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jeudi 5 février 2015

Police Officers, Children And Community Support

By Saleem Rana


Lon Woodbury, host of The Woodbury Report radio show on K4HD.com, spoke to Idaho police officer, Jermaine Galloway on the show's theme of "Cops, Kids and Community."

An Independent Educational Consultant since 1984, Lon Woodbury has worked with struggling teenagers and their families. An author on parenting books, he is also the founder of two businesses. One is Struggling Teens, Inc. The other is Woodbury Reports.

Guest Profile

Jermaine Galloway has served as an Idaho police officer for many years, starting in 1997. He has over a decade of experience working with drug and alcohol issues, including with underage substance abusers. As a peace officer, he has worked in numerous different assignments from criminal investigation to field training. A graduate of the University of San Francisco, earning a bachelor's degree there, he now serves as a Northwest Nazarene University adjunct instructor.

Struggling Teens Receive Help From Cops, Kids, and Community

The guest started the interview by pointing out that drug abuse among young people posed a new, different, and difficult problem. "Drug potency is different from when we were young and experimenting with marijuana," he said, "The potency is more than anything we have ever seen before."

Officer Jermaine shared with Lon the advice he offered to parents who approached him for help. "I try to tell parents that there are different levels of drug and alcohol usage from addicts to experimentation and kids are still kids. They are learning and growing and many kids are doing exceptional.

One thing the officer suggested was that parents become better listeners. Instead of jumping to conclusions about their son's or daughter's strange behavior, they should listen and discern. He suggested parents spend more time asking questions than leading the discussion. Often unusual behavior was not due to drugs, but struggles like poor grades or a broken relationship.

The guest will often use theatrical props in his presentation to parents. He will recreate a teenager's bedroom, using the furniture, pop culture posters, and messiness associated with this type of room. Parents are then educated about cryptic symbols in clothes, learn about what kind of music encourages drug use, and learn some favorite places where teens might hide their drugs.

What can parents do to help their struggling teens? The guest suggested ways that parents could safeguard their children from negative peer groups and suggested community support programs that will help raise their child's awareness about dangerous social trends among young people.




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