up the school¹s response with the words, "Now Kahl says he is taking the first step to end the substance abuse. It begins with a [refrigerator] magnet and a brand new underage drinking tip line. You can call police anonymously and report a party."
A magnet and a tip line? Really? One might ask, Is that all there is?
In fact, the school is doing much more than handing out refrigerator magnets and inviting kids to narc on each other, according to RSU 1 Superintendent William Shuttlesworth.
"We've already begun partnering with the Bath Police Department," said Shuttleworth, "the Sagadahoc County Sheriff's Deparment, and Mid Coast Hospital, to provide a lot of support systems. We're going to bring in more counselors to our school that will offer services to students. We're going to have more public awareness."
"I've talked to the Patten Free Library about having materials out there that begin to educate kids, in non-judgmental way, of materials they can access that can help render a better decision on their part. We¹re providing more after-school activities for kids, and more and more to our Healthy Kids program, that will offer them all an attractive option in the choices that they make."
According to Shuttlesworth, the centerpiece of the school's efforts to curb weekend drug and alcohol use is to do more to enlist parents in the effort.
"You know," he said, "one of the biggest things that we can do - and need to find a better vehicle to do - is to find a way to forge better partnerships with parents and the community, to make this a community issue. Obviously, kids are getting drugs and alcohol somewhere. And parents and vendors and citizens need to be acutely aware that we all share this issue, and that we can all weigh in on this, and that we can¹t look the other way. I¹m convinced that if we make it a priority, we can make a big difference on this."
Ultimately, said Shuttlesworth, the results of the Maine Youth Drug and Alcohol Use Survey (MYDAUS) indicated a willingness on the part of students to be open about substance abuse that the WGME report ignored.
"It just means that the kids that the kids that took that survey at Morse reported more out-of-school use of drugs and alcohol than some of the other responding schools," said Shuttlesworth. "We are pretty confident, because we are pretty vigilant, and the kids are actually reporting that too, that there's very little drug and alcohol use or exchange [in] school."
And, said Principal Kahl, the WGME story ignored the most significant aspect of the study.
"The other thing that didn¹t get into that story," he said, "was that, yes, our MYDAUS numbers were high, but since taking the survey in 2000, they¹ve been steadily dropping."
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