Shawnee State and Portsmouth City Schools host forum on drugs and mental health
The Portsmouth Daily TimesApr 03, 2017
The panel was hosted in a town hall format and moderated by Dr.
SEO-TDC includes
Panel representatives included experts from education, mental health associates, community organizations, along with state and regional agencies and government.
Participants included, Representative
Comments used from the panel will be complied and analyzed alongside other SEO-TDC forums on the same subject. These documents will be used to dictate new curriculum and education standards for implementing drug prevention programs in schools.
Panel members provided insight into how addiction impacts the school system and the realities of the opiate and heroin epidemic in
Judge
Teacher
"About 20 percent of the student body is reported to us at registration by their parents, grandparents, or their guardians as having been born addicted. So if we're looking at a classroom of 20, that's at least four children, sometimes more, who went through that whole withdraw process. Some have gone to children's hospitals and needed months of therapy and assistance," said Mullins. "These children are coming to us with significant difficulties learning and paying attention, problems with logic and reasoning and I know that's difficult for any 5 or 6 year old, but we see it more pronounced in these children. It has certainly increased over the 22 years that I've taught. When I first started, we would see maybe one or two children in the whole grade-level that you would suspect, but now we're seeing four or five in each class."
The main concern raised by the panel was prevalent lack of funding and over-exhaustion of teachers in schools already. Implementing new curriculum without the necessary resources may not be effective.
"You've got to educate the educators and make sure that they have the proper resources because this is such an overwhelming thing. I know that counselors and teachers have different roles, but we share in our compassion for people," said SSU Counselor
"We're working on this as fast as we can," said
Representative
While new legislation and standards regarding drug-abuse and educational standards are still being explored, South Central ESC Assistant Superintendent
"We can't give up. These kids want our help and they need our help, we're the ones who can make a difference, it's hard, but don't give up," said Holstein.
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