High Life : Workshops Help Families Communicate

San Clemente High School will hold a series of free parent education workshops that are designed to help improve family communications and other issues.

The sessions, which will be conducted by counselor Ric Stephenson, will take place on three consecutive Tuesday evenings beginning Jan. 5 from 6 to 7:30 at the high school.

Other issues that will be covered in the workshops include when parents should “lose the battle in order to win the war” and how to encourage critical thinking without being critical. There will also be time for informal dialogue and questions and answers.

Attendance will be limited. Parents are encouraged to call the San Clemente High School guidance department at (714) 492-4165 to make reservations.

High school athletes and their parents in the Saddleback Valley Unified School District are invited to attend a college athletic scholarship workshop on Jan. 11.

The program, sponsored by the Laguna Hills High School Athletic Boosters Club and the district guidance department, will include information for students likely to earn a full scholarship at a Division I school and for those eager to participate in athletics at a small college or university.

The presentation in the Laguna Hills High gym will include information not covered in the first part of the school’s college athletic scholarship information series, which was in October, officials said. It will begin at 7 p.m.

For more information, contact the school district at (714) 586-1234.

The second most common cause of death among older teen-agers is gunshot wounds, and the rate is rising fast, according to the American Medical Assn. as reported in the December issue of NEA Today, the news magazine of the National Education Assn.

In 1987, seven were homicide victims per 100,000 15- to 19-year-olds. That number increased to 11 in 1989 (the latest available figure). Older teens’ suicide rates from gunshots rose from just under six to just under seven per 100,000 in the same period.

In the inner city, rates of gun homicide rose 28% during that period, while the suburban rate rose 23%. For white youngsters in the inner city, the increase was 30%.

Nationally, about 6% of high school students say they take handguns to school, and 2% say they own a gun and have fired it at someone.

Vigorous public information efforts and stiffer licensing requirements cut the automobile accident death rate for older teens from 44 to 34 per 100,000 between 1979 and 1989. Medical authorities advocate similar measures to cut the gunshot death rate.

“Abuse is the weapon of the vulgar.”--Samuel Griswold Goodrich