Pubdate: Mon, 02 Feb 2009
Source: Parksville Qualicum Beach News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2009 Black Press
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/5ZThWm9Z
Website: http://drugsense.org/url/3xEEhi0m
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1361
Author: Neil Horner
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

DRUG COMMITTEE AIMS FOR BETTER CHOICES

There was a time when students caught with drugs or alcohol at school 
were automatically told they were not welcome at their school for several days.

This sort of automatic out-of-school suspension is fast becoming a 
thing of the past in School District 69 (Qualicum) however, as 
Ballenas Secondary principal Rollie Koop and colleague Gillian Wilson 
from the District Drug and Alcohol Review Committee explained Tuesday night.

Speaking at the regular board meeting, the pair detailed the new 
approach to drug and alcohol incidents in the district, noting the 
old, punishment-based model did little more than put the students 
behind in their work and expose them to the risk of further substance abuse.

Although the automatic out of school suspension model is no longer in 
favour, that doesn't mean students who come to school high or drunk 
get off scott free. Far from it, but the committee tailors the very 
real consequences to the individual situation.

"One size doesn't fit all when it comes to substance abuse," Koop 
said. "We look at where kids are on the continuum of use. We've had 
kids appear before us who may have been caught the first time they 
experimented, and we've had students who were entrenched in some 
dangerous patterns."

The focus, he said, is to educate, provide support, make positive 
changes, prevent escalation of substance use and ensure the safety of 
students is paramount.

"When a student is found to be outside policy in terms of use or 
possession, we put them in an in-school suspension and begin the 
process of working with them to prepare them for a meeting with the 
district drug and alcohol committee, so they can understand their own 
use patterns and can look at the impacts on themselves and on others. 
We want to move them towards a commitment to reduced use or abstinence."

The process has been successful, Koop said, noting the new model 
allows students and their families to discuss what's going on in their lives.

"We have an open and honest conversation with their families and find 
out where they are at in the continuum of abuse and then shape our 
path in terms of recommendations for education, counselling and 
discipline," Koop said.

Wilson noted most students caught with drugs or alcohol are from high 
schools and are male. She cautioned against reading too much into this.

"Girls may be better at not getting caught."

The pair related some of the stories they've heard from students and 
they were heart-wrenching.

"There was a student last year who I suspected was a regular user, 
but who showed no signs," Wilson said. "He slipped up and came to 
school under the influence of alcohol. He had shame and guilt and 
wanted to hide things and be this perfect person. With a suspension, 
the shame would have continued."

One of the darkest stories, Koop said, was unanticipated.

"There was a young man we were working with for a year but were never 
able to get to the truth about his behaviours or use," Koop said. "In 
that hour-long interview, the disclosure came to us that for a 
two-year period this young man had been a guinea pig for a local drug 
dealer. Every time a new shipment of drugs came into the community, 
the adult tested them on this young man to determine the strength of 
the drug and its impact."

That, he continued, is the key to the new direction's success - to 
find out what is going on in a student's life and to steer them 
towards making better choices.

"We are moving in the right direction," Wilson said. "We are helping 
families find solutions."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom