From: starfish@stein.u.washington.edu (Sarah Skovronsky)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Druggie, gang-member teens suck pacifiers
Date: 8 Jan 1993 20:29:04 GMT
Organization: University of Washington
NNTP-Posting-Host: stein.u.washington.edu

Now, I KNOW this must be true, because my mom mailed me the newspaper article:

KIDS SINK THEIR TEETH INTO A NEW FASHION TREND--COLORFUL PACIFIERS
by Jeff Donn
The Associated Press

   SPRINGFIELD, Mass.--Yesterday's rebel without a cause wore a leather jacket
and white T-shirt, James Dean-style.  Today's sucks a pacifier.
   In the tradition of bobby sox, madras shirts or "X" hats, pacifiers are
becoming the latest teen craze in some places.
   The pacifiers are worn on a string or chain around the neck and are traded
like class rings or friendship bracelets.
   Some educators worry the baby accessory is really a way of advertising
gang ties or drug use.  Others see it as a harmless--and largely pointless--
craze.
   "These kids need to create symbols of a belongingness to a social . . .
group, and this is another one of those," said Jim Peters, principal of
Greenfield Middle School.
   He said about 20 of the school's 590 students tote pacifiers.
   Among them is sixth-grader Colin Drouin, who said the mouthpiece helped
him kick a pack-a-day smoking habit.
   "You have something in your mouth.  It just does it," Drouin said.
   Some are alarmed by the fad, which developed after the release of the
movie "Boyz N the Hood."  The film about Los Angeles-area gangs includes a
character who sucks a pacifier.
   Sage Valley Junior High School in Gillette, Wyo., banned the pacifiers
last year and sent a notice saying:  "Pacifiers are associated with drugs,
gangs, and infants.  None of these associations is appropriate for junior
high school."
   "It's just a distraction in class," said Principal Dan Espeland.
   "You're trying to get a question-and-answer session going, and you have
students with pacifiers in their mouths."
   Some aficionados say pacifiers help them relax.
   Jon Unaitis, an 11-year-old at North Parish Elementary School in
Greenfield, was quoted in the Springfield Union-News as saying he just
likes "how it goes 'cheet, cheet,'" when you suck it.
   Daniela Alloro, a psychologist who counsels teen-agers in the Los
Angeles suburb of Downey, said pacifiers among teen-agers are "a regression
and a way to be cool" at the same time.
   "The youngster . . . needs to separate from the parents emotionally,
but it's still a transitional phase, so he still needs to go back to the
parents for emotional support," she said.
   "I think this fad of the pacifiers reflects this ambivalence.  When
there is a problem of stress, the adolescent regresses to earlier be-
havior," she said.  "But he can be cool."

[end of article]

This was clipped from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Wednesday Jan. 6,
1993 edition.  There is a picture of a "cool" teenage girl sporting three
pacifiers (in her hand).  The caption:  "Pacifiers made of hard plastic
in bright colors are becoming the rage among many young people."

Personally, I don't know who's weirder--the kids or the psychologist
quoted above...

Sarah "Babes N the Hood" Skovronsky

-- 
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*            Sarah Skovronsky     starfish@u.washington.edu            *
*                     Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.                     *
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