Concerned youth of Tyrone met last evening at the Tyrone Area Elementary School gymnasium to discuss the issue of drugs and alcohol use among teenagers. The discussion was lead by Rita DeCarlo, the mother of Randy Estright, the teenager killed in a one-vehicle accident on the Janesville Pike in May. The meeting was designed to solicit ideas from Tyrone\u2019s teenagers about the town, their recreational opportunities and ways to thwart drug use.
\nDeCarlo started by telling the students that underage drinkng was around when she was a teenager, but hard drugs, such as heroin, were not prevalent.
\n\u201c\u201dI had no idea that there was a heroin problem in Tyrone until Randy died,\u201d she said. Estright was killed in the early morning hours of May 26 when he lost control of his pick-up truck, which according to State Police reports was due to excessive speed. DeCarlo admitted that Estright was drinking and laid some of the blame on herself, and other parents, who have been too permissive with their teenagers.
\n\u201cWe want to give you all the things we didn\u2019t have,\u201d she said, noting more teenagers have access to extra spending money, cars and are often allowed to be out driving after legally prescribed hours. She also told the approximately 15 students attending that ultimately they have to take charge of their own decisions.
\n\u201cYou\u2019ve got to take responsibility for your own lives,\u201d she said. \u201cIf things keep going the way they are in this tow we\u2019re going to see another kid lose their life.\u201d
\nDeCarlo said she wasn\u2019t there to preach to them about the dangers of drugs and she noted the teenagers were already aware of the risks and effects of usage. \u201cYou know who\u2019s using, you know who\u2019s partying,\u201d she said.
\nDeCarlo told the tenagers that efforts were underway to open a place for them to hang out without being asked to move. She said that any efforts to provide for the youth need to be respected and not destroyed.
\nAs the students began to throw ideas around, one theme stood out \u2014 the students gathered didn\u2019t see most of the civic and cultural activities in town relating to them.
\n\u201cWouldn\u2019t you like to see a rock band at Reservoir Park?\u201d she asked. \u201cBesides a gospel, country or bluegrass band.\u201d
\nTyrone Football coach John Franco spoke briefly, as well. He related how students need to realize that \u201cboredom\u201d is something all teenagers, regardless of their generation, have experienced.
\n\u201cWhen your 16, 17 and 18, there are not always a lot of things to do,\u201d he said. \u201cNot a lot will change that.\u201d
\nFranco said that as teenagers enter adulthood they wee that life demands much from them and the \u201cboredom\u201d dissappears, replaced by the rigors of \u201cThe Real World\u201d.
\nHe encouraged the group, as did DeCarlo, to take the initiative in changing attitudes among the teenagers in town concerning drug and alcohol abuse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Concerned youth of Tyrone met last evening at the Tyrone Area Elementary School gymnasium to discuss the issue of drugs and alcohol use among teenagers. The discussion was lead by Rita DeCarlo, the mother of Randy Estright, the teenager killed in a one-vehicle accident on the Janesville Pike in May. The meeting was designed to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48440\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}