The question on most students’ minds when they see kids smoking at the pit every day is how LHS deals with drug and alcohol abusers at school. Some students wonder if there is any action being taken at all. LHS does, in fact, take several steps to keep the school drug free and help students who use drugs.
The school has to identify the drug abusers at the school before any further steps can be taken. They do this by receiving tips from various sources, revealing students who have used the substances.
For example, if a teacher overhears a student talking about drugs or alcohol outside of school, they can report the information to the student’s LST. The dean and SAP (Student Assistance Program) coordinator will then call in the student and question them. If they find something, they can contact the student’s parents and make suggestions to help the student. The dean and counselor do not reveal the source’s identity, and maintain the student or teacher’s confidentiality.
Teachers are not the only source of information, though.
“The deans and SAP do get tips from students concerned about their friends’ usage. It is nice to see that kids care for one another in that way,” Principal Scott said.
If a drug/alcohol problem is discovered, then the LHS social workers take the next step: getting the student help. The social workers and SAP can recommend programs for student in order to meet their specific needs and issues. One of these programs is an intensive out- patient program. In this, the student still lives at home and goes to school, but has meetings 3-4 nights a week, each meeting lasting around 2-4 hours.
Another more intense program, the residential treatment, includes the student living at a facility while they are recovering from their addiction. Most of these facilities use the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-steps as a guide for both individual and group therapy. Both individual and group counseling are run by a certified alcohol and drug counselor, and the purpose is to resolve issues relating to the abuser’s addiction.
“No one type of service is perfect for every student, so there need to be different types so families and students can choose what is best for them,” SAP coordinator Lisa Hartman said.
Although getting the student help is top priority to LHS, it is sometimes necessary for disciplinary action to come into play when an illegal substance interferes with school, whether a student is smoking, dealing drugs on school property, or comes to school high.
“The maximum penalty a school can exercise if they feel a situation is egregious enough, for example selling drugs in school, is to recommend to the board of education that a student be expelled from school for up to two calendar years,” Vice Principal Eric Maroscher said.
Underage drinking, smoking, and drugs are illegal when it comes to state law, so legal action may be taken against a high school student. Depending of the amount of contraband and the age of the student involved, there can be consequences such as arrest, jail time and convictions on permanent records.
LHS intervenes with drug and alcohol abuse on school grounds as well, of course.
The school often has to deal with illegal on or near campus. One place often monitored is the pit, a wooded area next to the parking lot located at the back of the school. Deans and security officers take turns patrolling the area, making random checks before and after school. There have already been several tobacco citations given to students at the pit this year.
LHS has also teamed up with the Interquest Detection Canines of Chicagoland in order to further find illegal materials on school grounds. The program releases Dandy, a friendly canine trained to sniff out any form of contraband, into the hallways of the school at random times during the school year.
Although punishment and providing help for troubled students are both effective ways of making LHS drug free, the most efficient way is to prevent drug use in the first place. SAP was, in part, created for this purpose. The program specializes in student issues, and one of its main goals is to prevent not just drug problems, but others as well.
Still in response to drugs, Hartman also sponsors clubs at the school like SPARK and VIP, which promote a drug free lifestyle.
“The goal of the SAP program is to help students who have a drug problem, rather than punish them,” Hartman said.
photo by Taylor Wanbaugh