According to the recent studies at The National Center on Addiction and Substance abuse at Columbia University, 80 percent of high school students have used drugs, sold them, and/or been in possession of them while being on a school campus.
“Addiction is when something takes place in someone’s life that is missing. Almost as if there is a hole that they are trying to replace with something else,” said Lynn Miller, principal of OHS.
Although most teens do not feel that you can easily become addicted to drugs, its rather common.
“Drugs are definitely here at O’Connor. When we approach a student being high, we run several tests to see if the student is under the influence. It’s an assessment. Our goal on campus is safety for everyone, including: the student under the influence, their peers and whoever else may be involved, as well as the rest of the people on campus,” said OHS nurse, Debbie Rodrigues.
Saroj Jagernauth, counselor, said she strongly encourages students with any sort of problem, especially something that is drug related because of how severe it may be, to come in and get help. Whether the student has met their counselor or not, she feels as if the student should reach out. Their counselor’s goal is safety for the student and will guide them appropriately.
“When we become aware we contact the parents and give them resources and suggest support groups so the student can seek to empower themselves to make the right decisions,” said Jagernauth. “Our purpose is to help the student and lead them back on the right track.”
OHS offers several different resources for any student no matter what the situation may be to get help. Peers, group leaders, teachers, administration, the nurse, counselors, school resource officers, psychologists, the principal and volunteers are all available for students to reach out to.
“If the student doesn’t get help their problem with the drug(s) is just going to get worse and continue to grow,” Rodrigues said. “It is very important to get help before the problem becomes an addiction and if they are already addicted, they need help before it consumes them completely.”
Miller said drugs have never been and never will be tolerated on campus. OHS is a drug free zone.
“Hurt people tend to hurt other people,” Miller said. “When someone is negative they tend to drag everyone else around them down. It’s not fair but today we are living in a society in which people only care about themselves. People just need to be there for one another and stay classy about things.”
Jeff Baumgartner, a health teacher at OHS, said, “the purpose of teaching my students about drugs is to give them the latest information about choices they are going to make and how much it can affect them.”
Baumgartner feels as if there is a percent of kids that it helps, but he feels limited. He only has about half of a semester to spend on the drug unit, where he teaches and informs his students with how horrible drugs are.
“I think teaching them about it does impact them, but then again some kid isn’t going to make a poor choice because I said for him not too,” explained Baumgartner.
Jagernauth said, “Our mission and goal is to empower our students to achieve and be their personal best, to lead when they can. We all care. Any staff member would be willing to help out in any sort of way, specifically us counselors.”
No matter what the problem is, people are there for the students. They want them to be safe and know they are all individually cared about and wanted on the campus.
“We are all one big family that is there for one another here at O’Connor. Nobody will be left behind,” Rodrigues said.