Local 20
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WEEKEND EDITION, MARCH 24-25, 2007
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SMC students less likely to book a trip FROM SPRING BREAK PAGE 3 and the Bahamas. Travel agent Keponi Elaisa couldn’t recall selling any plane tickets to SMC students. Working from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on the days he isn’t in school, 21-year-old Andreas Choi will likely spend the lion’s share of his spring break in his brother’s South Central grocery store. But when his shift is over, the bio-chemistry student plans to head over to some bars in Koreatown for a few drinks. He might also find time for a short trip to Palm Springs and hit the slots on an Indian Reservations. “It’ll be time to let loose,” he said. On a quiet Friday afternoon, a week before most students will be done with their midterm examinations, Choi chatted with his friends in between classes. To his left stood 22-year-old Jee Lee, who plans to spend her spring break in India with family. Her family has lived in India for the past five years and Lee moved to California for school in 2005. Spring break is never really about partying hard for Lee, who believes the last time she really let loose with alcohol and fun was when she left India for the United States. Her normally conservative parents let Lee have her fun as a going away present, she said. Now that he’s 27, Michael Torres doesn’t consider spring break to be an excuse to party. Older and wiser than most of his fellow students, the SMC student remembers his early spring break days in Cancun and Ensenada, having drinks with friends and witnessing more than a few crazy acts. Though he wasn’t in college at the time, Torres often accompanied friends from fouryear universities on their spring breaks. At Santa Monica College, Torres doesn’t
Christine Chang news@smdp.com
SCHOOL’S OUT: SMC students free for week.
see the kind of students who would let loose and drop several hundreds dollars for a trip to Florida or another exotic location. The majority of the students here commute to school, have jobs and don’t have the time or the money, he said. He’s not interested in another trip to Cancun, but he fondly remembers those wild and crazy days. “Everyone pretty much gets as drunk as they can and has crazy sex,” Torres joked. melodyh@smdp.com
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Pointers for playing it safe during upcoming vacation BY MELODY HANATANI Daily Press Staff Writer
CITYWIDE Spring break — a time when
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many college students across the country spend their five-day break from classes by downing beer after beer and laying out on the sand. But for parents, spring break can be their worst nightmare — a time when they might see their son end up behind bars in a south-ofthe-border prison cell or their daughter flashing her chest to a “Girls Gone Wild” film crew. There are precautionary steps that parents can take before their kids leave with their suitcases packed for a week of debauchery in the sun, according to Jim Boyle, president of the College Parents of America. It all starts with communication. “Have a conversation with your child with clear and realistic expectations about spring break,” Boyle said. “Ideally, it’s a conversation that happened a long time ago and not now.” One of the most important things parents should do is address the issue of alcohol and drug use during spring break. Remind college kids of the health risk and legal ramifications that come with underage and
binge drinking and drug use, Boyle said. College kids who are headed to Mexico and other popular international spring break locations should be reminded by their parents that if they engage in some illegal activity, it won’t be too easy to bail them out. “Be extremely careful about not breaking the law and not getting into an unfamiliar situation because of the difficulty in being able to reach each other,” he said. Parents should try to encourage their children to see spring break as a time for community service activity, something that can be both fun and productive. It’s a time when they could interact with friends through community service, meet new people, and also make a contribution to the local community, Boyle said. Though parents are encouraged to keep the lines of communication open, they should steer clear of telling stories about their own spring break escapades. There’s no need to instill wild and crazy ideas in such impressionable minds. “It isn’t helpful to say ‘back in the spring break when I drank a case of beer,’” Boyle said. “Some things are better left unsaid.” melodyh@smdp.com