Monday, December 24, 2007

Cedar Hill parents awakened on student drug use

By Steve Snyder of TODAY Newspapers

After three students at the Ninth Grade Center had to be hospitalized after ingesting Ambien, a prescription sleeping pill, Dec. 4, the Cedar Hill Independent School District knew it needed to do something, having been wanting to do something since the last school year.

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So, the district held a parent information forum at the Ninth Grade Center Dec. 17, titled “Let's Stamp Out Drugs.”

And, knowing that drugs reflect deeper issues, the forum covered much more than just the physical facts of drugs.

Elizabeth Opaleye, a registered nurse, was there with her son, David Offar.

Opaleye said she was familiar with the problem of legal as well as illicit drugs.

“Even aspirin can have a side effect,” she said.

That said, even though she knows what drugs can do, she's still glad the district is building awareness about how serious of a problem Cedar Hill ISD might have, and was looking forward to hearing the speakers.

Her son, David Offar, a Cedar Hill High School student, also said the issue needed to be addressed.

“There's a really big concern after what happened here,” he said.

Superintendent Horace Williams introduced the program.

“I have a problem: How do we as educators address the problem of drugs if we believe there is a problem here, if the drug dealers come from your homes and the drugs of choice come from your medicine cabinet?” Williams asked. “Seeing what was happening (when I came here) in the spring, I wanted to do something then.”

Williams noted that the Ninth Grade Center has about 900 students, but only about 50 parents were at the forum. He said he didn't think that meant most parents didn't think drugs were a problem, but that the parents who attended needed to be proactive.

“Let's take a negative and turn it into a positive about the good we're doing for our kids,” he said.

Powell: The sociology of drug temptation at home

Alfred Powell, founder, president, and CEO of Human Motivation Council and Human Motivation, was the primary speaker. Powell is an adjunct clinical professor for the School of Social Welfare Health Sciences, State University of New York at Stony Brook. He serves as the youth director and coordinator for two distinguished annual conferences: “The Black Alcoholism and Addictions Institute” and “Counseling and Treating People of Color.”

In a folksy, preacher-like style, Powell talked about social and psychological drug-related issues with the parents, focusing on parenting and home life.

In addition to speaking at the forum, Powell had daytime meetings with students at the Ninth Grade Center.

“Here's the truth - we live in a drug culture,” Powell said. “We're used to medicating things.”

Because of this, and picking up on what Williams said, it is often hard to reverse the cycle of drug desires.

He then said parents needed to have a mission statement for the home on their refrigerators, specifically saying, “We don't chemically manipulate our minds, bodies, spirits.”

Beyond that, Powell said the roots of addiction were ultimately psychological.

“The biggest addiction of all is the addiction to stupidity,” he said.

Then, referring to the school district as a village, he said, “There's an illness in the village. And we don't have to get so high on ourselves that we think it's next door (and not at our house),” he said.

Powell then got back to the issue of pharmaceuticals being abused.

“The fear is that your children are becoming pharmacists. You can go to Google and get over 65,000 hits for extracting codeine (and other drugs),” he said.

The next problem at home, he said, was parents trying too hard to be friends to their children rather than practicing family leadership.

“You need to go home and practice saying ‘No.' You're too busy saying, ‘Yes,' and trying to be a friend,” he said.

At the same time, he said there were times parents needed to say “Yes.”

“Monday morning, give everybody a hug; Tuesday is a smile day,” he said.

He then talked about what he had heard from students in his meetings with them. He said he had heard a lot of pain from students, pain about things “constructed and deconstructed at home.”

He then gave parents a simple at-home test to see how well they were involved with their children's lives.

“When you get home, (if you can), write down the full name of your child's best friend. Then, if you can, write down their parents' name.”

He then said parents were, through language and behavior, making their children into adults before they were ready. He said boys shouldn't be called “men” and girls “women” by their parents, with the burden that involved.

He then took a shot at entertainment culture when it also tries to make children into adults, especially when it tries to sexualize them.

He brought that issue back to the household, then. He said children needed to not have their focus turned to bling and baubles.

He then drew parallels between parents and school staff, homes and schools.

He also encouraged parents not to try to steer their children away from drugs with the simple “Drugs make you feel bad” statement. He said their peers would then tell them drugs make them feel good, and they will the first time, and so children won't believe their parents about drugs.

Finally, he encouraged parents to act.

“We're in a drug culture; don't just whine about it,” he said.

Dr. Marshall: Physiology of drugs and adolescents

Dr. Mike Marshall, a member of the Cedar Hill School Board, was the first speaker of the event. Marshall talked about the effects drugs have on physically and emotionally developing adolescents.

“What leads adolescents to be susceptible to drugs?” Marshall asked.

“There are three basic reasons. One is to feel good. The second is to feel better, or escape. It works for a while, but it doesn't solve the problem. The third is because everybody else is,” he said.

Because of changing body physiology, he said adolescents were less resistant physically than adults. Because of changes in schools and being around older, sometimes predatory students, made it tough to psychologically resist at times. Marshall also noted that physical development can precede emotional development, adding to the addiction potential of drugs.

Marshall mentioned family involvement as the next key as to whether or not students got on drugs. After that, he said peer group support was important, then extracurricular activities, in part because of the adult mentoring they provided.

Marshall then listed other risk factors, including method of use and age of onset.

He then said that two legal drugs - nicotine and alcohol - are common “gateway” drugs for illegal drugs.

That led him to talk about the most commonly available illegal drug, marijuana. He said the perception that marijuana wasn't a serious drug was one reason it was attractive to many adolescents. He then said it caused the release of many reward hormones, tying in with changing hormones in youth.

He then specifically mentioned Ambien and other Valium-type drugs. He then said the overdose potential and problems with these drugs were greatly increased by alcohol.

What the district will do

After the two main speakers, Student Support Coordinator Chanda McGee, a school psychologist, wrapped up the session by describing what the school district was doing to address drug concerns.

She referred to a brochure the district prepared for the forum. It included information on possible signs of child drug abuse for parents to notice, counseling and drug rehabilitation sites in the Cedar Hill area, information on how to talk to children about drugs and more.

“We will be bringing in as many resources as possible to help our students. We want to turn them around,” she said.

Other school resources include I Care about a Friend, a way for students at the secondary school level to anonymously alert counselors about problems they perceive in a friend of theirs.

She said information off the brochure, and information about effects of specific drugs, would all be on the school district's website, www.chisd. net.

Williams said the district planned more students' workshops in the future, whether with Powell or another facilitator, and more parent sessions.

He added that the district would also take parents' comments into account to determine other activities and events it would do. And, so parents would know more in the way of what district staff could do for them, he introduced several school district staff who were at the forum.

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• Won't someone PLEASE think of the children?
• Cedar Hill ISD > Cedar Hill ISD High Schools > Ninth Grade Center