Excelsior students promote drug awareness
With today’s teens facing dangers in the streets, sexual abuse in many homes, and the widespread availability of drugs and firearms, it may seem like all Belizean youth lead troubled lives. But whenever News 5 is invited to cover events sponsored by our high schools, we realize that there are plenty of good kids out there, and plenty of adults who want to help them stay out of harm’s way.
Jacqueline Vernon, Peer Counsellor, Excelsior High School
“They still use it to hang with their friends to fit in the crowd.”
Jacqueline Woods
It is estimated that a small number of students at Excelsior High School might still be experimenting with drugs.
Gayle Thompson, Principal, Excelsior High School
“I would say about, of our population about of our population between five and ten percent.”
Saidie Augustine, Peer Counsellor, Excelsior High School
“Well most students are not educated about drugs, so they don’t know much about it. Learning from the streets isn’t much of a positive thing for them, so like here in school we know what drugs can do to us and how it can affect our lives.”
Drugs not only affect the lives of some of these students, but young men and women from other secondary and primary schools have also tried illegal substances. It’s a situation the National Drug Abuse Control Council has been monitoring through studies it conducts at various learning institutions.
Eldred Neal, District Coordinator, NDACC
“Of our primary and secondary schools, I’ll sat at least twenty to maybe twenty-five percent of our primary and secondary-schoolers are experimenting or have already developed some sort of habitual use of drugs.”
However, one preventative measure has yielded some success since the campaign started four years ago. Each year, the students of Excelsior High School and St. John Vianney Primary School hold a parade to raise awareness.
Gayle Thompson
“The students are getting the message. We cannot say that it has totally eliminated the use of drugs among our students, but we believe that continuous creation of the awareness is helping them to make choices and wise decisions when it comes to dealing with drugs.”
NDACC works closely with the teachers and students to plan the week of activities.
Eldred Neal
“Throughout the week, we will be involving ourselves directly with students doing group counselling, group work. We will do personal sessions with students who would have identified themselves throughout the day, throughout the week. We’ll do some staff work with the staff by midweek, do some team building with them. Due to the fact that we are the leading agency, we lend ourselves directly to this sort of work because drugs is our interest and it lends directly to where we work in terms of prevention education.”
Neal says the more people become aware of how dangerous it is for them to use illicit drugs, the more they will be willing to say no when it is offered to them. Reporting for News 5, Jacqueline Woods.
Excelsior High School’s drug awareness parade was held under the theme: Get the Facts–Live Wise.
