Chicago Tribune (CT) - WEDNESDAY, December 15, 1993 Edition: NORTHWEST SPORTS FINAL Section: NORTHWEST Page: 2 Word Count: 614
Jack Houston, Tribune Staff Writer.

In a small room near the school cafeteria, a group of Rolling Meadows High School students meets each week over lunch to talk about life in the suburbs.

Suburban living isn't a hot topic if you've lived in the suburbs all your life. But when you're black or Hispanic and you've recently moved from a neighborhood in Chicago or some other major city, sessions such as these can provide needed support.

The noontime gathering, held on Wednesday, is among the activities of a school-sanctioned club called United Young Sisters and Brothers. A couple dozen members meet with school counselor Mary Nestler 5th or 6th period to mull over feelings and insights about the suburban milieu.The multicultural club is now in its third year, and the students who come do so freely. But their move to the suburbs often was not voluntary, having been forced on them by family. And while the students understand that their parents' motivation to move is based on good intentions, most say they would rather be "home" in the old neighborhood.

"There's nothing to do out here, except go to the mall," complained Henry Maeda, 15, during one recent session.

"Or go to a party, where you can't have the music too loud and where beer's popping out all over the place," said 17-year-old Richard Wheeler. "That's all they do here is drink and play quiet music," Wheeler said.

"Yeah, it's too quiet here," agreed Demishe Lacey, also 17.

Wheeler: "In the city, people are yelling out the window at you all the time . . ."

Lacey: "People yelling, 'Hey, Hey.' But out here, you come to the corner and nobody knows you. There's nothing to do out here. In the city, you can just hang out."

Wheeler: "People here expect you to be at home. But I'm not used to being at home. I cannot stand to be at home, sitting in a quiet room, with nothing going on. You can't hear nothing outside. You're just sitting there."

Lacey: "In Chicago, there are teenage clubs you can go to. But out here you have to be over 18. And if you do go to one, you have to go too far.

"The suburbs are not for teenagers at all. They're for older people, people who want to get away from the city."

The students also talk about the difference between city and suburban schools, conceding that suburban schools are better.

"It's harder in the suburbs, but most teachers here care about you," one student said. "In the city, the teachers care about collecting their paychecks."

Rolling Meadows has just one of several multicultural clubs in high school District 214 that developed a few years ago.

"Initially," Nestler said, "there was a lot of racial tension in the building." But, he said, the support groups have helped to ease them.

Sex police update: Remember the member of an AIDS-awareness troupe who upset some Barrington High School parents this fall when he told a school assembly he was still sexually active, although he is HIV-positive?

Well, he has left the troupe and his previous lifestyle, according to the coordinator of the controversial program.

The dancer, Lee Williams, cited religious reasons for the change, said Angel Abcede, who bid Williams godspeed.

"Lee has become a born-again Christian," he said.

Williams, reached through his pastor, said he is now practicing abstinence.

CAPTION: PHOTO: Richard Wheeler, a student at Rolling Meadows High School, talks with student counselor Mary Nestler during a session of the United Young Sisters and Brothers, a group for youths formerly from the city. Tribune photo by Hung The Vu.

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