During the week of October 27-31, Parker students across grades met with social workers from Prevention Education Solutions—a drug prevention program that highlights the connection between substance use and mental health. Prevention Week, organized by Ms. Williams and Ms. Kearns, is intended to give students the knowledge they need to make informed decisions and talk comfortably about substances. “What we really want is to create a context where students can ask questions because there’s a tremendous amount of myth and misinformation out there that I think young people are often managing or dealing with,” Kearns said. Some form of drug prevention education has been a part of Parker curriculum for over a decade, but the switch to the specific program Prevention Education Solutions was made four years ago. Kearns stated that Prevention Education Solutions “not only has substance use education and background and research, but they also are trained in the mental health field.” his knowledge is important because it allows them to “consider a young person as a whole person,” Kearns said.
Preventative Education Week is driven by the idea that “young people who have really good, strong education in how substances work and how corporations are targeting them are equipped to make much wiser decisions about their health,” Kearns said. The program begins by providing an informational foundation in a student’s freshman year and then builds on it in the following years. This is why freshmen have had three sessions while the other three grades only have one. “Ninth grade tends to be the place where that preventive mindset comes together with a lot of exposure to substances in person,” Kearns said.
Preventative Education Solutions teaches information targeted to each grade and is offered from middle to high school. The program decides the content for each session by thinking about the types of substances students at each age may be exposed to, in person or in media. However the effectiveness of the sessions are reliant on how engaged students are. The general opinion is varied. Students appreciated how Prevention Education Solution speakers share their own experiences with substance abuse. “I personally think it’s great that the person shares their story,” sophomore Christohper Chiles said. “ I think that helps us get a good perspective on what would happen if we do drugs or go down that path.”
The main complaint about this week is that it takes away students’ time and doesn’t always teach them new information. “I think it’s useful but we have had these meetings for like the last three years, and we are getting the same message every single year,” sophomore Julian Pantoja said. Junior Moon Fenchel agreed saying, “they shouldn’t take away our free time to teach us things that we’ve already learned before.” Seniors Donavon Clarke said“I think this year preventative education has been useful, but it hasn’t been in the past.”
It’s clear there was a great deal of thought behind the content and style of Prevention Education Week, but students have mixed feelings on the real impact of these classes.
