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Lowellville police host drug education session for parents
By EMMALEE C. TORISK
LOWELLVILLE
When Police Chief Ryan Bonacci says a majority of parents are “clueless” about drug trends, he means it in the nicest possible way.
He understands that the tools kids are using today to hide and use their illegal drugs aren’t the most obvious.
Unlike members of law enforcement, parents typically don’t see those tools — including a bowl that resembles a tube of lipstick and a digital scale that looks like an iPhone, both of which were purchased by Bonacci at local “head” shops — on “a semi-regular basis.”
On Tuesday evening, however, the parents of Lowellville got that chance.
Bonacci, along with the rest of the Lowellville Police Department, hosted the first “In Plain Sight” drug education session.
“They have to educate themselves a little bit better about the possibilities of what their kids could get into,” Bonacci said.
During the 90-minute session in Lowellville High School’s cafetorium, Bonacci explored not only the innovative ways kids are hiding illegal drugs — and showed them to parents, but also the drugs themselves.
He focused on each drug’s distinctive properties, street names, and methods and signs of use, along with its short- and long-term effects. All of the substances discussed — marijuana, inhalants and prescription drugs, among others — were ones that the village’s police officers had either arrested someone for or found in the school within the past three years.
Bonacci suggested that parents randomly drug-test their kids, search their bedrooms, monitor their Internet activity, check their cellphones and text messages, know where they’re going, and educate themselves.
His door is always open for parents with questions, he added, noting that additional sessions are in the works.
Lowellville schools Superintendent Eugene M. Thomas echoed Bonacci, saying the drug problem among youth is everywhere and is very real.
He noted that the school district, the police department and parents are “partners in this fight against drugs.”
Cindy Sdregas, who has two eighth-graders and a fourth-grader, said she’s grateful for the valuable information, as she and other parents “want to make sure we know what’s going on.”