Burnet school district program aims to help drug-addicted youth

CONNIE SWINNEY • PICAYUNE STAFF

BURNET — A drug-abuse prevention program at Burnet Consolidated Independent School District takes aim at addiction by reaching out to parents and students with forums, counseling services at schools and a heightened awareness campaign.

The Join the Journey campaign marked its second school year Nov. 5 with a community forum called the Truth About Drugs, which offered the latest information on the dangers communities face and the potential solutions to combat the problem.

“If 20 percent of the population gets on board with an idea or a trend or something they believe is going to impact their youth and work towards that goal, we know that change will happen,” said panelist Keith Reed, TeenSafe program coordinator with Baylor Scott & White Healthcare-Waco. “We know that when community, parents, businesses and school districts get together, they can positively impact children’s lives and reduce alcohol use.”

Along with panelists, the forum also included presentations and a question-and-answer session for about 50 community members in the Burnet High School auditorium. At the same time in another part of the campus, officials and counselors met with 95 students to conduct separate, age-appropriate sessions for elementary, middle and high school youth.

In the session for parents, panelists discussed prominent concerns for youngsters including alcohol and marijuana use, prescription drug abuse and experimentation with synthetic drugs.

They learned about drug culture and terms and methods and procedures used by young people to conceal their drug use.

Terms included “dabbing,” which refers to a method of ingesting a concentrated form of THC, the hallucinogenic ingredient in marijuana.

Other concealment methods involved clothing, so-called “vaping” devices, candy products infused with illicit drugs and deceptively packaged synthetic drugs sold at stores and marketed as spices or incense.

Drug Enforcement Administration Investigator Mark Schilli, a presenter and panelist, said his agency has experienced an explosion of prescription drug abuse.

He added that “gateway drugs” continue to feed into a cycle of abuse that has ensnared young people.

“We show the kids smoking is bad. We show the kids alcohol is bad. We show the young adults that marijuana is bad. Some of these kids smoke pot because their parents are smoking pot,” Schilli said. “When we arrest people, and the studies show, there are so many adults that still smoke marijuana every night when they come home from work.”

He advised community members to become involved.

“So if you have family members who are still doing this,” he said. “Tell them to grow up because it’s affecting their children’s lives.”

The Join the Journey program has targeted three drugs this school year — marijuana, methamphetamine and LSD — for heightened awareness and prevention resources.

This school year, a 17-year-old Burnet High School student, who police reported may have been high on LSD, became a victim of a homicide by an adult who was also allegedly high on the drug.

Police Chief Paul Nelson, who was on the panel, reached out to the community to inform law enforcement about suspected issues with young people and drugs.

“That’s not my goal to handcuff a kid because he had drugs or sold drugs to somebody. What I hate is when I have to let a parent know that their child had drugs, their child overdosed on drugs or they had a car accident,” Nelson said. “Just because you call me and say, ‘I think this is going on,’ Our goal is not to pick them up and take them to jail, it’s to get them help.”

Officials with Join the Journey have hosted a drug awareness and wellness fair with business, the healthcare industry and law enforcement and launched a website for parents and students about resources, drug facts, consequences, services and stories associated with drug use.

Among the programs the school district will offer include:

• Drug counseling options conducted by Bluebonnet Trails Community Services linked to positive drug tests for students at BCISD; students who are randomly drug tested are those who have vehicle parking passes on campus and those who are involved in extracurricular activities in middle school and high school.
• An anonymous tip line to identify and intervene in a drug crisis and possible criminal behavior; the hot line, known as Talk About It, is (866) 926-2666; a log-in for communications online can be found at www.btxjourney.net.

connie@thepicayune.com