REACHING HIGHER TO STOP DRUG ABUSE

Higher: Beyond the Pressure was an apt title for the film and
workshop delivered to all Grade 7s in School District 27 earlier this
month by a group of Williams Lake Secondary students.

About 250 Grade 7 students participated in the two-hour workshop held
at Williams Lake Secondary and delivered by Dena Baumann's leadership class.

"I found it was really good. The group I worked with were pretty open
and a lot of the topics we covered were very personal," says Jordyn
Stolar one of the leadership students. "We are pretty dedicated to
this project. It meant a lot to me to be talking to students about
drugs and alcohol and consequences."

For the first 20 minutes the students watched a film about peer
pressure and potential health and social consequences of abusing
drugs and alcohol that was made by WLSS students.

Amber Inglis's Grade 9-10 drama students wrote and performed the
skits for the film that was edited by Siobhan Wright's Grade 10-12
film students.

The skits addressed issues of why kids drink or do drugs: peer
pressure; emotional or physical pain; no sense of purpose and
rebelling from parental control; and a feeling of hopelessness about
their lives, Inglis says.

The skits in the film are titled Choices; Destitute; and Pressure.

Issues addressed and covered in the workshop included providing an
outline of types of drugs students can expect to see on the party
scene in high school, such as alcohol, marijuana, crystal meth,
speed, diet pills, and ecstasy.

After showing the film the Grade 7 students were broken up into small
groups and the high school leadership students led them in various
exercises designed to increase their awareness about the dangers of
alcohol and drugs, how to say no, how to ask for help for themselves
or a friend if they are in trouble; ways to build positive
self-esteem to stand up to peer pressure.

"I think the most effective part is that kids listen to kids more
than they do some old bald guy rattling on," says WLSS counsellor
Mike Levitt one of the event helpers.

"We certainly don't think kids are going to walk away and never do
drugs but even if a handful don't our job has been done."

"Eventually every elementary school in the district will receive a
copy of the film and the activity outline so teachers can use it to
work with their students," Levitt says.