EAGLE VALLEY LAUNCHES DRUG, ALCOHOL ABUSE PROGRAM

Students Can Help Themselves, Each Other, in Getting
Treatment

GYPSUM, Colorado -- Schools are on the front lines of the war on drugs
and that makes it worth fighting, says an Eagle Valley High School
administrator.

"Is it a war worth fighting? "I say yes. Absolutely yes," said Eric
Mandeville, assistant principal at Eagle Valley High School.

As part of that fight, Eagle Valley High School put together a Student
Assistance Program designed to help kids dealing with drug and alcohol
abuse, and other problems.

It's part counseling and part police -- more the former than the
latter. It also provides anonymity for students who want to get help
for their classmates.

Safe to Tell

Safe to Tell is a new peer-referral process. Kids remain anonymous if
they point out someone they think is abusing drugs and alcohol.

"It takes little bit of moxie to step up and call it what it is," said
Mike Gass, the school district's executive director of student services.

Kids caught at school under the influence of alcohol or drugs face
suspension, but more importantly they get counseling and they start
working through an expulsion prevention plan.

They're interviewed, tested, and their parents get involved. Usually,
parents are where the problems begin, says Sara Cross, outreach and
prevention coordinator at Eagle Valley.

"When students abuse or use drugs and alcohol, most have parents who
do the same thing," Cross said.

Support groups are available for students whose parents abuse alcohol
and drugs.

Eagle Valley will join Battle Mountain in doing random drug testing
for students involved in extra curricular activities, Mandeville said.

Changing times

It's all part of the times in which we live, Gass says.

"It's a big challenge in our country. Times are tough and we're
dealing with challenges all across the country," Gass said. "We have
more kids abandoned, kids living in campgrounds. More kids are living
on their own."

Preschool kids are occasionally abandoned on a school's
doorstep.

"Families sometimes drop their kids at school and head to Mexico,
expecting us to take care of those kids," Gass said.

About a day and a half of his week is now taken up with social
services departments.

Then there's society under the influence of medical
marijuana.

"We see tons of medical marijuana and people are reselling it to our
kids. People who are old enough to have a card, 18, are bringing it
into the schools," Gass said. "What used to be recreational has now
become something of the norm in some groups of kids."

Gass says he has picked up abandoned coats with marijuana and other
drugs in the pockets, or things dropped out of cars.

Walk the parking lot after an event and what used to be litter can be
paraphernalia, or a baggie with drug residue in it, he said.

One of every 10 calls he gets is a community member saying he saw
someone from one of the schools doing "this or that."

"I get those calls more than I ever did. Our community is concerned
about it," Gass said.

Your on-the-street drug dealer is changing and so is the dope they're
selling, Mandeville said. In a Vail Daily ad, a local medical
marijuana business boasts 24 percent THC in one of their strains.

"Not so long ago, that was one-third of that," Mandeville.

Caffeine is the most abused drug among teens, Mandeville said. A
16-ounce Monster drink contains one-third more caffeine than of
coffee. Kids become jittery, impulsive and disruptive. They get
headaches and cannot pay attention or sit still, Mandeville said.

"Things are changing. More and more these days we are the parents to
some of these kids," Mandeville said. "We teach them to read, to
write, how to act."