FAYETTE CONTINUES TO FIGHT DRUG PROBLEM

There's Drugs In Fayette County. And County Officials Know They're A Problem.

Fayette County District Attorney Nancy Vernon, state police Lt.
Charles Depp and Fayette County Drug Task Force Lt. Kyle Sneddon
discussed the drug problem in the county during the first Crime
Prevention Workshop held this weekend at Penn State Fayette, The
Eberly Campus.

"If we don't have a police force, not only would it be unsafe to
walk the streets at night, but it will also be unsafe to walk the
streets during the day," Vernon said, adding that the majority of
crimes committed throughout the county, including burglaries,
robberies, assaults and homicides, are linked to drugs. "That's how
significant the drug problem is in Fayette County."

Vernon is a proponent of having a halfway house in the county as
opposed to house arrest.

She said those who sell drugs in the county receive a state prison
sentence but that first-time nonviolent offenders have the
opportunity to go into rehabilitation. Out of the 67 counties in the
state, Fayette ranks seventh in sending offenders into the state
intermediate punishment, Vernon said.

State Rep. Deberah Kula, a former district judge, said she has
witnessed the effectiveness of the county's drug task force.

"Sometimes crimes are solved by someone in the neighborhood," Kula
said, echoing the importance of neighborhood watches as a crime-fighting tool.

The fault of the acceptance of the drug culture is that of society,
Sneddon said. The diverted pharmaceutical problem with Oxycontin
sales is as prevalent as crack cocaine.

"We got to get mad," Sneddon said. He said it's been the society
that has broken what was deemed as respect and fear of consequences,
and it will be society that will have to fix it.

Law officials emphasis the need for help from local residents.
Officials stress that tips from residents will not mean the police
will come breaking down doors and making arrests. Officials say tips
are taken seriously and followed up with investigations.

"We take information, find information and work from there," Vernon
said. "The public has to be patient with the police."

Also discussed during the workshop was bullying prevention,
presented by Donna Whoric, a consultant for behavior for Intermediate Unit 1.

"It's a big problem, and it takes everyone to solve," Whoric said,
focusing on The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, which was
founded by Dan Olweus after three Norwegian teens committed suicide
linked to intense bullying.

Whoric said the program is not a curriculum, conflict resolution
approach, a peer mediation program or an anger management program.
She said bullying is a specific type of aggression in which the
behavior is intended to harm or disturb; the behavior occurs
repeatedly over time; and there is an imbalance of power with the
more powerful person or group attacking a less powerful person.

There are two types of bullying.

Direct bullying involves hitting, kicking, shoving, spitting,
taunting, teasing, degrading racial or sexual comments, hate speech
and threatening or obscene gestures. Indirect bullying involves
getting another person to assault someone, spreading rumors,
deliberate exclusion from a group or activity. It also includes the
newest form -- cyber bullying -- which makes the bully anonymous to
the victims.

Whoric said short-term effects of bullying includes lower
self-esteem, depression and anxiety, illness, headaches, sleeping
problems and other physical problems, absenteeism (160,000 children
miss school on a daily basis as a result of bullying), and even
thoughts of suicide. The lasting effects include lower self-esteem,
higher rates of depression and higher rates of post traumatic stress.

The bullies themselves are more likely to get into a fight or be
injured in a fight, steal, vandalize property, drink alcohol, smoke,
be truant and drop out of school.

"But if we intervene now, it's less likely to happen," Whoric said.
Approximately 62 percent of students want to help someone being bullied.

For more information on The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program,
visit www.clemson.edu/olweus/