It's All About Choices

CLARENVILLE HIGH BRINGS DRUG MESSAGE TO STUDENTS

Clarenville High is a school that has never shied away from tackling
controversial issues head on.

Whether it's a hazing ritual or alcohol and drug use among teens the
school has made a habit of addressing the issues even when, in some
cases, it does not fall under the school's responsibility.

That tradition continued April 28 with the school's second annual day
to tackle addictions.

"Last year we focused on alcohol so this year we decided to focus on
some of the other types of drugs," explains Tammy Greening of Health
and Community Services who helped plan the day-long event with Greg
Mitchell of the RCMP and Clarenville High teacher Ben Osmond. "We are
not saying alcohol is any less important we just felt we should focus
on some of the other things as well.

"I guess our overall theme for the day was 'healthy
choices.'"

Planning for this year's event started last fall.

The school has almost finished going through the student evaluations
to get feedback on this year's event and to get some direction from
students on what topics should be covered next year.

Osmond says the students are calling it a great success.

"It's not very often I go back to school on Monday morning and have
students greet me saying, 'We learned a lot, Thanks.' I think we
achieved what we wanted to do."

Over 500 students from grades seven to level three -- from Clarenville
High, Clarenville Middle School and Balbo Elementary -- took part in
the seminars.

"I thought the day went pretty good, my favourite part of the event
was when Rick Anthony told us about how drugs affected his life," says
David Davis, a grade 10 students at Clarenville High.

Partnerships

Osmond says part of the reason for the success is that the event is
not centered around people lecturing to students. It's about talking
to them and informing them of the dangers.

RCMP Cst. Greg Mitchell says going into a school and telling students
not to do drugs doesn't get results. But by bringing together the
information and experiences from Addiction Services the school and the
RCMP and combining that with guest speakers, they can better inform
the students.

"We are all coming at this from different directions and have
different experiences and information we can bring to the students to
help them make informed choices."

Mitchell adds the event took a lot of planning and didn't come cheap.
The Clarenville High Drug Awareness team relied heavily on the support
of various groups including the Mounted Police Foundation, who
provided $4,000 for the event.

Mitchell describes the team simply as facilitators.

"The topics that were covered and the events that day came from the
students. We make it happen as a committee. The students drive the
ideas and what they want to see, which gives them a sense of ownership
and involvement."

Does this mean there is a serious drug problem in Clarenville?

"Certainly not," says Mitchell.

He says because Clarenville does not have a really serious drug
problem is all the more reason to have events like this. He says these
type of events help keep teenagers on top of things and know what is
going on. That can only help them make better and more informed choices.

If students don't know what drugs are out there and what the
consequences are they might be more likely to go down that road. For
example, if they know what crystal-meth can do to them, that
information might make them think twice about ever trying it.

Effectiveness

There is some argument that after a certain age young people just
don't listen to the anti-drug, anti-smoking and anti-drinking messages
anyway.

But Greening says that depends on how you get that message across to
teens.

"You just have to be more creative. They don't want to hear you
lecturing . . . saying the same old thing. They want the real facts,
they want to hear the personal stories."

It's the personal stories that were most popular during the session.
Real life experiences from Rick Anthony, a drug user who recounted his
stories of drug use and abuse. Osmond says students took a lot away
from Anthony's presentation which was described as brutally honest.

Students also took a positive message away from Olympian Beckie Scott
and her story about making positive choices and how staying focused on
your goals can make the difference.

"The approach we took by bringing in those guest speakers and talking
about healthy choices really helped," says Greening. "People told us
they found it to be a very effective day."

That's where the partnerships are important, she says.

"Over the years the way things have been done is one group goes into
the school and does a "one shot" thing. There is no collaboration, no
partnerships; you are working in isolation. That doesn't work," she
stresses.

That's why the partnerships between the school, Addiction Services and
the RCMP has been so productive.

But Greening warns these type of events don't show results
overnight.

"A lot of times, with prevention and heath promotion, you don't see
the effects of something until six or seven years down the road.

"Take smoking for example. Look how far we have come with that. That
took a lot of work over years with a lot of partnerships. Drug use is
the same. It is hard for us to measure if it is effective but . . .
years down the road we have people coming up to us and telling us they
remember a presentation we did at their school.

There is no question the issues teen face around drug use and the
anti-drug campaign has gone far beyond Nancy Reagan's message in the
1980s -- 'Just Say No!'

"Right now there is a lot of peer pressure," says Osmond.

"There are power groups --some people call them peer pressure groups
- -- in our society, in our community and in schools. They are
continuously trying to draw and make their group bigger. Some of these
pressures are pretty strong. We see it here in school and a lot of
times there is not much we can do about it because there are too many
outside factors interfering with it.

"Schools can only do their role, which is to educate," says Osmond.
"We are not police; we can't enforce the laws. We can't tell parents
what they should be doing with their kids. We have certain boundaries
we are confined to."

While many people often look to the school as the ones who should
tackle these issues often it is outside the school's mandate.

Still the school plays a role.

Osmond says, "For me as a teacher we have a responsibility to inform.
We know we are not going to stop all those kids from doing drugs. If
that was the case we wouldn't have anyone doing it today. But it is
going to make some kids think and make an informed choice. Kids didn't
know what crystal-meth does. It's new on the scene. We want to be
proactive and get a jump on it and provide the information."