SCHOOLS FORM DRUG TASK FORCE

The Pike County School district is working on ways to keep students
from falling by the wayside.

Pike County Schools superintendent Roger Wagner has taken the
district's theme, "Nothing But the Kids," to a higher level this
month by implementing a drug task force.

The task force aims to curb drug, tobacco and alcohol abuse problems
in schools by educating educators, its members and community leaders
about how to spot a student or family that has a problem. Several
central office staff members, community, religious and business
partners, students, parents, teachers, counselors, members of the
media, law enforcement officials, UNITE partners, and family resource
and youth services members are partnering to make the program a success.

Some task force members and community leaders turned out this week
for a two-day training seminar hosted by the school district and the
Pike County Health Department.

Jim Crowley, the President of Community Intervention, Inc., hosted
the Insight Training session about intervention, policies and
procedures the district and law enforcement has to have in order to
get students into the group and out of their drug or alcohol problem.

Crowley said intervention comes when the students are able to see
their behavior and the excuses they use about why they are doing
drugs, tobacco or alcohol. He outlined behaviors of students and
adults who experiment, who use drugs or alcohol socially, or who are addicted.

The training, he said, acts as an assessment tool for drug or alcohol
abuse problems by analyzing student behaviors, and the key component
is the fact that so many different people and organizations are
involved. The answer doesn't come from just one system, he said, it
comes when different systems - schools, law enforcement agencies,
churches, and families - network through talking, teaching, observing
and supporting behavior changes.

Your new superintendent understands that the school has a role, but
not the only role, and the community needs to hear that," Crowley said.

Behaviors can be changed, he said, explaining that drug and alcohol
abuse revolves around feelings and the need people have to feel good or happy.

Students get disillusioned when they experiment he said, because,
through drugs and alcohol they can entertain themselves or increase a
pleasurable experience, and then, when the "high" wears away, they
feel the same as they did before they "got blasted."

There is no alternative high that matches the one that using alcohol
or drugs causes," he told the group. "No alternative high works every time."

A 2004 Kentucky Incentive Project Survey given to students throughout
the district showed that students continue to experiment with
tobacco, drugs and alcohol, even though they understand the dangers involved.

The Pike County Schools Drug Task Force will focus on raising
awareness, preventing drug or alcohol abuse, intervening when there
is a problem and helping troubled students find treatment when they
need it, Marionette Little, the district's Safe and Drug Free Schools
Coordinator.

This training comes at a good time," Little said. "Our superintendent
has put together a drug task force to address the drug problems our
children are facing. He realizes that these issues have been barriers
to learning and he knows that the school system can't do it alone. It
will take a networking of services."