As educators, counselors, health professionals and community allies, we are searching for more effective, humane and compassionate strategies for dealing with the use and abuse of alcohol and other drugs among teenagers. Many of us are frustrated with scare tactics that foster cynicism. We have seen too many of our students cast out of the school community under zero-tolerance policies that ignore the welfare of young people in need of help. We know that drug education that lacks credibility and is backed by punitive measures often fosters resentment and oppositional behavior. Our students want drug education that is credible and encourages critical questioning. Open dialogue in our classrooms presents an opportunity to identify and assist student who are struggling with substance abuse. Through restorative practices, which create structured opportunities for students to make amends, we can ensure that students who break rules do take responsibility but still remain part of the school community.
Join us at the Safety First Project in advocating for a new model for honest, reality-based drug education with interactive learning, compassionate assistance and restorative practices in lieu of exclusionary punishment. Please also take the time to critically examine a policy the federal government is promoting on a wide-scale basis: random student drug testing. Educators throughout the country are organizing to oppose this invasive technique that can erode relationships of trust between students and adults at school and unintentionally direct students to more dangerous behaviors.  “As an educator, I continue to have faith in the power of honest education and compassionate assistance. Students want and respond to open dialogue, integration of personal experience and respect from their teachers.” -- Rodney Skager, Professor Emeritus in the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies and author of Beyond Zero Tolerance: A Reality-Based Approach to Drug Education & Student Assistance | |
|
