Jawboning the Battle Against Drugs : ‘Just Say No,’ Governor Says

Gov. George Deukmejian warned Fullerton junior high school students Tuesday that they could become part of a “lost generation of Americans” if they succumb to the temptation to use illegal drugs.

As the keynote speaker in an hourlong Just Say No pep rally, the governor ended what had been a generally upbeat program with a stern lecture about the effects drugs can have on individuals, families, society and the economy.

Deukmejian told the youngsters at D. Russell Parks Junior High that they have a chance to become America’s future teachers, business people, doctors and politicians. Then, deviating from his prepared text, he added: “But that’s not going to happen if you’re in jail, is it? It’s not going to happen if you’re hanging out with the wrong crowd and committing crimes in order to raise money to buy drugs.”

Much of Deukmejian’s 20-minute speech to about 700 seventh- and eighth-graders had a similar tone. At one point, he told them that if they try drugs, they risk having “a miserable life.”

“What you see happen so many times is that some of your classmates wind up dropping out of school,” he said as the students squirmed on the benches of an outdoor amphitheater in the midday sun. “They don’t have any enthusiasm. They don’t have any ambition. They don’t want to become really a part of the mainstream of society.

“They start to hang out with the wrong kind of people--people who get in trouble. Then they get in trouble. They wind up getting arrested. They wind up first maybe going to the Youth Authority, then maybe it goes on where they wind up in our state prisons. . . . Being in prison is no picnic, let me assure you. It’s not a place where you want to be.”

Answering a question from the audience, Deukmejian said drug abuse could cut the productivity of the country’s workers, hurting the U.S. position in international trade.

“Then it means we’re going to slip, and we’re not going to be number one,” he said. “We’re going to become second class in the world. And I don’t think any of you want to be a part of a lost generation of Americans.”

Lenelle Cittadin, the school’s principal, said later that she thought Deukmejian’s sober tone made an impression on her students.

“It struck me that he was trying to give them a very serious message,” Cittadin said. “It was important to him that they understand the consequences of using drugs and important that they take control now. Later on, when they’re older, they would appreciate having made this decision.”

Parks Junior High is the first junior high school in Orange County to have an officially registered Just Say No club, Cittadin said. The club tries to teach students how to resist pressure from peers to use drugs.

Tuesday’s program displayed a sample of the techniques, from skits put on by high school students to humorous role-playing, with a teacher posing as a coercive friend. By the end of the morning, the students were shouting, in unison, “Be Smart! Don’t Start! Just Say No!”