WAURIKA — Consumption of alcohol by teens and underage youth is a nationwide concern that leaves its fingerprint on communities of all sizes and locales; from huge metropolitan areas to rural villages that don’t even have a stop sign in town.

During a community forum Saturday at the Rock Island Depot, the universal nature of underage drinking was one factor stressed by all three of the featured speakers.

“Underage drinking is a nationwide problem. It’s not just in the cities or in the bigger towns, and it’s certainly a problem we have in Waurika and Jefferson County. We may ‘think’ it’s not a problem because we’re living down here in the rural area, but day in and day out, I see the problem and the results of the problem,” William Eakin told the group that gathered for the “Chuck Wagon Round-Up: Support Alcohol-Free Youth” presentation.

The Chuck Wagon Round-Up is a national program that was coordinated and conducted locally by the Jefferson County Turning Point Committee, the Wichita Mountains Prevention Network and Jefferson County Health Department.

Along with Eakin, speakers included Paula Thomas, Prevention Specialist for the Wichita Mountain Prevention Network, and Billy Gilmore from Crossroads Recovery.

Eakin recounted some of the experiences he’s seen first-hand, during a 35-year legal career that has included being a private attorney and a municipal judge. He also came armed with statistics that spoke to the problem of mixing alcohol with teenagers and younger children.

“Kids know more at an earlier age than at anytime in the history of the world. They know more at 12 than we knew at 22, so it’s not enough to just tell them not to drink alcohol,” Eakin said.

“I went to the Internet and found that among 12 to 17 year olds nationally, 28.2 percent of them reported drinking alcohol in the last month; 1 in 10 said they were involved in binge drinking.

“Nationally, 74.3 percent of high school kids say they have been drunk, and 5.8 percent need treatment for alcohol addiction.”

“I’ve seen the affects of alcohol and what it can lead to every day for 35 years; teen pregnancy, driving under the influence, fights and a various crimes, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor — it all happens. I’ve seen it.

“The costs that go with alcohol-related crime and other problems is in the millions and millions of dollars. And you can’t put a cost on the deaths.”

Eakin felt adults, including those who drink responsibly, were the key dealing with a problem “that needs to be controlled.”

“A survey showed that 58.9 percent of parents talked to their children about alcohol and tobacco use, and those kids had a lower percentage of these behaviors,” he noted. “Parental involvement is the No. 1 way to help your kid, but the No. 1 problem of parents getting involved is apathy.

“Parents can do something to help fight the problem, but it takes involvement and you have to be vigilant.”

Gilmore said the impact of family behavior and attitude about alcohol was a primary factor in his becoming an alcoholic and substance abuser.

“I was raised in Bowie (Texas) and all the men around me were oil field workers or cowboys, and all of them drank. When I was just a little kid, they would give me ‘tastes’ of beer, and I loved it. I grew up thinking (drinking alcohol) was just what men did,” said Gilmore, who works as a counselor at Crossroads, which he described as “a Christ-centered recovery program.”

A self-described alcoholic, Gilmore said he coupled that problem with a 21-year addiction to methamphetamine. He noted that many of the clients at Crossroads Recovery were also battling multiple-substance abuse. While alcohol hadn’t necessarily been the “gateway substance” to other forms of abuse, it was a common factor among many of the clients.

Returning to the theme of parental and family input, Gilmore said, “What would have changed my mind about drinking? My parents. But instead, I grew up determined that I was going to out-do my Dad.

“Parents have to be a role model. They have to make kids understand that underage drinking is more serious than a country boy being a country boy.”

Accepting drinking as a “rite of passage” was among the myths that reinforce underage drinking Thomas pointed out in her presentation at the forum.

She also spoke of the role adults play in addressing the problem.

“Blaming youth for underage drinking is like blaming fish for a polluted stream,” she said. “At the same time, (at Wichita Mountains Prevention) we don’t say adults shouldn’t drink or have alcohol in the home. We’re not prohibitionists. But we stress that there’s a time and a place for legal consumption.”

Among the factors parents and concerned adults face in getting across the message on alcohol use and abuse, Thomas cited peer pressure as the No. 1 negative factor.

She suggested ways adults could counter peer pressure and other factors leading to negative behaviors.

“Talk to your kids and be an enforcer; know who they’re with, where they are, what time they’ll be home,” Thomas said. “Set boundaries with your kids and make sure they understand the restrictions.

“Make sure you monitor alcohol that is in your home and don’t host parties where there’s underage drinking going on.

“Get kids involved in stuff; stuff they’re good at, like sports and clubs and church activities.

“Not all kids are involved in underage drinking. In fact, most kids are not. And surveys show that most kids feel the information they can trust the most is what they get from their parents.”