Seattle Schools Community Forum

From SPS Communications: John Hay Families and Neighbors Community Meeting On the Interagency Recovery School Program Date : Wednesday, December 10, 2014 Time : 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Please Note Location Change : McClure Middle School Lunchroom  (1915 1 st Ave W) Dear John Hay Community, You are invited to attend a meeting to learn more about Seattle Public Schools’ Interagency Recovery School Program, scheduled to be located in the old Queen Anne gymnasium building, beginning in early 2015. School district staff will share information and answer questions you may have. Interagency Recovery School is a small program, designed to support high school youth who are committed to recovery from drug and alcohol dependency. Students have self-selected to attend Interagency Recovery School in order to actively work toward their academic and personal goals, while attending school in a clean and sober environment. The program will offer the support of specially trai...

From Town Hall: Youth Drug Summit: Keeping Kids Safe in Changing Times Wednesday, Feb. 26th Town Hall $5 - 1119 Eighth Avenue Doors open at 6:30 pm with main event at 7:30 pm The legalization of marijuana in Washington State has real implications for parents and kids. What are current teen attitudes about drug use and accessibility? How will things change when legal marijuana shops are open for business and marijuana is increasingly available in homes? What about the growing prevalence of heroin and toxic mixtures, such as “molly?” During this panel discussion featuring experts on adolescent psychology, drug addiction and law enforcement, parents will be armed with the knowledge and tools they need to help kids navigate the risks and dangers in this changing environment.

This very sad video was made by the Issaquah Police Department and Eastside Fire and Rescue and was performed at Issaquah High School.  Watch it.  Show your teen.  Don't shrug and say "Kids will be kids" or "I trust my kid."  When my mother would express concern for me when I was a teen driver, I would tell her I was a good driver.  (I also did not ever drink in high school.)  She would look at me and say, "It's not your driving I'm worried about - it's the other guy's." This video uses that concern to very good effect.

From the district webpage (with links to all the info/surveys): Results of recent state and federal surveys of health- and risk-related behavior among Seattle Public Schools middle and high school students provide a snapshot of everything from drug use and sexual behavior to how often they eat fruit and vegetables and watch television. The state-funded Healthy Youth Survey is taken every two years by students in grades 6, 8, 10, and 12 and focuses on attitudes and health risk behaviors. Topics include gangs, physical activity, suicide, sexual activity, bullying and drug, alcohol, and tobacco use. The federal CDC-funded Youth Risk Behavior Survey , also conducted every two years, surveys students in grades 9-12 , with a focus on health risk behaviors that result in unintentional injuries and violence; tobacco use; alcohol and other drug use; sexual behaviors that contribute to HIV infection; other sexually transmitted diseases; unhealthy dietary behaviors; and physical inactivity. ...

From Prevention WINS: Teens, Marijuana & Alcohol: Setting the Framework for Healthy Communication Featuring Dr. Kevin Haggerty , University of Washington Social Development Research Group ·          Tuesday, January 15, 7PM @ Nathan Hale High School, hosted by Raiders Against Destructive Decisions ·          Thursday, January 17, 7PM @ Roosevelt High School, hosted by the Roosevelt High School PTSA For more information contact: Annemarie Michaels at anplumpe@seattleschools.org  or Inga Manskopf at inga.manskopf@seattlechildrens.org. 

On the pot watch: - here's what Superintendent Randy Dorn had to say about the legalization of pot and public schools: The passage of I-502 changes nothing in public schools in Washington state. Certain drugs, including marijuana, continue to be illegal on school property and to anyone younger than 21 years old.  To receive federal funds, districts must abide by the   Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act   and must have a Drug and Tobacco-Free Workplace and a similar student policy in place. Each district’s policy has a number of common requirements about marijuana and other drugs, such as not allowing any student to:  Be under the influence  Possess Distribute Manufacture Any student caught will be disciplined according to local district policy and local law enforcement as required. Fines can also be doubled if the arrest occurs within 1,000 feet of a school facility.  I-502 changes state law but has no effect on federal law....

( Update : you'll note, if you take the survey, that it asks a lot of questions about these issues as it pertains to the NE. But Inga said they would be happy to hear from all parents. If you don't feel you can answer those questions, skip them. I think they would like to hear from parents about what you do/don't do in terms of talking to your children about alcohol and drugs.) From our friends at Prevention Works in Seattle, a survey on youth substance abuse. Prevention Works in Seattle , a coalition to prevent youth substance abuse in northeast Seattle, is interested in your views about issues of youth alcohol and marijuana use in our community. Your opinion is important to us. It will help us plan effective substance abuse prevention programs in our community. We would appreciate if you could complete this 10-15 minute survey . We know that individuals might have different opinions about the issues in this survey, so we would like each adult in your household to comp...

The Seattle Channel will be airing a show about marijuana policy on Friday, February 12 at 7:00 p.m. Two members of the panel are Chemical Dependency Professionals, Kelly Kerby and Gary Hothi, who will be talking about how decriminalizing/legalizing marijuana would affect young people and youth substance abuse prevention efforts. Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes and a representative from the ACLU will be talking about the merits of decriminalizing/legalizing marijuana. Seattle Channel is channel 21 on Comcast and Millennium but the program can also be seen at: http://www.seattlechannel.org/cityinsideout"

So we find out that Michael Phelps does it. Heck, Rick Steves, the travel guru, does it as well. Statistics show just under a third of high school teens try/use pot in a year (about 18% in a month). Alcohol use is much higher at about 66% in the last year and 44% in the last month. When the Michael Phelps story came out, I wasn't particularly shocked in that he's very young and has been in a largely sheltered life of being an athlete. (Not that athletes aren't around drugs but if you are that high a caliber of athlete, you won't have time or desire to do drugs.) But just like our ol' pal Alex Rodriguez who recently admitted to taking some kind of performance-enhancing drug (but he says he just doesn't know what it was or what it did), it's hard to believe that Michael Phelps (when he was training) would put something in his body that might affect his abilities as an athlete. (C'mon A-Rod, someone gives you something to ingest and you have no ide...