THE SCHOOL BOARD’S ROLE IN COMBATING ADOLESCENT SUBSTANCE ABUSE WITHIN OUR LOCAL COMMUNITIES

spaceThe opening of the 2003-2004 school year was a difficult one for the administration at Kingswood Regional High School. Between September 2, 2003 and November 4, 2003, there were 112 incidents that resulted in students being suspended. Of those, 50 were drug related, 1 was alcohol related, and 5 were tobacco related. In one day alone, 11 students were serving out-of-school suspensions. Of those 11, 8 were drug related and/or associated. Of growing concern is the abuse of prescription and/or over-the-counter medication by our students.
indenteded spacePaul MacMillan, Principal, Kingswood Regional High School



Part I: Background

Part IA: A National Perspective

Substance use among adolescents is not a new problem; it is a continuing problem of epidemic proportions. The National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC), in its report entitled National Drug Threat Assessment 2002, reports that adolescent drug use in the United States declined throughout the 1980s after peaking in 1979. Since that time, according to the NDIC (a component of the United States Department of Justice), overall adolescent use has been relatively stable. In 2001, 78.2% of the students surveyed in the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) said that they have had at least one drink of alcohol on one or more days during their lives and 47.1% of them reported that they had had at least one drink of alcohol on one or more of the past 30 days. 10.2% of students report that they used marijuana for the first time before the age of 13. The United States Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, quotes a study by the University of Michigan (Monitoring the Future National Results on Adolescent Drug Use: Overview of Key Finding, 2002) in which 71.5% of high school seniors reported that they used alcohol during the past 12 months. In reporting these results they note that self-reports of drug use among high school seniors may under represent drug use among youth of that age because high school dropouts and truants are not included, and these groups may have more involvement with drugs than those who stay in school.

According to the NDIC, anecdotal reporting from substance abuse counselors indicates that teens acquire drugs at school, in the home and at parties, among other locations.


Part IB: A Local Perspective

The New Hampshire Sunday News ran a front-page article on October 19, 2003 entitled Tackling teens’ drinking. The article talks about how the NH Senate is again looking into enacting a law, which would hold parents responsible for underage drinking. The article contained tips for teens: what to do if you’re at a party where alcohol is served or what to do if someone brings alcohol into your home. The latter is the subject of a brewing controversy in Salem, New Hampshire. According to October 16, 2003 edition of The Eagle-Tribune, two dozen Salem High school students were on a retreat to design projects that would curb underage drinking while more than two dozen of their classmates were attending a drinking party at the home of the chairman of the Salem School Board.

On Wednesday, October 8, 2003, Drug Enforcement Agency Administrator Karen Tandy told the New England Governors that the region’s drug problems have quietly worsened in recent years. According to The U.S. Office of Drug Control Policy, heroin use, especially among young people, is of particular concern and that dependence on illegal drugs in New England has grown to be the highest in the nation.

Since 1991, the Governor Wentworth Regional School District has committed taxpayer funds to hire personnel to work with our students and their families about living healthy lives and making good choices. Until the fall of 2000, the District participated in the D.A.R.E. program with the hope that early education about the dangers of drug and alcohol use would stem the rising tide of chemical use and abuse by our students. In spite of these efforts, the problem persists.

In the fall of 2002, the Kingswood Regional High School Student Assistance Coordinator held the first of a series of workshops for parents. It was noted that students are creating cocktails, combining street drugs with designer drugs. Although the meeting received excellent local media coverage, the auditorium was not overflowing with parents or other community members, and the problem persists.

In the spring of 2003, the Granite State News ran a series of editorials and commentaries by local officials warning of the dangers of alcohol use, especially during prom and graduation season. On June 13, 2003, Kingswood Regional High School was put under a complete lockdown while three canines swept the building. Fortunately, our community did not suffer a drug-related tragedy during the high-risk time of proms and graduation. However, most students would tell you that parties were held where alcohol and other drugs were available to underage adolescents. The problem persists.



Part II: What Parents Need to Know

Substance abuse is a problem that varies in frequency, intensity, duration, and impact. This problem generally begins with curiosity about alcohol and other drugs, both legal and illegal. At the opposite end of the continuum is dysfunction or even death. Substance abuse contributes to a variety of other social problems, including teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, violence, crime, and failure to complete high school.

There is no single explanation for substance abuse and addiction. According to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, the problem is “generally considered the product of biological, psychological and social factors.” Substance abuse and addiction is not a problem limited to urban environments. It occurs in all types of towns and cities across the nation.

New findings by the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University suggest that three circumstances have a direct impact on a teen’s risk of substance abuse. These circumstances have been dubbed “The Triple Threat” and are: stress, boredom, and money.

There is some good news for parents. It seems that fewer teens are exposing themselves to alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs by not associating with other teens that use these substances.

The most recent national survey of teens, conducted by CASA, gives the following frightening characteristics of high-risk teens:

ü      Many smoke (25% currently smoke)

ü      Most have tried alcohol (94% have tried alcohol and 43% currently drink in a typical week)

ü      Many get drunk (42% at least once a month)

ü      Most have friends who use marijuana (79%)

ü      Most know a friend or classmate using Ecstasy (51%)

ü      Most know a friend or classmate using acid, cocaine, or heroin (69%)

ü      Most could buy marijuana in one hour or less (57%)

ü      A large majority have tried marijuana (71%)

ü      One-third says future drug use is likely (33%)

Part III: GWRSB Agenda - This is a Community Issue

You may hear comments on the streets such as, The school has a drug problem. That is not true. We, the communities of Brookfield, Effingham, New Durham, Ossipee, Tuftonboro and Wolfeboro have a drug problem. We, the Governor Wentworth Regional School Board, ask you how much longer will this problem persist? Will we finally admit the problem when we are facing each other weeping over the caskets of our students?

Student achievement has become a national issue through the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. This law mandates that schools improve student performance on tests. Such emphasis on increased student performance means that all schools are examining all the factors involved in student success. Dr. Sheri L. Hill, Assistant Director, Washington Kids Count, sums up the findings of a 2002 study entitled: The Impact of Substance Use and Violence/Delinquency on Academic Achievement for Groups of Middle and High School Students in Washington with this admonition:

We found that groups of middle and high school students with even moderate involvement with substance use and violence/delinquency had poorer overall test scores than groups of students with little or no involvement in these behaviors. If schools and communities are concerned about improving achievement, they must address both attitudes and behaviors related to substance use and violence/ delinquency. Intervention efforts need to engage the community in focusing on the learning environment outside the classroom. Intervention should start when students are young and continue through high school.

The Governor Wentworth Regional School Board is committed to the following steps:

1. To continue to employ personnel whose main responsibility is the education of students in the dangers of chemical use and abuse;
2. To continue to support district administrators by taking a firm stand on supporting consequences for irresponsible behavior, up to and including expelling students involved in illegal drug and alcohol instances;
3. To sponsor workshops for parents and residents on any issue related to the use of illegal substances by students, including, but not limited to, training for parents in protective skills such as better family communication, discipline, firm as well as consistent rulemaking.
4. To continue to support random drug & locker searches at Kingswood Regional Middle and High Schools, including the use of specially trained dogs.
5. To continue our collaboration with local agencies (for example, Appalachian Mountain Teen Project, Carroll County Mental Health, and Wolfeboro Teen Center) in order to bring current information forward.
6. To convene a Task Force for the purpose of involving the communities in this very serious situation.
7. To support school-based activities that educate students on the dangers of substance use and provide them with the tools that will help them avoid illegal usage.
8. To petition the New Hampshire School Boards Association to pass a resolution urging all school boards throughout the state to adopt and enforce strict policies regarding underage drinking and illegal use of chemical substances.
9. To urge local law enforcement agencies to investigate all credible reports of drug use by students, including parties held at private homes, and prosecute offenders to the full extent of the law.
10. To urge local judicial officials to implement existing laws to the fullest extent allowed.

The Governor Wentworth Regional School Board urges our community to:

1. Talk to your children about the dangers of all chemical use and abuse. Begin these discussions while your child is still in elementary school. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, nearly 30% of 8^th grade students surveyed in 1995 indicated that they had tried an illicit drug.
2. Take an active role in your children’s lives, including monitoring their activities, getting to know their friends and talking to them about their problems and concerns.
3. Do not give tacit approval for experimentation of drugs and/or alcohol. A recent study quoted by the Medical College of Wisconsin, indicated that as many as 40% of parents are telling their children that they experimented with drugs and that they would not be surprised if their children did so.
4. Take a serious look for evidence of chemical abuse in your own lives. Children are very sensitive to overt hypocrisy.
5. Never host, sponsor or support parties where alcohol and/or other drugs are served to minors.
6. Be aware of the amount of spending money your child has and for what that money is being used. The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse reports that “teens with $25.00 or more a week in spending money are twice as likely as teens with less than $25.00 a week to smoke, drink and use illegal drugs, and more than twice as likely to get drunk.” 
7. Support drug use prevention; be proactive and not reactive. Research indicated that communities can save 4 to 5 dollars in costs for drug abuse treatment and counseling for every dollar spent in prevention programs.
8.  Initiate, implement and sustain “chemical-free” events for students, especially around prom and graduation.
9. Compile and publish a list of homes where parents have signed a pledge not to serve alcohol and/or other drugs or allow parties to be held when a responsible adult is not present. Such “Safe Homes” lists should be revised annually.
10. Support local law enforcement agencies in their work to rid the community of illegal substance use.

References

“Governors get sobering news on N.E. drug use.” The Citizen. Laconia, NH. October 9, 2003, page A5.

Grosky, Jason and Neff Ragsdale, Kathie. “Anti-alcohol retreat, party coincide”. The Eagle-Tribune. October 16, 2003, page 1

Labell, Richard. “Students – take note”. Granite State News. Wolfeboro, NH. May 5, 2003, page A17

MacMillan, Paul. “Think about how your choices affect others. “ Granite State News. Wolfeboro, NH. May 29, 2003, page A19

Mandell, Dorothy, et al. (2002) The Impact of Substance Abuse and Violence/Delinquency on Academic Achievement for Groups of Middle and High school Students in Washington. Published by Washington Kids Count, Human Services Policy Center, Evans Schools of Public Affairs, University of Washington.

National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, (2003) 2001 Youth Risk Surveillance System. [Online] http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dash/yrbs/index.htm [accessed 10/14/2003].

National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse. (2003). National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse VIII: Teens and Parents. [Online] http://www.casacolumbia.org. [accessed 10/8/2003]

Preventing Drug Abuse Among Children & Adolescents [Online]. http://www. nida.nih.gov/Prevention/RISKFACT.html [accessed 10/8/2003]

Robertson, John. “Some advice from a man who knows.” Granite State News. Wolfeboro, NH. May 22, 2003, page A17

Robertson, Russell. (2001). “Adolescent Drug Use – What Parents Can Do.”

[Online]. http://healthlink.new,edu/article/901291653.html [accessed 10/8/2003]

Substance Abuse and Addictions [Online]. http://www.aacap.org/clinical/benesubs.htm [accessed 10/8/2003]

Tempest, Jeanne. “Choices.” Granite State News. Wolfeboro, NH. June 5, 2003

Tempest, Jeanne. “Consequences for adults, too.” Granite State News. Wolfeboro, NH. May 15, 2003

Tempest, Jeanne. “Can we talk?”. Granite State News. Wolfeboro, NH. May 1, 2003

United States Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. (2002) Bureau of Justice Statistics Drugs and Crime Facts: Drug Use in the General Population.  [Online] http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/dcf/du.htm

Wickhyam, Shawne. “Tackling teens’ drinking.” New Hampshire Sunday News. October 19, 2003, page 1