Inside City Hall
by Bunny Norville
Munday Municipal Judge

The day was warm, the sun owned the clear, blue sky, and no wind rustled the new, green leaves of spring. It was such a day fifty-years ago, 1958. It was a Friday, I remember that day as if it was yesterday.

There were five or six of us sitting in the shade of the old high school building. We only had thirty minutes for lunch, but that was plenty of time to walk home, eat and get back to school and waste a little time in the shade, talking, bragging, just killing time. One of us had an idea. Not an ordinary idea, but one that would crack the sure foundation of the Munday Independent School district: playing hookey.

All of us had done it before, you know, one at a time. But never had a group like ours do it, at the same time. One good thing about working in small groups, decisions tend to come rapidly. So we all loaded up and took off for the river. One of the group knew a good place to swim. We all went skinny-dipping that afternoon, man the water was cold. But that didn’t matter, we were playing hookey and that added at least two degrees to the temperature of the water.
We did our thing and headed back to town, we had to be there when school was out. I walked home from school like I always did. Mom was working the berry patch when I rounded the corner of the house. I knew something was up the minute she asked me where I had been.

"I’ve been to school," I said.

"That’s not what Mr. Cox said," Mom replied.

"Oh, my gosh." As it turned out, several other small groups had the same idea. Thirty-six students played hookey that afternoon. W.C. Cox, the superintendent, was a little upset. Cox’s army had searched all over town for the missing students. What in the world had happened to thirty-six students? This had never happened in Munday, Texas, you’d think we had stollen a school bus or something. Mom and Dad were even upset with me. We only missed three classes, good grief.

The amazing thing was, I didn’t get the usual whipping for doing wrong. "Mr. Cox would take care of it, surely," Mom said.

Monday morning finally came. Nobody played hookey that day, even though there were 36 of us who would have loved to. Mr. Cox decided against giving us all licks. There would have been too many for one arm.

We were expelled from school, only we had to go to school. We met as a large group, for three or five days. We were lectured and lectured some more. Morality. Ethics. Honor. Duty. Everything imaginable that had anything to do with youth and decisions. I think we were given quizzes on every lecture. On top of all that we had to write, "I will never play hookey again," at least four million times.

We all survived the week, our egos deflated, but life continued. Most of us graduated, none with honors, however.

Now, I brought you through that story to introduce the subject of today’s lecture: Peer pressure.

Kids face enormous peer pressure everyday to smoke, drink and do drugs. And other things as well. Peer pressure is a reality of his or her life and every kid has to deal with it.

In a survey of 4239 teens, when asked "What do you think is the biggest influence to try drugs?" 59% said peer pressure, 32% said stress and problems, 8% said examples from movies, music and the media. Most teens are pressured into experimenting with drugs for the first time by their friends. Another study of 11,572 teenagers to determine which factors were most helpful in preventing harmful behavior, such as violence, suicide, substance abuse, early sexual behavior and teen pregnancy. Here’s what the researchers found: The presence of parents is beneficial at four key times of the day -- early morning, after school, dinner time, and bedtime.

When that regular contact is combined with other shared activities between parents and kids, the most positive outcome is achieved. The researchers also observed that adolescents who felt a sense of connection with their parents (feelings of warmth, love and caring) were least likely to engage in harmful behavior.

Adolescents whose parents ate dinner with them five times a week or more were the least likely to be on drugs, to be depressed or to be in trouble with the law. Another study showed that dinner time was of more value to child development than play time, school and story time. Clearly, there is power in "breaking bread" together. Those families who ate at fast-food restaurants had the same results. By contrast, the more poorly adjusted teens had parents who ate with them only three evenings a week or less.

What do these findings mean? Is there something magical about sitting down together over a meal? No, and those families who believe as much are in for a disappointment. What these studies show is that family relationships are what matter to adolescents. When parents have time for their kids, when they get together almost every day for conversation and interaction, their teens do much better in school and in life. Families bring stability and mental health to children and teens.

Why a lecture on peer pressure? Why not a teaching on peer pressure, mainly for the parents. In case you haven’t noticed, our public schools have been infiltrated by a clever and well-organized drug network. The present system, whatever that is, has failed our children and our town. Pressure from teachers and parents cannot compete with peer pressure. It is out of control in our schools. When a few students are allowed to taunt, tease, pick on, and beat, other, more timid students, and teachers are afraid to discipline the culprits, it has gone too far. When sex has been brought out into open hallways where it is pushed and practiced without the slightest regard for protection against pregnancy, never mind STDs. This is barbaric behavior, certainly not something that a proud Mogul would adhere to.

God bless the memory of W.C. Cox, and his army. "I will never play hookey again."