FALL MOUNTAIN REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL TACKLES STUDENT DRUG USE

LANGDON -- The freshman slumped over in her chair during class at Fall
Mountain Regional High School, seemingly asleep.

She had overdosed on OxyContin pills she'd taken from home, police say.
Once school officials realized what had happened, she was rushed to the
hospital.

The pills nearly killed the girl, said Principal Marcy Henry. The incident
happened Friday, Dec. 21, the last day before the holiday break.

OxyContin is a painkiller intended for patients with cancer and other
chronic illnesses. It has become popular on the illegal drug market, as it
can mimic the effects of heroin.

The scare compounded Henry's feeling that Fall Mountain must redouble its
effort to deal with students' use of alcohol and other drugs.

That idea gets a kick-start next week, when the school hosts a parent
forum, "Take Back Our School!"

School officials hope the forum takes Fall Mountain's efforts to a new
level, by getting parents and educators to work together to battle a
still-growing problem.

Fall Mountain isn't alone in its concern or its strategy for improvement.
Portsmouth High School and several other Granite State schools have held
similar events in recent months.

But locally, Fall Mountain is alone in combating substance abuse in such a
public way.

That's despite University of New Hampshire survey data from 2000 showing
that more than 40 percent of Monadnock Region high schoolers reported binge
drinking during the month before the survey, and 24 percent said they used
marijuana at least monthly.

The data are on top of anecdotal evidence from students that use of
prescription drugs, including Oxycontin, is on the rise -- especially among
girls.

'We can't do it alone'

Fall Mountain's existing anti-drug programs are similar to those at most
schools in the region: Middle school and high school health classes teach
about the effects of drugs; the high school has a full- time staffer
dedicated to substance-abuse counseling; several student groups encourage
classmates to abstain from alcohol and other drugs.

But all those things may not mean much when students walk out the school
door. That's where their friends and parents exert a major influence, and
that's where Henry hopes to go, starting with next week's forum.

"We can't do it alone," Henry said of the school's role. "I think there are
lots of parents who are in denial."

Langdon Police Chief Raymond A. L'Abbe said parents are sometimes an
impediment to helping their children.

He said he hears parents say, "Well, my son wouldn't do that; my daughter
wouldn't do that."

Meanwhile, students deny wrongdoing, even in the face of clear evidence:

"Everybody I deal with says they didn't do it. Everybody I deal with lies
to me," L'Abbe said.

Langdon, population about 650, has slightly fewer residents than the
enrollment at the high school, which has students from Acworth, Alstead,
Charlestown, Langdon and Walpole. The town's part-time police force
sometimes has its hands full dealing with calls from the high school.

With that in mind, Langdon Officer Rosemary Millard started work last
month, assigned to work almost exclusively at the high school. Her salary
is paid by a federal grant.

Police records give a vague idea of the situation at the school. The school
had 72 calls for police in 2001, and six so far in 2002; four drug arrests
were recorded in 2001, none so far this year. The police calls were for
everything from serious threats to parking violations.

More detailed police records, including breakdowns by school year and
delving further into the past, were not available in time for this report.

Talking to students

Thomas Ferenc, Fall Mountain High assistant principal, said he thinks
school administrators have a fairly accurate picture of the substance-
abuse problems among students.

They have results from student surveys, but more than anything else, "we
ask the kids," he said.

Students estimate that between half and two-thirds of Fall Mountain High
students abuse alcohol or other drugs, Henry said.

Perhaps scariest, she said, is that students report a rise in the use of
drugs such as cocaine, and the growing popularity of drinking cough syrup
and consuming prescription drugs.

Ferenc said prescription-drug use seems to be growing particularly among girls.

Many students told Ferenc that the 2000 UNH study was already outdated, and
understated substance abuse among teenagers.

That survey -- the Teen Assessment Project, sponsored locally by the
Monadnock United Way -- was taken by the vast majority of Monadnock Region
students in grades 7 through 12, with results released in December 2000.

Some parents and school officials in the region thought the survey
overstated substance abuse.

Some people were particularly shocked by the numbers on binge drinking,
which is defined as consuming five or more alcoholic drinks in a row. The
survey found that 20 percent of middle-schoolers and 41 percent of
high-schoolers reported binge drinking in the month before taking the survey.

Morgan Brown, a Fall Mountain senior who's president of the student
congress, said the UNH survey was among the best and most thorough he's seen.

Aside from survey results, Brown said, "substance abuse is a lot worse than
parents, or even faculty and administration, realize. It doesn't always
show up in school in a drop in grades. I don't fault (adults for not
noticing). It's hard to tell."

He said substance abusers can't be easily spotted: They are boys and girls,
come from wealthy families and poor ones, and are sometimes even high
achievers in school and sports.

The one exception, he said, is that children of wealthier parents are more
likely to consume more expensive drugs, such as cocaine and prescription drugs.

He said students in rural New Hampshire can easily obtain drugs, and law
enforcement has "fewer eyes" than in cities to catch them using and selling
drugs.

But Brown added that he doesn't want to paint too bleak a picture. He said
it's easy for students to find friends who help insulate them from pressure
toward destructive behavior. Also, students' friends are sometimes the most
help in kicking a drug habit.

"Kids are a lot better at helping their friends than they get credit for,"
he said.

Henry said she believes what students are saying, because the story is so
similar from student to student, and because of students' palpable fear for
their classmates -- a reaction she said is tough to fake.

Egos left at the door

The speakers at next week's event are gearing their talks toward parents.

A pharmacist will talk about specific drugs and warning signs that a child
is under the influence of them; a local parent will speak about the shock
of discovering a child's drug problem; police will detail their
understanding of what students are doing in and out of school.

The message at the end will be, "How can we work together?" Henry said.

The rough outline of the evening was borrowed from Portsmouth High School,
which has had two such events in the past three months. As at Fall
Mountain, Portsmouth school officials were moved by survey data, and a
mountain of anecdotal evidence from students and police.

"We've decided that this is a community problem, not just a high school
problem," said Robert J. Lister, Portsmouth's assistant school superintendent.

He said parents host parties for students at which alcohol is served, and
parents sometimes ignore obvious signs of drug use in their children.

Portsmouth High has about 1,000 students -- compared to about 700 at Fall
Mountain -- from Greenland, Newcastle, Newington, Portsmouth and Rye.

Lister said parent groups developed phone-calling lists to boost forum
attendance, and ended up with packed houses at both events.

As at Fall Mountain, Portsmouth's neighboring school districts aren't
dealing with substance-abuse in such a public way. This can create the
perception that the problem is somehow worse in Portsmouth and Fall
Mountain. But neither Lister nor Henry is worried.

"There's always that fear" of bad publicity, Lister said. "But when we
looked at statistics and saw that it's statewide, it was time to leave egos
at the door."

Henry said, "I honestly believe that if we put a spin on (substance- abuse
problems) and we don't say what it is, we may find excuses not to do what
we need to do to eradicate it. Sometimes the facts are ugly."

The Fall Mountain High forum is Tuesday, Feb. 19, at 7 p.m. in the school
cafeteria.

Anti-drug abuse forum set for Keene High School

Keene High School may follow Fall Mountain Regional High School in stepping
up anti-drug efforts by trying to involve parents and others outside school.

For one, Keene High's Parent Advisory Council will hold a forum April 2 to
talk about substance abuse at the school.

Susan B. Newcomer of Chesterfield, chairman of the advisory board, said
it's difficult to start a conversation between the school and parents,
because parents often won't participate.

"How do you manage to get everybody to the table?" she asked. "Parents
don't come to the table unless (a problem) hits them in the face."

Newcomer offers this assessment of the situation at the school:

"I think the systems are in place that need to be in place to help kids. Is
the system perfect? Absolutely not. Are they able to deal with every
situation? No. Because a lot of them they don't hear about."

Keene High Principal Victor P. Sokul outlined a four-year plan for the
school last week that includes increased emphasis on educating about, and
preventing, substance abuse.

"It's on the front burner," he said about combating substance abuse.

With an enrollment of about 1,600, Keene High has more than twice as many
students as Fall Mountain High.