Youths Brainstorm for Real Solutions to Tough Problems : Think tank: Delegates make proposals to combat racism, drugs. They also have harsh words for Teen Center, the result of an earlier student endeavor.

By MACK REED

March 13, 1994 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Faced with the slippery problems of racism and substance abuse, about 100 high school students formed a teen-age think tank Saturday in Thousand Oaks to work out some concrete solutions.

The results of the Conejo Future Foundation’s 10th annual Youth Congress at Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks pleased the event’s coordinators, but also left them a little surprised when delegates dumped criticism on the work of an earlier youth congress.

The students from east Ventura County and western Los Angeles County high schools made solid proposals.

They called for improved anti-drug education, safe and fun youth hangouts and better cultural education, along with a regional panel of students who could plan special events to divert youths from substance abuse or air racial issues.

But the delegates also slammed the Thousand Oaks Teen Center, proposed several years ago by another youth congress, calling it underused, boring and condescending. What’s more, they said, it is staffed by too many adults.

“There’s more adults than kids there sometimes,” said Roshi Pejhan, 16, an Agoura High School student who presented results of the group sessions to the whole congress.

“Instead of having so many adult supervisors--people felt like they were observed too much and it was almost like being at home--maybe there could be kids supervising as chaperons,” she said. “People would be more comfortable with that.”

Redonna Donatto, the chief adult adviser to the congress, agreed.

“The Teen Center is a concept that came out of the congress a few years ago, and it’s being damned today because it’s not doing what it was set out to do,” she said. “We need to look at it and say, ‘We created it, it needs to be better.’ ”

Sponsored by Thousand Oaks businesses and educational groups, the annual Youth Congress puts tough questions to student delegates from Thousand Oaks High School, Westlake High School, Newbury Park High School, Conejo Valley High School, La Reina High School, Agoura High School and Calabasas High School.

This year, as always, the students heard lectures by experts on the topics of the day--drug and alcohol abuse and racism--then broke into groups of eight or 10 to brainstorm.

Substance abuse “is a problem in the schools, it’s a problem in the work force,” Detective Gary Spencer of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department narcotics unit told the students.

“The solution is fairly simple,” Spencer said. “It’s just a matter of taking a little piece of the community and saying, ‘We’ll stop it here.’ ”

In groups, the students said one solution already in place, the Thousand Oaks Teen Center, needs an overhaul--maybe even an overhaul with changing themes to keep the teen-agers’ interest.

“I think it’s a joke,” said Brian Gantzer, 16, of Conejo Valley High School in Newbury Park. “Kids at my school say it’s just a bunch of yuppies who go to play pool and basketball, it’s not a place to hang out. . . . You’re being watched there, like you’re at home with your parents.”

Local coffeehouses are more popular hangouts for youths, who use them to socialize without drinking or taking drugs, the group agreed.

Drug education such as the DARE program also needs an overhaul, several students said.

“The problem with some drug education today is it all says, ‘This is bad, and this is bad, and this is bad,’ and then when you try it and it’s fun, nobody listens anymore,” Jennifer Prehn, 18, of Thousand Oaks High School told her group. “You have to tell them, ‘Yeah, it’s fun at first, but it ruins your life.’ ”

The DARE anti-drug program works, but it should be rewritten and continued past freshman year in high school to drive home the lessons it teaches, Joanna Dransfeldt, 17, of La Reina High School in Thousand Oaks told the entire congress at the session’s end.

“The structure needs to be changed,” said Joanna, one of the student coordinators of the congress. “It’s been going on so long it’s getting old. They need to find new and different ways to present the information.”

Then came the subject of racism.

Ric Easton, a spokesman for the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, told the congress, “The first lesson in teaching tolerance is the fact that all of us are prejudiced.”

Groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and White Aryan Resistance are easily identified, but more subtle forms of prejudice find their way into people’s lives, he said. Easton then posed a question for the congress: “How do you get people to comply with anti-racism tolerance programs?”

Broken into groups, students called on their own experiences.

Some said a racially tense rivalry between two Westlake High School students might have led to the shooting last month of three students by a group of Asian American youths who reportedly announced “We’re the Asian Mafia” before firing into a crowd in Thousand Oaks.

“Part of the problem is there was some racial tension involved between the people there and they didn’t know how to solve it,” said Ben Bartos, 18, of Westlake High.

Others said schools teach world history and European history, but nearly nothing on African American history and Judaism.

Ignorance is one of the main problems, students said.

“I know a lot of little kids around my neighborhood, like sixth-graders,” said Dave Edler, 16, of Thousand Oaks High School. “I don’t know if they’re prejudiced, but sometimes they’re just sitting there, totally blurting out these racist slurs. I ask them, ‘Why are you talking about this?’ and they say, ‘I don’t know.’ ”

Sharon Yuan, 17, of Westlake High School told the whole congress afterward, “There needs to be a strong emphasis on multicultural education. They should not only talk about different countries, but tie it into how these cultures have helped this country grow.”

Coleen Ralph, 18, of Thousand Oaks High School told the group that many delegates want area student councils to get more involved in combatting racism.

Some congress delegates suggested that an area student council be set up to handle such issues, she said.

Others recommended that the region’s schools get together once a year to send letters and petitions to Congress and the news media, urging them to talk about positive interracial relations as well as racial tension, Coleen said.

She concluded, “We have to emphasize what it’s like to be discriminated against.”

As the congress ended and student coordinators made plans to meet Tuesday and work on putting some of these ideas into action, one adult onlooker marveled at their work.

“These kids are so much more sophisticated than they were when I was teaching school” in the 1970s, said Carolyn Kopp, chairwoman of the Conejo Future Foundation’s board of trustees. “These kids are sharp, they’re committed, they’re good and they always deliver.”