NEW PROGRAM AIMED AT CLASSROOM STONERS

A new prevention program at two Vancouver schools is creating a good
buzz that doesn't rely on drugs.

"Every school in Vancouver, and I would say in the province, is
struggling with a significant number of kids coming to school stoned,"
said Art Steinmann, the school board's project coordinator for SACY,
or School-Age Children and Youth Substance Abuse Prevention. "It could
be that any large high school of say 1,000 or 1,200 kids could easily
have anywhere from 15 to 20 kids that would have shown up for part of
the day under the influence."

But Steinmann said the school district recognized drug education in
schools has been ad hoc, so the district in association with Vancouver
Coastal Health and other agencies created SACY for students, teachers
and parents.

The program debuted in October at Tupper and Kitsilano secondary
schools. As part of the program, a youth worker created new youth groups.

"It's connecting some of the kids who, before, were a little bit on
the fringes," said Iona Wishaw, principal of Sir Charles Tupper
secondary school in Riley Park. "They took some students who were a
little more at risk and brought them closer, connected them up to the
school, gave them a sense of belonging and purpose."

Recently, Tupper's group organized a celebration night for parents,
luring those who don't typically attend parent advisory council
meetings with student performances.

"With the high-risk youth, we could have gotten them all together and
said, 'Some of you are smoking pot and you shouldn't be and it's bad
for you and you shouldn't do it,'" said Steinmann. "And I don't think
we'd get very far."

Instead, the youth worker and Vancouver Coastal Health prevention
specialists developed relationships with troubled youth.

"Now some of them are coming to us after two or three weeks and saying
to us, 'I really want to try to cut back,'" Steinmann said.

At a training session at Tupper, teachers anonymously posed questions
for students about young people and drugs. Groups of teens then
responded to the queries while teachers wandered from group to group.

"It did a lot to help those kids feel that their views mattered and
they were being listened to and it assisted teachers to get a more
complete picture of why would a kid come to school stoned when they
know it's against the rules," Steinmann said.

Wishaw noted a lot of students take drugs to overcome anxiety or
problems at home.

"There's lots and lots of reasons around the use of drugs and so
rather than saying 'Thou shall not,' what we want to do is work with
those kids around those issues, how they can get through a day without
getting stoned," said Wishaw, emphasizing that only a small proportion
of Tupper students use drugs.

Workshops for parents have been held at Kits on how to talk with their
kids during their adolescent years.

The schools also convened youth policy committees to determine how to
handle a kid coming to school stoned. Students caught smoking pot are
typically suspended for one to three days. But Vancouver is
considering the practice of the North Vancouver School District where
kids who've been caught with or under the influence of drugs
immediately attend three days of drug education and
self-assessment.

Steinmann expects SACY to move to two new schools next year with some
of its work spreading across the district.