SCHOOL BOARD TARGETS DRUG USE

Educators are worried about the increase in student drug usage and
drug-related suspensions.

"[Drugs] are not just a school issue," said Karl deBruijn, director of
student support services for the Kamloops-Thompson school district.
"It's a community-wide problem, and it's certainly not just in this
community alone. It's provincewide and North American-wide.

"The concerns that are shared by parents, the school district and
professionals in this community are the same in all communities in
British Columbia."

And on Monday night, the district took action.

Beginning this fall, School District 73 will implement a drug and
alcohol prevention and intervention pilot project at three secondary
schools and their feeder elementary schools.

The project will use a three-pillar approach to the problem: education
and prevention; intervention and treatment; and detection and
enforcement.

It aims to create a well-educated community of students, staff and
parents, who will work in conjunction with law enforcement and
community groups to reduce drug usage.

The pilot will be introduced in October into North Kamloops, Barriere
and Logan Lake secondary schools, and the elementary schools that feed
into them.

Elementary schools would likely see only the first pillar - education
and prevention.

Following its approval, district staff will work with schools and
teachers to merge the project's curriculum into existing courses.

"Career and personal planning, science and social studies have
components of safe and healthy living and social responsibility,"
deBruijn said.

"In a sense, we're not introducing new curriculum, we're using
existing curriculum and emphasizing those areas that relate to this
problem."

A student assistance program and an in-school counsellor from the
Phoenix Centre would be established in each of the participating
secondary schools.

As well, the district will look at funding one full-time-equivalent
RCMP officer who would work with schools.

The project's roots begin with the recommendations of last year's
superintendent's committee on child and adolescent drug use and the
hiring of Angela Lawrence, the district's drug and alcohol
intervention co-ordinator, in November 2003.

If successful, the program could be expanded the following year and
would be reviewed at the end of the 2006-2007 school year.