Area Students Compare Notes on Drug Speech : Psychologist Sits In as Teen-Agers Share Mixed Impressions of Telecast

Moments after President Bush finished his televised speech Tuesday morning warning school kids of the dangers of drugs, South Gate High School junior Rachelle Menetazzi made it clear she wasn’t moved.

“It didn’t mean a thing to me,” said the 16-year-old. “These people are telling you not to use drugs, but you don’t know if they use them. You hear about these people telling you to say no to drugs. But so? A lot of them use drugs themselves.

“What he (Bush) said was a true story. But it’s the same old story. I’ve heard it a lot of times before.”

Menetazzi’s school was one of abut 70,000 in the country that tuned into the speech as the President urged the nation’s 47 million students to abstain from illegal drug use and encourage their friends to follow suit.

Psychologist Present

After the address, Los Angeles psychologist Robert R. Butterworth discussed it with Menetazzi’s social studies class, one of three South Gate classes that watched the speech.

Butterworth, 42, who heads Contemporary Psychology Associates, a youth counseling and research organization, said he visited the school in hopes of further warning teen-agers away from drug use.

“Instead of being a teen expert just sitting around behind my desk, I want to get out and talk with them,” Butterworth explained. “I want to get them to really think about drugs and what harm drugs can really do. I’m not saying ‘Say No To Drugs,’ but ‘Say No To Death.’ ”

Butterworth said he was inspired to go to South Gate High by recent Gallup polls that showed a growing concern among teen-agers about drug abuse.

“We used to think teens were just concerned about nuclear war,” he said. “The polls show that drugs are now much more of a concern. Drugs are their nuclear war.”

Not Prepared

He said he wanted to visit other schools, but, because many schools have just reopened, he was told that they were not prepared to televise the President’s address.

Butterworth said Bush should have delivered the speech when all of the nation’s schools were ready to transmit it to students.

“I can’t believe he was insensitive to the fact that Los Angeles schools reopen later than other schools,” he said. “I called Jordan High, but they told me they weren’t ready, because school had just started. Bush should have waited.”

South Gate holds classes year-round so the school was prepared for the address.

Asst. Principal Howard Lappin said the school does not have problems with drug use or drug dealing on campus, but he acknowledged that his students were at risk in the streets.

“Our biggest problem here is alcohol,” he said. “But there are gang and drug problems. However, we try to keep that type of stuff off of campus.”

During the discussion with Butterworth, most of the South Gate students told him that they agreed with what the President said, but few seemed impressed with how he said it.

‘Santa Claus Attitude’

“I saw a Santa Claus attitude in the speech,” said Linda Prendez, 15. “It was like: ‘Come sit on my lap.’ I think if he’d put more soul into it, it could have been better.”

Carlos Perez, also 15, dismissed the speech as a perfunctory “Just Say No” address.

“He seemed like he was obligated,” Perez said. “Everybody knows what the issue is. It was like he was speaking because it’s mandatory to talk about drugs.”

However, the President’s message was powerful enough to galvanize some of the students.

“I have a friend who’s on drugs and I’m trying to help him get off,” said 11th-grader Jennie Duran. “I go to sleep at night wondering if he’s going to be here tomorrow. For a while, I was getting frustrated. But now, after listening to (Bush), I feel encouraged. I know I’m doing the right thing.”

Throughout the discussion, Butterworth attempted to show students the connection between violence in Los Angeles and violence by Colombia’s drug traffickers.

“When you buy drugs,” he said, “you are just as responsible as the drug dealers for a kid being gunned down in East L.A. or a Supreme Court justice being assassinated in Colombia.”

Gang Links

Many of the students said they understood the relationship between the gangs and the drug cartels.

“You can’t stop drug use just by fighting it here,” said Michael Gadd, 15. “You have to go to the source. You got to go down to South America and get the traffickers.”

Frank Groe, 16, said the United States “should send the National Guard down there.

“The people here are going to keep using drugs and the drug runners are getting more powerful,” he said. “We’ve got to do something.”

Sandra Torrez, 16, said Bush made it clear that he was serious about severing the drug lords’ ties to U.S. drug users.

“He seemed sincere about the war on drugs,” she said. “He said they were building more jails and were going to hire more prosecutors.

“I hope he can do something. The problem is getting worse.”