Pubdate: Sat, 03 Mar 2007 Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) Copyright: 2007 The Vancouver Sun Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477 Author: Glenn Bohn, Vancouver Sun Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) SCHOOLS TRY ALTERNATIVE TO SUSPENSIONS Those Caught With Drugs Or Alcohol Go Through Three Days Of Self-Assessment High school principals on the North Shore can require marijuana-smoking students to attend a three-day substance abuse course instead of barring them from classes and sending them home for a few days. The three-year-old program is called CATS, or Constructive Alternatives to Teen Suspension. Ken Neale, coordinator of North Vancouver school district's safe and caring schools program, says it's an educational alternative to temporary suspensions when a student is caught red-handed using or possessing illegal drugs or alcohol. Neale said many kids don't learn anything, and some just continue using drugs or alcohol at unsupervised homes when they are required to stay away from school. CATS supervisor Terry Bulych said students used to treat a suspension as a holiday. "Kids were sleeping in or playing video games," Bulych said during an interview Wednesday. "They're really weren't stung by consequences." The CATS program, which is supported by the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, Capilano Community Services Society and West Coast Alternatives Society, is run out of an office near Lions Gate Hospital. Some weekdays, there are no suspensions and the program doesn't operate. Other weekdays, counsellors will have three to five students. They come from high schools in North and West Vancouver. "We spend a lot of time doing self-assessment exercises where kids are really looking carefully at their relationship with drugs and how that's currently impacting their lives," Bulych said. During the 2005-2006 school year, 164 students in Grades 8 to 12 went through the CATS program. Second-time offenders are not permitted back into the group program but can get one-on-one counselling. Parents are offered an information package and informed about agencies that can help. Bulych concedes there's no hard evidence yet the CATS program is working, but she believes it is reducing substance abuse. "We're certainly not seeing a high level of recidivism, which is good," Bulych said. "Getting busted at school and having a high-profile consequence like coming to a drug program can be a pretty shocking experience. For many kids, that alone is sufficient to curb their behaviour." One of the advocates of the North Vancouver model is Art Steinmann, manager of a new drug education program in the Vancouver public school system. Steinmann said the three-day course is a "more progressive, less punitive" alternative to suspensions. The broadest measure of marijuana use in the B.C. school system in recent years appears to be a 2003 survey of more than 30,000 B.C. students in Grades 7 to 12. The McCreary Centre Society reported that marijuana use among all age groups had gone down slightly since its 1998 survey: 37 per cent reported using marijuana at least once, compared with 40 per cent in the previous survey. Steinmann said a larger percentage of Grade 10 to 12 students likely use marijuana. "If anything, it's continuing to slightly increase," he said. "In our view, it's time to really ramp up our approach to this and see if we can't do things a little more effectively." - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman