Park district's Teen Night proves it can be done
The world is filled with seemingly impossible missions. Achieving lasting peace in the Middle East. Getting traffic in Los Angeles flowing again. Offering high school students a safe and drug/alcohol-free option for their Friday nights and getting them to show up.

While the first two show very few signs of being resolved, the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District appears to have made some leeway on the last one.

Last Friday the park district held what it hailed as its firstever Teen Night at the Rancho Santa Susana Community Center from 7 until 10 p.m., but it wasn't the first time the agency had attempted to offer Simi's youth an evening option that was safe, fun and "cool" enough to get teens to choose against going to that party they heard about in third period.

This time- judging from Friday's turnout- the event seems to have hit its mark.

The Simi Valley Acorn sent reporter Eliav Appelbaum to cover the story (see page 1), and what he found at the community center was not only a large turnout- more than 200 students- but a positive response to what Teen Night had to offer in terms of entertaining activities. Several teens pledged to do it again on Dec. 7.

Whether the event repeats its initial success when it's held next month, at least for one night the park district showed that hard-to-please teens can be lured into social activities that don't involve alcohol and drugs- if done correctly and with the interests and tastes of the students in mind.

And remember, that's 200 of our children who could be accounted for until 10 p.m. Two hundred who weren't abusing drugs or alcohol, or painting graffiti, or simply wandering the streets just waiting to find trouble.

As with the proposed Sinaloa Golf Course expansion, the park district has once again proved that not only is it aware of the severe lack of activities available to Simi's young people- especially those not involved in sports- but it is doing something about it. Let's see if other city and business leaders will follow suit. Now, about that traffic . . .