Pubdate: Wed, 25 May 2011
Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)
Copyright: 2011 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/letters.html
Website: http://www.montrealgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274
Page: A6
Author: Brenda Branswell

TWO CENTENNIAL ACADEMY STUDENTS DISCIPLINED FOR DRUG USE

Two students at Centennial Academy are facing disciplinary action for 
taking drugs in scary incidents that saw one of them rushed to hospital.

A Grade 11 student became "violently ill" last week after smoking an 
illegal drug, head of school Angela Burgos wrote in a letter to parents.

The next day a Grade 9 student became "extremely sick" after buying 
and "choosing to eat a brownie containing a narcotic," the letter 
said. The teen was rushed to hospital.

Both students are fine, Burgos told The Gazette on Tuesday. The 
incidents didn't occur on the private school's property in Notre Dame 
de Grace, she said.

Exposure to drug use is pervasive and not limited to public schools, 
private ones, rich people or poor ones, said Barbara Victor, clinical 
director at Agence Ometz, a nonprofit social services agency whose 
work includes drug prevention in many Montreal schools.

"The more important things that we need to know about exposure to 
drug use is that the kids are getting younger and younger and we need 
to get to them before their exposure," Victor said.

The national Youth Smoking Survey in 2008-09 found 27 per cent of 
high school students in Quebec had used cannabis in the past 12 
months and 54 per cent had consumed alcohol. Agence Ometz is now 
doing drug education in Grade 6 classes at the English Montreal 
School Board. Its Kids Can! drug awareness program was launched in 
six EMSB elementary schools this year and will expand to 30 more 
schools in the next two years. Concordia University is a partner in 
the program.

The agency generally does drug education in high school, starting in 
Grade 8 and usually in Grade 9.

"By that time, the kids are too old," Victor said. "We know that kids 
are starting to experiment with drug use, cigarette smoking, 
sexuality - certainly by Grade 6 - and we need to talk to them about 
these risks. We've been doing drug education for a very long time and 
very few elementary schools, if any, have ever really endorsed our 
starting in Grade 6. So this, to me, is very exciting."

The six-hour program in every Grade 6 class at the EMSB is funded by 
Health Canada. It's not just an education program, but a 
skillbuilding one, Victor said. "We want to talk about how do you 
make a decision, how do you deal with peer pressure?"

They are concentrating on two drugs: marijuana and the street use of 
Ritalin because "kids have a lot of access to Ritalin, 
unfortunately," Victor said.

Centennial's policy for drug-related incidents involves a suspension 
and students must go into a rehabilitation outpatient program to be 
readmitted to school or face expulsion, Burgos said.

"That's the best practices now. You need to be seen to be helping 
kids and helping them is getting them into a rehabilitation program. 
That's the protocol."
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart