'MY SCHOOL IS GREAT EXCEPT FOR THE DRUGS'

Comment Prompts St. Paul's Officials To Organize Round Table On Drug
Abuse

It was the simplest of statements that prompted staff at St. Paul
Secondary School in Trenton organize a round table forum to begin the
process of finding a community-wide solution to the problem of drug
abuse.

'My school is great except for the drugs,' said the student on a local
radio call-in show.

A round table discussion by a broad range of community groups last
night at the school formed a separate committee to organize a public
meeting on a problem that everyone is all too familiar with -- how to
prevent youths at risk from making the wrong choices.

A date and location for the public meeting will be scheduled in the
coming weeks.

Sitting at the round table were 23 residents of the city -- high
school principals, ranking members of the Quinte West OPP, a city
councillor, representatives from Children's Mental Health and the
local health unit.

The session also included representatives from the offices of
Northumberland-Quinte West MP Paul Macklin and Northumberland MP Lou
Rinaldi.

But most importantly, said a panel member following the session, was
the presence of high school students.

All of them were at the meeting for one purpose -- to voice concerns
and begin the process of finding a community-based solution to the
problem.

Now they want the broader community involved with the process in an
attempt to sift through what is hoped will be hundreds of ideas that
can be fine tuned into workable program for the city.

Headlines last month stating Quinte West was a so-called 'hot spot'
for crack cocaine use in the East Region patrolled by the OPP, said
one student, was a "rude awakening."

Police, however, are emphasizing the problem is not unique to Quinte
West.

What is unique is that now a group of people want to find a
community-wide solution, using numerous resources, programs, looking
at how other communities have addressed the problem and even forming a
Quinte West chapter of the Boys and Girls Club to combat the problem
as one possibility.

Last night's session was organized by staff at St.
Paul's.

Meeting chair and St. Paul Secondary School Principal Marilynne Senese
opened the session saying the meeting's organizers were simply looking
for ideas on how the community can address the problem.

"When a student makes a statement like that on a local radio station
it was time to do something," said Senese. "It hurt, it was a painful
for our school community to here. It shocked us into action."

No group was happier with the session than the OPP. Detachment
Commander Insp. Earl Johns described the forum as one of the first
real positive steps to finding solutions to help solve problem.

"Police are here to be part of the solution," he said.

Johns noted there are other municipal detachments across the east
region that are fighting the same problem. But he noted that Quinte
West was the largest of those municipalities under the OPP umbrella.

Earlier this month Johns spoke to Quinte West city council with regard
to the drug problem.

"We need a societal solution and education children and their parents
is key," Johns told councillors. "No one group can combat the problem.
We have to take the problem on as a community. We also have to work
hard in educating parents there is a problem out there."

Numerous ideas were discussed at the round table. Panelists also
floated the idea of looking for support from federal, provincial and
municipal levels of government once a program is finalized.