Natchez &8212; Krista Drew is a 15-year-old chatterbox.

She&8217;s almost always smiling. She&8217;s a cheerleader at her high school. She makes good grades. And she&8217;s what most folks would call popular.

She survived an early childhood around adults consumed with drugs, alcohol and bad decisions and, with the help of loving grandparents, made a new life for herself.

She&8217;s involved in church and was recently tabbed for a statewide honor as a Louisiana Young Hero.

But last year &8212; her freshman year at Monterey High School &8212; Krista and a few girlfriends started drinking alcohol on the weekends.

Her grandmother heard the rumors and confronted the then-14-year-old. Krista lied.

On prom night, April 15, Krista rode a chartered bus with the other students. There was alcohol on the bus, adult chaperones and a bus driver, too. Still, Krista drank too much.

&8220;I remember bits and pieces now,&8221; she said. &8220;We got to the school, and I threw up in the middle of the gym floor.&8221;

Friends tried to hide her from the school&8217;s principal, exiting toward the parking lot, but they realized something wasn&8217;t right.

Someone got a teacher, who called 911.

In the ambulance on the way to Natchez Regional Medical Center, Krista&8217;s heart stopped.

&8220;They lost her,&8221; grandmother Pam McMichael said. &8220;And they lost her again at the hospital. She was almost not here when I got back.&8221;

Both times doctors managed to revive Krista. She stayed overnight in the hospital to fight off the alcohol poisoning and faced a week of recovery at home, then another week of emotional stress, she said.

&8220;I was upset and furious,&8221; McMichael said. &8220;Krista is not a baby, and she was responsible for saying no. I couldn&8217;t talk to Krista for hours. I felt like trust had been displaced.

&8220;Had she died, I&8217;m not sure how I would have gotten over it.&8221;

Only eight months later, the event that broke hearts and shattered a still newly forming family is called a blessing in disguise.

&8220;She is able to make a difference in the school because she&8217;s been there,&8221; McMichael said. &8220;Because she&8217;s 15 and high profile, she can make a difference.&8221;

This fall Krista started the first SADD chapter at her school. More than 50 students turned up for the initial Students Against Destructive Decisions meeting, and they&8217;ve already sponsored their first event &8212; Seatbelt Awareness Week.

She&8217;s told her story in church and at a church camp for teens.

&8220;I still hear jokes, and they still hurt, but I deserve it,&8221; Krista said.

Her story isn&8217;t news to anyone in the tiny Monterey community, much less at Monterey High School, and it&8217;s had an impact, but there&8217;s still drinking, she said.

The problem runs deeper than one 14-year-old with alcohol poisoning, Krista and her grandmother said. Many teens in Monterey, and across the Miss-Lou for that matter, are lacking something Krista has &8212; parents who look down on drinking.

In fact, parents all too often are the ones buying the alcohol, Krista said.

&8220;I&8217;d say half the high school drinks,&8221; she said. &8220;Their parents allow them to drink at home. It&8217;s parental attitudes. It&8217;s really a widespread problem.

&8220;If parents didn&8217;t give in and if they didn&8217;t say, well they do it elsewhere, it&8217;s OK if we do it here, then kids wouldn&8217;t do it.&8221;