Substance abuse is topic at Monday’s meeting

SOUTH JETTY Port Aransas High School Principal Travis Longanecker is inviting the community to a meeting to talk about new developments in the high school’s drug and alcohol abuse prevention, policies and programs.

The meeting will be at 5 p.m. on Monday, June 8, at the PAHS cafetorium.

Among topics to be discussed will be new online programs the school district has acquired to help students and parents on the subject of substance abuse.

Called “Alcohol-Wise” and “Drug- Wise,” the programs were purchased through a $4,475 grant awarded this year by the Port Aransas Education Foundation. Longanecker and Melissa Ramsden, the school district’s nurse, put together the application for the grant.

Among those speaking at the meeting will be Ryan Teague, an official from the company that created the program’s software. He is director of operations for Third Millennium Classrooms, a firm that has offices in San Antonio, Austin and other cities around the country.

Teague and Longanecker will take questions about the program.

Development of Alcohol-Wise and Drug-Wise was based on substanceabuse research at San Diego State University, Longanecker said.

Students and parents alike will be able to use the computer programs.

Parents can use the programs to learn more about how to handle the subject of alcohol and drugs with regard to their teen-age children. Using the programs, parents can log in from home and learn about what kinds of drugs that might be threats, what they look like and their effects.

Longanecker said the programs are free to students and parents, are userfriendly and includes video segments. PAHS will begin using the programs when school starts this fall, he said.

All PAHS freshmen will be required to study alcohol and drug issues by using the programs during health or social studies classes, Longanecker said. All students involved in extra-curricular activities will be required to study the programs too, he said.

“What I love about this is, it gives us a packaged program to offer students and parents, a place specifically to go for resources for help with teen-age alcohol and drug use,” Longanecker said. “It’s a very specific and user-friendly resource.”

Ramsden said she likes the programs partly because they allow so much flexibility to busy students.

“Students can use this anywhere,” she said. “They can log in from school or home or a public library.”

A big plus is, parents can use the programs confidentially, Longanecker said. A parent be reluctant to call a school, to ask for help with a child who might be involved in substance abuse, because the parent might worry that the child will get in trouble as a result. But getting guidance with the programs is confidential, Longanecker said.

The programs are an addition to already existing PAHS efforts against drug and alcohol use, including counseling and instruction in health classes.

Seventh and eighth-grade students at Brundrett Middle School also will use the computer programs for study as a preventative measure, according to Bob Byrd, principal at BMS. School officials will be talking about how much to make the programs available to sixth graders, he said.

The programs will be accessible to parents of BMS students, Byrd said.

Longanecker said he will speak during the meeting Monday, not only about the new computer programs, but also about all aspects of the school’s drug and alcohol policies and practices. Topics will include how the school handles things when students are suspected of taking drugs or drinking off campus, he said.