Pubdate: Mon, 12 Sep 2005
Source: Clearwater Times (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 Clearwater Times
Contact:  http://www.clearwatertimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1448
Author: Danna Johnson
Note: Danna Johnson writes for Kamloops This Week

DRUG PROGRAM IS COSTLY

School District 73's drug and alcohol action plan is working, but it's 
costing plenty.

Curbing the number of drug- and alcohol-related suspensions in the district 
has cost about $1 million over three years, and the federal government has 
refused to ante up even a portion of that cost.

District administration was turned down for the $550,000 it had requested 
from Health Canada's Drug Strategy Community Initiatives Fund. That money, 
said student support services director Karl deBruijn, will now have to come 
from classroom funding.

"We've hired a drug and alcohol education coordinator, we've developed a 
comprehensive education program for parents, teaching staff and students," 
deBruijn said.

The district has hired an RCMP liaison for schools, and starting in 
September, two full-time teachers will work on directed suspension programs 
- - working with children who have been suspended due to run-ins with drugs 
and alcohol.

As a result of the initiatives, there has been a reduction in the number of 
drug- and alcohol-related suspensions, deBruijn said, but success doesn't 
come cheap.

"Over a three-year period, this has cost the board $1 million.

"We had applied to Health Canada for about $550,000," he said, but were 
unsuccessful.

In a short letter, Adrienne Taplin-White, program officer of the 
initiatives fund, cited "high demand and limited resources," as reasons for 
denying funding.

Trustee Dick Dickens scoffed at the reasoning, considering "... the federal 
government is currently sitting on a $9-billion surplus."

With no help from the feds, the district is forced to spend "resources we 
could be using in the classroom," deBruijn said.

Trustees voted to send a "strongly worded" letter back to both federal 
Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh an Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo MP Betty Hinton, 
asking them to reconsider.

"Our MP, who we met with in the spring, has not produced one penny of 
federal government funds toward any of the programs . . . that we requested 
her to work on," Dickens said of Hinton.

"She is either totally incapable of gaining any government resources for 
our school district, or has not worked hard enough on our behalf."

Trustee Kim Van Tine added: "I think it's time the MP for this area started 
fighting for people in the area rather than taking swipes at the current 
sitting government."

Drugs and alcohol, deBruijn said, aren't a school-based issue, but a 
community one, therefore it shouldn't be up to the district to fund these 
programs independently.

"Our plan has always been to get partners for funding. So far, the partners 
have not come forward."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman