1) Get involved.

2) Stay connected.

3) Talk.

These succinct parenting tips, courtesy of a major league baseball pamphlet on youth and performance enhancing (PE) drugs, contribute to today’s column.

Get involved. Parents/guardians: Do you participate in the things your student does? Are you a PTA member? Booster Club parent? For those who aren’t joiners, getting you child to school is being involved in their life! To help make sense of what’s discussed in the car, attend our first free parent session at the Y on Tuesday, Sept. 3 from 7:15 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The Y is located at 1930 Foothill Blvd. in La Cañada.

Stay connected. Dr. Dick Sheehan, superintendent of the Glendale Unified School District, was on KROQ this week, on Doc on the ROQ’s news! The topic was the recent hiring by the district of Geo Listening, a social network monitoring service, to track social media posts of 13,000 middle and high schools students.

Ever the academic, I sought a source to verify what I heard. Chris Frydrych, the CEO of Geo Listening, said, “We have provided information to school districts, which has led to numerous successful interventions on behalf of students that intended self-harm, suicide, bullying, truancy, substance abuse and vandalism. We monitor only public posts to social networks. We do not monitor privatized pages, SMS, MMS, email, phone calls, voicemails.” www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3059352/posts?page=16.

Our superintendent said they were able to identify, and help, one at-risk student.

Talk. A gangly group of teenage boys walked towards us. As they neared, I recognized one of them. We greeted each other as they walked on by. On his return trip, he stopped to talk.

We met at 2011’s Challenge Day, a real tear-jerker for both of us. He attends Options for Youth, is looking for a job and, at 16, will probably end up in fast food. He wants to go into the Marines. He seemed happy and wiser for his experiences. I thought of the 40 Developmental Assets. I looked teens in the eye and found an acquaintance. And I listened and Jewish-mothered him like a non-parental adult in his life would. Then I talked to my daughter Reason and her friends about kindness and compassion.

1) Get involved.

2) Stay connected.

3) Talk.

Suzy Jacobs is the executive director of the Crescenta Valley Drug & Alcohol Prevention Coalition. You can reach her at suzy@cvdapc.org.

  Suzy JACOBS