Teen problem no worse — claim

Press, 25 May 1989, Page 6

Teen problem no worse — claim

By

SUZANNE KEEN

Teen-age problems in Ashburton are no worse than in other small towns, say two of the area’s prominent citizens.

The member of Parliament for Ashburton, Mrs Jenny Shipley, and the principal of Ashburton College, Mr Digby Prosser, said yesterday that reports of an alleged suicide pact between a small group of teenagers had focused on something that was a small element of the community. Mrs Shipley said she had been angered by the “sensationalism” of the issue. Two recent suicides by Ashburton teenagers have drawn the town into the limelight nationally and they were followed by reports of devil worship, drug taking, glue sniffing and sex-for-drugs deals among some of its young people. “The publicity implies that Ashburton is unique and has done nothing about the problem to date,” Mrs Shipley said. “Youth suicide is an emerging problem nationwide.” She said the only reason it could be worse

in provincial areas was that there were fewer services available for helping young people under stress. However, a number of residents had been working for some time to get more assistance. Mrs Shipley said the information she had led her to believe there had been no suicide pact between six of the town’s teenagers. “There have been special events around three of the suicides — a sad series of events triggered this off.” She said she worked closely with Ashburton’s young people and thought it would be a “gross overrepresentation” to suggest there was even a minor problem with young girls trading sexual favours for drugs. “To my knowledge there was only one instance with one girl. All this has reflected badly on a town that is a stable, caring community.” Mr Prosser suggested that Ashburton College

would have proportionately fewer "at risk” students than Christchurch high schools. The problems of teenagers in the town probably attracted more publicity because a small community could readily identify and name victims. “We cannot dismiss the tragedy of human suicide, but for many young people this is as good a place to live as any other in New Zealand. I would say that if you made inquiries in other small towns, they would have similar problems.” He said there was perhaps a lack of support services, but that was also probably applicable to all towns of this size and it was almost as bad in the city. “Very few institutions place teenagers as their priority.” Mr Prosser said that when the college knew of students with problems, it did its best to help them. He said that he had heard nothing of a group

of devil worshippers in the town or of young girls offering sex to pay for drugs until he read about it in a newspaper report. The co-ordinator of the crisis-intervention team at the Christchurch Hospital, Mr Michael Aitken, said that a seminar in Ashburton this Sunday would discuss what resources were available in the town for helping young people under stress, and what further assistance was needed. The seminar was mainly aimed at people dealing with young people and would comprise a section on skills, such as recognising stress in people and what to do about it. Mr Aitken said the seminar was not an outcome of the suicide of a youth last Saturday. It had been planned six to eight weeks ago. The seminar will be conducted by Mr Aitken and Miss Jenny Prentice, a social worker.