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Drug abuse education needed at all ages, officials say
BOARDMAN
The Boardman schools have joined a host of other Mahoning Valley schools in offering a drug-abuse prevention education program designed for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
On Friday, the Mahoning Valley Hospital Foundation awarded a $15,000 grant to the school district to train teachers for the program developed by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
The need for drug-abuse prevention education is illustrated by the fact that only about 30 of 200 recent applicants to be Mahoning County school-bus drivers passed a pre-employment drug screening, said Frank Lazzeri, Boardman schools superintendent.
“We’ve got a shortage of bus drivers,” Lazzeri said.
“It’s a sad state of affairs when we have a community of people who are willing to work, but drugs have become an obstacle,” he said.
The Mahoning Valley Hospital Foundation has funded the NIDA Brain Power Curriculum, which educates students about the human brain and the adverse effects of drug abuse on it, in many Mahoning Valley schools.
Besides Boardman, these include the Struthers schools, the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center, Valley Christian School, Youngstown Community School and Diocese of Youngstown schools.
The Mahoning County Board of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services funded the program in the Austintown, South Range and Sebring school districts.
“Today, our biggest epidemic in this country, without a doubt, is drugs,” said Mike Senchak, hospital foundation president and chief executive officer.
“Most of those 20-somethings that are dying are overdoses” of drugs, with few people in that age range dying from vehicular accidents and physical illnesses, he said.
Drug-abuse prevention education is an effective bargain at $4 or $5 per student, he said.
“When we provide them with these foundational knowledges at every stage of development, we are equipping them to make healthy choices,” said Nancy Pommerening, executive director of the nonprofit Drug Awareness and Prevention Inc. of Rocky River.
Kindergartners trace outlines of their bodies, color in their brains and learn what activities they control, she explained.
“In second and third grade, we build brains out of Play-Doh,” she added.
Older children learn how substances enter the brain and how addiction occurs, with high-school students examining brain scans and learning which parts of the brain control which bodily functions.
Senchak said his efforts to get Ohio legislators to require comprehensive K-12 drug-abuse prevention education have failed.
About 25 states now require such a program, and more than 40 states require four to eight years of this type of education, he added.
Joseph Nohra, Struthers schools superintendent, said denial by some parents that their child could be affected by drug abuse is a challenge to be overcome.
“You have to accept that the problem is there, and I think a lot of communities can’t get over the hurdle” of denial, he added.
Ohio House Bill 367, which was passed and signed by Gov. John Kasich last year, requires prescription opoid drug-abuse prevention education in schools but provides no funding for this activity, said Randi Ostry, drug-use education and policy manager for the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.
Ostry said, however, she’s exploring the idea of Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) officers, whose activities are funded by her office, teaching parts of the Brain Power curriculum with health or science teachers.