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Lowellville police department teaches parents about drug trends
LOWELLVILLE
Lowellville parents can get a little more savvy on drug trends when the Lowellville Police Department hosts its first In Plain Sight drug-education session.
It is set for 7 p.m. Sept. 16 in the cafetorium of the Lowellville junior/senior high school, 52 Rocket Place.
Lowellville Police Chief Ryan Bonacci said he plans to use the event to educate parents on trending ways kids are hiding drugs and different instruments kids use to take drugs.
Bonacci heard about a program called Hidden in Plain Sight in Bath and Copley, Ohio, that travels to educate parents about drug trends among youths. He also attended a session of Operation Street Smart, which talks to police departments about the latest drug trends. Bonacci said both of those programs motivated him to create a program of his own for Lowellville schools.
Though Bonacci said he doesn’t think drugs are a major problem in the community, he said offering this educational session for parents could help spot crimes that go unnoticed.
“Just because we haven’t seen something doesn’t mean it didn’t happen,” he said. “Criminals are always evolving, and they seem to, in some cases, be a little more advanced than the cops.”
Both Lowellville Principal Jared Van Kirk and Superintendent Eugene Thomas said they wanted to collaborate with the police department to share this information with students’ parents.
Van Kirk said some of the material that will be covered at the event will not be suitable for young children, but he encourages parents with older kids to attend the event together.
“All parents need to hear what they’re going to talk about,” Van Kirk said. “There are things I was shown by the chief that were amazing and I had no clue about.”
Marcie Mason, youth worker with the Bath and Copley police departments, heads the Hidden In Plain Sight program there. She said she helped launch the program in 2011. Since then, she said the program has been a success with parents.
“The program’s constantly adding new things youth are doing,” Mason said. She said she has had parents come back and show her items they found in their kids’ rooms.
Mason said the program tends to be most popular among parents of ninth-graders.
Van Kirk said there is no registration required for the session. He said he looks forward to seeing discussion at the event.
“I think even one kid doing something illegal here is a problem to me,” he said. “If it’s one kid or everyone, I think we still want to continue doing this and be proactive.”