Combating underage drinking – Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) has designated April 21^st as PowerTalk21, a national day for parents and teens to talk about underage drinking. Here are some statistics to start the conversation:

• 3 in 10 eighth graders have tried alcohol.
• 1 in 5 teens engage in binge drinking
• Only 1 in 100 parents believes his or her own child engages in binge drinking.
• Teen alcohol use kills about 6,000 people each year, more than all other illegal drugs combined.

For more information, see http://www.madd.org/underage-drinking/powertalk-21. 

MADD is also sponsoring a video contest for teens, deadline April 27^th. For rules, entry forms, and instructions, see http://www.madd.org/youthvideo. 

“Bulletin Board” in Principal Leadership, April 2012 (Vol. 12, #8, p. 7)