Teens' Drugs: "Deal" With It
This past week was a really tough week for us because we discovered drugs being sold on two different campuses within a period of one week. We of course reported these discoveries to all authorities at the schools and then because of privacy laws we leave it alone.
Drugs are being sold in all kinds of schools; if you think your school is immune, you need to "deal" with a harsher reality. Kids have so much more access to so many types of drugs and they are disguised as candy and even highlighters!!
Faith based schools are not even immune to this probably and we were informed today that it is sometimes worse than at the public schools. Not something we want to admit. A local faith based school had drug problems and now they do random drug testing as a preventive method of curbing the drugs in their school.
The bathroom is a common place that the drugs are sold and in one case it was all girls, a group of girls, that somehow brought in vapes (probably THC laced) and other items that I don't have the specifics on. A kid with a conscience told helped inform us about what was going on and we think the fact that she has a great mentor whom she admires helped give her the strength and courage to tell us. We found out that the "Good Kids" were afraid to use a certain bathroom because of the drugs. We had just discussed honesty in our class which we think also helped this student talk to us and really open up. This person has a civil citation which was probably for vaping and probably didn't want a worse consequence and so this was a pivotal moment for this student, possibly changing the trajectory of this student's life! Did she want to be with the group in the bathroom doing drugs or inform us and help put an end to the problem in the school.
The last episode is hard for me to share but I think necessary. I was standing in the hall waiting to leave and I overheard (they didn't see me) a boy's voice say "The n****s coming to buy worms?" Soon following there was a lot of foot traffic into this particular room. We alerted all authorities at the school and leave it to them because of privacy laws.
These are the worms that were referred to:
I broke down a bit later and just cried to my husband. The first hand knowledge of what was happening had hit me hard. We care about these kids and we know that students, more and more, are being sent to the ER for help after ingesting known or unknown drugs oftentimes disguised as candy. This recently affected some 4th graders, a child brought "candy" from home and shared. It made kids really sick.
Our program is a prevention program and we talk extensively about drugs in Adventure 5 . We also address the issue of gangs in that Adventure 5 and we ask ourselves "Where is the supply of drugs coming from and is it a gang, this is typical, that is having juveniles do their dirty work so they won't go to jail? If a gang is involved such as possibly the Latin Kings there could be violence involved, threats to a student who wants out etc.
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We made a decision to not allow any eating in our classroom, at least no outside food brought in unless we are giving out a packaged mint or something similar.
In one case, a particular bathroom is now locked.
What are some measures that can be further taken to prevent drug use in schools? Please share your ideas!
Ellen Snelling and Cindy Grant with the HCADA are great resources as is their website:
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We can't just sweep drugs under the rugs....we must be vigilant and proactive! We must "deal" with it!
On a more positive but related note...we presented a staff training at Victory High School which is a recovery school, a school for teens that are in recovery, in Pasco County. They also have opened up a location in Pinellas and are looking at opening one up in Hillsborough also. Our great friend Tina Miller runs these schools and is doing a great job helping teens recover, graduate and stay off of drugs! There is hope for struggling teens!
Here are some pictures from today's training at Victory High School:
Our youth today have so many challenges and our passion is to help steer them towards success! "We get kids on track to keep them out of trouble"!
Thanks for listening and please be informed, stay vigilant and if inclined, please pray for us as we are in the trenches daily.
Your Friends at Character GPS,
Deb & Jeff Cain