Pubdate: Fri, 02 Sep 2005
Source: Kamloops This Week (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 Kamloops This Week
Contact:  http://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1271
Author: Dale Bass
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?135 (Drug Education)

TEACH OUR CHILDREN WELL

I know it's not easy finding federal funding these days. Everyone's
looking for that cash cow, the one that keeps giving and giving with
no sign of abatement - but it's not there.

However, if there was ever a program screaming out for funding, it's
school district 73's work on reducing the number of drug- and
alcohol-related suspensions it is forced to impose on our students.

All they asked for was $550,000 which sounds like a lot, but to the
guys in Ottawa, it's nothing. The district has already put $1 million
into the program during the past three years. Now, says district
student support services director Karl deBruijn, money will have to
come from classroom funding.

Does this make any sense? Here's a program that has a proven track
record of helping to move our children away from drug and alcohol
abuse, something we all - including our federal government - aspire to
achieve. It's not a luxury, a line item we can cut during the next
budget session.

Apparently it's an item Health Canada can blow off with a letter
declining the application due to "high demand and limited resources."
This comes, as trustee Dick Dickens noted, at a time when the feds are
sitting on a multi-billion dollar surplus.

But of course, there's an election coming, so there will be the
requisite pre-election goodies to pay for.

The fund the school district chose for its application, the Drug
Strategy Community Initiatives Fund, has $29 million allocated to it
for a three-year period to address, according to its website, "the
rising level of problematic substance use in Canada." It's part of
$245 million the feds allocated to a national drug strategy. Of that
$29 million, $10 million will go toward national programs, leaving the
remainder to be divvied up among the provinces and
territories.

Chris Williams, media relations officer with Health Canada in Ottawa,
said approved projects will be announced in coming weeks, but those
which were not approved have been advised already.

Some have been announced, largely for public-relations purposes as the
government promotes its concern about the drug problem. A large whack
of it - $243,510 - is going to the British Columbia Centre for Disease
Control to make a 30-minute video documenting the challenges of
outreach-based nursing and provide strategies and tools. It's a
laudable project.

However, here we have a captive audience of young, impressionable
minds. We have a school district committed to fighting the influx of
drugs into our children's lives. We have parents who want to see the
battle won. We have an RCMP liaison officer working in the schools.
Next month, the district will add two full-time teachers to work on
programs to help children who have been suspended for drug or alcohol
abuse reasons.

They've shown us they care, right down from school superintendent
Terry Sullivan to the front-line workers.

It's time for parents to get involved. In every school is a remarkable
group of parents - likely a small group of committed moms and dads,
burning out from doing all the work involved in keeping parent and
school advisory councils running.

Move up a level and there's the district parent advisory council
(DPAC), an organization I know from my experience stays afloat because
of the dogged persistence of a slightly larger group of people.

There's the school board itself, which meets regularly and has about a
dozen chairs sitting empty at many meetings, chairs that were set
aside for the public to attend.

We're all busy, but the education of our children has to find some
space in our monthly agenda.

My older children were mortified, when they started high school, to
discover I'd not only met the principal and teachers, but that we were
on a first-name basis. They shouldn't have been so surprised; my
husband and I were frequent visitors to their elementary school.

They figured once in high school, the parental intrusion into their
lives would diminish.

That's the time they need us the most, as they face the temptations
and challenges of teen years.

Our school district is committed to helping them through. We need to
support it.

So get involved. The next DPAC meeting is Sept. 20 at the Henry Grube
Education Centre. Check at your school for the next parent or school
advisory council meetings.

It's back-to-school time. Go back with your children.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin