The temptation of drugs and alcohol can start at an early age. According to a University of Michigan study, more than half of high school students will use illicit drugs by the time they graduate. Rachel and Chris are two teens who felt the allure of drugs and alcohol in high school. Now in treatment, they are overcoming their addictions with the help of their families and the Pathway Family Cente

Imagine you are walking in the halls of an ordinary high school. What kind of things would you hear students talking about? Larry Hensley-Marschand, principal of Southport High School, does this every day. His experiences before 1998 were often unpleasant. "A couple of teachers actually stood around the corner of one particular hallway and counted the number of times they heard the f-word in a six

The influence of rap music is everywhere, from Grammy winners OutKast and Beyonce to Baby Phat and Sean John clothing brands. Search for "rap music" on Google, and you'll get more than 550,000 hits. But can rap's influence extend to an individual's character and decisions, as one study suggests? Teens at the Indianapolis Juvenile Correctional Facility say "no." Most of the girls listen to rap dail

Parents and concerned adults have long worried about rap music's effects on children, with its sexual and sometimes violent imagery and lyrics. Now, one study of teen girls has linked large amounts of rap video viewing to risky or violent behavior. Last year, researchers from Emory University in Atlanta and the University of Alabama at Birmingham reported on a study involving 522 black females enr

Not many women wear lace gloves to social events anymore. But Rebecca Malenkos does. As an etiquette and cotillion teacher, it's part of her formal attire. "I am an English teacher at Carmel High School during the day, and then I run cotillion classes in the evening. It's more fun to teach students how to dance than it is to teach them grammar," she said on a recent Sunday after teaching a class o

This fall, Y-Press visited a cotillion class at Woodland Country Club in Carmel taught by Rebecca Malenko . Following the session, we interviewed Caroline Valentine, 14, Ben Snipes, 14, Craig Wildey, 13, and Nate Downing, 14, all third-year students in Malenkos' Supper Club. Getting started CRAIG: I found an article in the newspaper three years ago on (cotillion), and I read it and I showed it to

When Pam Wright was 17, her cousin died, leaving three young children. She felt sorry for her second cousins because she realized they needed to grieve, but society discouraged them from grieving publicly. As Wright grew older and lost some of her loved ones, she felt lost, too. "I felt like if I could only talk about it, it would help me," she said. "I felt kind of isolated and alone." Wright beg

Have you ever seen parents beating each other with clubs, chains and brass knuckles at a youth sporting event? According to three Lawrence Township students, such actions aren't far from the truth. After all, a Massachusetts man was just convicted of beating to death another man after a youth hockey practice. Payton DeLong, 15; Nicole Sharp, 13; and Lauren Hobert, 12, all participate in athletics.

Walk into a classroom 30 years ago and you would probably see a teacher at the front of the room explaining the lesson in a firm but calm voice. Students would be sitting in rows, speaking only when called upon to answer a question. Things are different today. Teachers generally don't inspire the awe and fear they did back then. Many see today's students as disrespectful, but if adults listened to