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Show Park City organizes to fight drug abuse problem in schools Middle school principal Brian Schiller is concerned about abuse problem. Superintendant Tony Mitchell Mit-chell sees signs of regular drug use among students. by JIMSMEDLEY Record staff writer For the past few years, drugs and alcohol have not been major issues at Park City schools, as they had been in times past. But it appears the pendulum is again swinging back. , Alcohol and drug use is on the rise, not only at the Park City High School, but also at Treasure Mountain Moun-tain Middle School. And some people are concerned. A coalition of city officials, educators, parents and police have decided to act on what they perceive . as a growing problem with youth, alcohol and drugs. The concern has grown so great that a community -wide meeting has been called for Feb. 13. The site has not yet been confirmed, as it is hoped the place chosen will be big enough to handle an expected large response. Police chief Frank Bell, Park City School District Superintendent Tony Mitchell, city manager Arlene Lo-ble, Lo-ble, councilman Tom Shellenberger and parent Teri Gomes met before the holiday season and exchanged observations on how drug use among youth was increasing. "We were finding indications that a large number of our younger students were experimenting with alcohol and in some cases it was being be-ing done quite regularly," Mitchell said. Middle school principal Brian Schiller said some problems have started cropping up with his students. "When you go from none to some drug abuse, it s a problem and in my eyes it's a big problem," Schiller said. "It would be foolish for me to say that there hasn't been a substance abuse problem during the 1 1 rugs were being used by high school students, but they were not being used in school or on campus during school hours. Student council members also said they would volunteer to help in a peer counseling program if such an organization was created. "I don't think that there is any high school in the United States that w ill ever be totally clean in this day and age," Dozier said. "We felt lonesome here for many years .because we felt we were the only ones fighting it. For a while, the attitude at-titude was that the drug problem w as a failure of the schools. "Now there's a very neat attitude 'liat is beginning to build. It's being - recognized that it's also a problem for parents, the community at large, the police and social agencies of the community," he added. "If we are going to do anything at ill. there's going to have to be a partnership. I feel good about the fact that the community, city leaders and parents are getting involved. in-volved. "This greatly enhances our liances ol dealing with the problem and in the long term it increases our chances for positive results." Dozier said the hiring of Nancy Pollard as an intervention specialist has helped the school in dealing with . irug problems. Until her arrival, the .school maintained an adversarial role with drug-using students. But he said Pollard's detachment from his oi l ice has helped her establish a dialogue with students. Mitchell said the Feb 13 program would probably consist of a presentation presen-tation and then participants would break off into smaller groups. He said the interest in drug abuse should not be allowed to fizzle. "It hould be a'i ongoing attempt to mimmalizetheuscof drugs." school day also. "We're concerned, very concerned." concern-ed." he added. It was not a problem that could be swept under the carpet. It would not go away if ignored. Something had to be done. Mitchell said he met with principals, prin-cipals, counselors and a Prevention Center representative to discuss some of the observations the citizens group had reached. But they weren't the only ones talking about it. Other groups independently in-dependently were noting with concern con-cern the parties and the pressures facing young people. At the Jan. 14 board of education meeting, the Treasure Mountain Middle School and Park City High School community council representatives represen-tatives reported that youth and their use of drugs have dominated the past monthly meetings. And a coalition of local churches is torming to create youth groups in an attempt to provide alternatives to the drug and alcohol party circuit ( see related story, this page ) . The combination of drugs and teenagers is nothing new. But now, , ihose talking about drug abuse are linking it with a different group, a younger group students at the middle mid-dle school. "When we walked in here nine years ago, it was a zoo. You could go "Utside anl find a half-dozen stoned kids walking around," said high school principal Jack Dozier. "It took us two full years to even begin to get a handle on the problem. At that time, we perceived the biggest problem to br with the juniors and seniors. "Now it is the freshmen and sophomores who seem to be abusing substances more." One teacher at the middle school reports that drug ind alcohol users no longer are the outcasts, but involve the more popular, accepted students. The high school student council . also addressed the issue, and in a statement members said they felt |
