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Schools

PTA tries to curb youth gambling

The Citrus County Council PTA president asks the School Board for help in limiting the spread of gambling among young people.

By BARBARA BEHRENDT
Published December 23, 2005

INVERNESS - Maybe it started with Yu-Gi-Oh trading cards or Pokemon games.

As the years went by, the Texas Hold'em poker mania may have kicked in.

But for some youngsters, what started as innocent fun can grow into a crippling gambling addiction. For an increasing numbers of adolescents, it has.

Hoping to avert the latest social problem from taking root in children, Citrus County Council PTA president Kathy Thrumston earlier this month asked for help from the School Board. While the board didn't discuss the gambling issue in detail, school officials say they are interested in doing what they can to educate students about the dangers of gambling.

"It's a growing problem," Thrumston said last week.

Poker tournaments are broadcast on cable TV. Internet sites offer many opportunities for people to gamble anonymously using credit cards. Even video games targeting young people offer entry points into casino gambling.

One recent study found that 80 percent of high school students report having gambled for money in the past year. The same study found between 4 and 8 percent of adolescents with a serious gambling problem and as many as 14 percent more at risk of developing one.

From 2003 until 2004, the number of young men ages 14 to 22 who played cards for money increased by 84 percent. And other studies show that about three times more adolescents than adults will become problem gamblers.

The Florida PTA examined those kinds of statistics and concluded that curtailing the growth of youth gambling needed to be part of its policy platform for 2006. Thrumston, a member of the state PTA committee that examined the issue, was surprised by the numbers. But she was even more surprised when she asked her 12-year-old son about gambling among Citrus students.

He knew what gambling was and equated it to losing valuable Yu-Gi-Oh cards. Thrumston also watched him play a video game recently that led a character into a casino to gamble.

While many gambling outlets, from the lottery to online poker, might seem harmless, she said not addressing the issue with youngsters actually was sending them a message that they are simply games and pose no danger.

"Our kids, younger and younger, even at the elementary school level, are getting exposed to gambling," Thrumston said. "It is something that can develop into addicting behavior."

The school district's Student Code of Conduct doesn't specifically address gambling, said Renna Jablonskis, the student services director. But other provisions in the code, the disciplinary blueprint for the schools, would allow an administrator to stop students from gambling on campus.

Thrumston said she didn't want to see the issue become one of punishment but rather education. Still, she said, children should not be gambling on campus.

Superintendent Sandra "Sam" Himmel agreed the committee that reviews the Code of Conduct each year should talk about the issue, especially since it is becoming more prevalent.

School Board member Ginger Bryant agreed.

Since schools are responsible for educating about every other social evil, she said informing youngsters about the dangers of gambling should also be part of the district's job.

"We have to worry about everything else, and if this is going to impact children, we have to worry about it too," Bryant said. "I do know as a school system we've got to be involved in keeping an eye on whatever our children are doing."

Thrumston said her hope was that Citrus schools include the dangers of gambling in whatever classes children take that outline all the consequences of risky behavior. Those courses are taught to high school students in the district.

While Bryant said she was not sure how big the gambling issue had become in Citrus, she was sure that children here knew all about it even if teachers didn't at this point. "We've got kids who are involved in gambling, and I don't want to see them get addicted," she said.

While some adolescents end up in severe financial straights by gambling, that is not the only concern explained during a recent conference attended by Jablonskis and others. If a child is addicted to gambling, he may be so focused on the activity that he loses focus on everything else, including education.

"It just consumes everything," Jablonskis said.

For information, visit http://www.ncpgambling.org/about/ or http://www.floridapta.org/legislation.htm

Barbara Behrendt can be reached at 564-3621 or behrendt@sptimes.com

[Last modified December 23, 2005, 01:13:18]