/24-7PressRelease/ - OAK RIDGE, NJ, April 23, 2008 — As high school seniors now choose which colleges they want to attend next fall, parents are left wondering: Is sending their kids to a "party school" a big mistake?
"College and drinking go hand in hand, and there's not much we can do about that," says Stephen Della Valle, author of the new addiction and recovery memoir Rising Above the Influence. "The problem comes in when your kid wants to go to a school that's known more for its parties than its professors."
Statistics show that 159,000 of this year's college freshman will drop out due to problems with alcohol or drugs. Even worse, 1,700 students will lose their lives in the next year due to alcohol-related causes.
"Teenagers hear 'party school' and think of nothing but good times," says Mr. Della Valle. "But parents should hear those words and be afraid. At schools where drinking and even drug use is celebrated, their children will be facing real challenges, and their choices could affect their lives forever."
Each year, The Princeton Review lists the top twenty party schools, based on surveys that ask questions about drug and alcohol use, hours spent studying and the popularity of fraternities and sororities. Among their top ten are:
• West Virginia University
• University of Mississippi
• University of Texas at Austin,
• University of Florida
• University of Georgia
• Penn State
"These are good schools," notes Mr. Della Valle. "The problem is that their environments are so accepting of alcohol and drug abuse, it overshadows whatever academic credentials they may have."
Twenty-five percent of all students report having academic problems as a result of drinking, including missing classes and earning lower grades. But that's not the worst of it—alcohol can also be blamed for almost 700,000 on-campus assaults per year, over 97,000 instances of sexual assault and 599,000 student injuries.
Stephen Della Valle is president of the board of directors at Turning Point rehabilitation center in Verona, New Jersey. Currently celebrating twenty years of sobriety, he lives in Oak Ridge, New Jersey, with his wife, Donna. He has three children.
Rising Above the Influence is available now (ISBN: 0-9801776-0-X; softcover; Oak Ridge Press) on Amazon.com, Borders.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and at fine bookstores everywhere.
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