ANAHEIM : Students Told Drugs Not Fun and Games

Two young women stood in the quad of Esperanza High School, talking frankly with a visiting counselor about drug abuse, and their reasons for not attending the anti-drug rally at the gymnasium.

The two sophomores were among a few dozen students who congregated in small groups in the quad, choosing not to hear a cast of speakers--including the L.A. Rams’ Anthony Newman and Mayor Fred Hunter--who came to the high school Wednesday to talk to the students about drugs.

“We’ve been to so many of these,” said Rob George, a senior, who was talking with one four counselors who were speaking with students who chose to skip the assemblies. “It’s overkill.”

But inside the nearly full gymnasium and the packed theater, the rest of the school’s 1,800 students listened intently to a professional comedian, sports stars and the mayor dissuade them from drug use.

Rams defensive back Newman warned the teen-agers about the physical and legal dangers of using steroids in sports training, and challenged them to excel in athletics naturally, through discipline and training.

“They all got big and puffy and they looked terrible,” he said about steroid users in professional sports. “It won’t help you guys, believe me.”

A survey conducted last academic year at Esperanza showed that 51% of the students at the predominantly white, upper-middle class school had used alcohol, 17% marijuana and 8% had used cocaine.

Assistant Principal Marc Jackson said the numbers have decreased from previous years. He added that the school prefers to make a constant anti-drug effort throughout the academic year, rather than hold only a few heavily promoted rallies.

“We want to stay away from the big balloon effects,” he said, adding that drug abuse and prevention are community problems that need an ongoing “community approach.”

Most of the students who attended either the sports talk or the comedian’s performance agreed that such programs helped prevent drug use, and offered some support for students using drugs and needing help.