SCHOOL DISTRICT LOOKS AT NEW DRUG POLICY

Stopping Drug Abuse Before It Can Start Means Calling In The Experts - And
That Includes Students.

Burnaby school district is asking for help from teachers, staff and
students to create a new substance abuse prevention strategy that targets
younger grades.

"If more and more people learn about drugs and their side effects, they're
more likely to stay away," said Tracey, an elementary student who spoke on
the strategy at the June 11 board meeting.

She also explained how students had discussed resisting peer pressure.

"We are our own boss if we are put in a situation like this," Tracey said.

Matt, another student, explained why they were talking about prevention to
students still in their intermediate years.

"I think it's very important to learn about drugs when you're young so you
can deal with and recognize (situations) in high school," Matt said.

Terry Waterhouse, the district's manager of youth services, outlined the
substance abuse framework for the trustees at the board meeting, explaining
the idea was to make the plan accessible and versatile for teachers so they
could easily incorporate it into lessons.

"They wanted a made-in-Burnaby package they could walk through and pull out
what they need," Waterhouse told the trustees, adding it would also
complement what they were doing in the classroom.

There are four areas of ongoing work, he said: policy and procedure,
extracurricular activities, problem identification and community-based
intervention.

Information dissemination and prevention education are part of the
substance abuse prevention strategy for students in grades 4 to 12 that he
and others presented to the trustees.

Brenda Montagano, a teacher at Clinton elementary school, said the idea
behind the plan is to stop drug abuse before it starts.

"Drug prevention is something I feel very strongly about, very passionately
about, as a result of what I've seen at school and heard from students,"
she said, adding a strategy is definitely needed, even for the younger
students.

"Our goal with this is prevention. We want to provide students with the
skills and knowledge to deal with (drug abuse)," Montagano said. "Our goal
as teachers is to equip our students to deal with real life, and today in
our world, that involves substance abuse."

It was important to take a teacher-based approach to drug prevention
strategies, Montagano said, and avoid having "one more thing" to teach in
an already busy schedule.

For teachers who wouldn't have time to fit the plan into their
instructional resource packages (IRPs), the kit includes step-by-step
instructions and other resources, plus each activity has a list of goals.

"To the best of our ability, we tried to provide everything to the teachers
that they might need," she said.

Tony, a Grade 12 student at Burnaby South spoke from experience - his own
and seeing his friends.

He told the trustees how overwhelming it was for students entering
secondary school to come up against drugs in situations they couldn't deal
with and how he'd fallen into the trap, affecting his academic and social
performance.

Tony eventually managed to turn his life around and now wants to help
younger children. When he heard of the work being done at the district
level, Tony knew he could be involved and contribute in a way adults couldn't.

"I feel it's much better for them (elementary students) to hear it from
someone who's their own age," he said. "That helps me a lot because it
makes me feel like I can actually do something."