West Seneca, N.Y. (WBEN) - Local school administrators with the Erie-Niagara School Superintendents Association (E-NSSA) were joined on Friday by locally elected leaders, law enforcement, and others from local treatment organizations to discuss concerns with teenagers having increased access to cannabis and other drugs.
E-NSSA members say students at greater risk for substance abuse and addiction is increasing exponentially. The biggest problem E-NSSA members are seeing is vaping and cannabis products being laced with THC, amphetamines, bath salts, and opioids.
A recent experience a few weeks back for Dr. Brian Graham, superintendent of the Grand Island Central School District, watching some of his staff members become suddenly ill because of drugs found in a student's book bag caused him to want to sound an alarm.
"Some of my staff was investigating a book bag that had drug paraphernalia inside of it. The paraphernalia had residue and particulates that caused my staff to become suddenly ill. Some of the items in the bag was a marijuana grinding device, two glass marijuana pipes, a container labeled 'diamond infused keef joint gas face, an empty cannabis edible package called 'Crooked Kitchen', and a glass plate labeled 'Green Crack'. These items had residues and particulates, and when analyzed were determined to be laced with amphetamines," said Dr. Graham on Friday. "I've been in education for 37 years, 21 of those years as an administrator, I have never had to send people to the emergency room as a result of an investigation of a book bag."
Much like Dr. Graham, Niagara Falls City Schools Superintendent Mark Laurrie also had a recent encounter with a student who had a bad reaction to drugs on school grounds.
"Students sitting in the lunchroom, passing cookies around, it seems like an innocuous, normal day. 20 seconds later, a student falls to the floor. The cookies are laced with something," said Laurrie during Friday's press conference. "It's to hard to believe I'm telling you that in every one of our schools we have Narcan. From elementary to middle school to high school... we have Narcan in our cafeteria. Something is not right when we're passing cookies and sharing cookies that put people on the floor, that put kids at risk. It was a scary scene."
Laurrie says thanks to some quick actions and smart thinking from nurses and staff, the student was revived and transported to a nearby hospital, where he's doing very well. Laurrie honestly believes the student didn't even know what he was eating at the time of the incident.
"It's a sad, but true fact of what we're dealing with in schools," he said.
School leaders know the problem with drugs and kids at school, and even at home or in society, is becoming a serious problem, but one that extends much further than the results of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The drug epidemic pre-dates COVID. What's the effect of COVID? It made it a lot worse," said Michael Cornell, President of the E-NSSA and superintendent of the Hamburg Central School District. "I think it's important that we understand what got us here isn't going to get us where we need to go. We're not going to suspend our way out of these problems, we're not going to arrest our way out of these problems. What got us here isn't going to get us there, and I think that's a part of the message this morning. A coalition of committed partners; it's not a partisan issue, it's not just a family issue, it's not just a school issue, it's not just a drug issue, it's not just a mental health issue. It's just a real problem that we need to work together, link arms and try to solve it together."
As for leaders and others with local treatment centers like Kids Escaping Drigs and Horizon Health Services, they know tackling this epidemic requires more than just isolated efforts. It demands collaboration, synergy and a collective commitment from a number of different people to the well being of kids across Western New York.
"We, as a community and as a society, have to evolve. We cannot try to meld everyone and everything into one mold, or one model. We need to make every effort to meet the needs of as many people as we can in order to combat the current challenges that we're facing," said Shacarah Henry, Clinical Supervisor from Horizon Health Services. "In our community, we are seeing vaping, e-cigarettes, marijuana and a mixture of both, opiate use and prescription pill use on the rise, trending up, and seeing binge drinking trending down. We know youth are still drinking, often mixing alcohol and energy drinks without knowing the risks of mixing the two together. We also cannot just assume that youth are using alcohol and marijuana only. Many other drugs are rising again in popularity, including LSD, mushrooms and MDMA."
These organizations also correlate the relation to increased drug use to kids battling mental health issues and trying to cope with the problems they may face on a daily basis.
So what services are available for kids, as well as parents, who want to learn more about ways to keep themselves safe not just from drugs, but also improve their mental health? Jodie Altman, executive director for Kids Escaping Drugs explains the multitude of programs their treatment center has to offer.
"We provide early interventions to at-risk youth with a one-time session with a parent or guardian, and program specialist. We provide a variety of presentations you can utilize to inform and educate your staff, organization or school," said Altman. "These presentations include our 'Peer-to-Peer' program, which provides interactive peer panel presentations with young people in recovery who are willing to share their stories to prevent the real life consequences of substance misuse. Our 'Youth Vaping' is a group-style presentation for ages 10-to-18 on the dangers of teen vaping. Our 'Adult Vaping' educates parents on how to start a conversation with their teens about the dangers of vaping. Our 'Dark Side of Social Media' presentation is for adults only, that takes an in-depth look at the current popular social media trends, and how they can escalate the substance misuse. Our 'In the Workplace' is a stigma proof way to educate parents and concerned community members about the signs, symptoms and trends of adolescent substance use. In our 'Parent-to-Parent' presentations, our panelists and include a parent in recovery, who's willing to share their personal story with their peers to educate other parents on the dangers and consequences of adolescent substance use.
"Additionally, we offer a multi-week program called 'Back to Basics', which is our newest, designed to educate elementary-aged youth on how to develop resiliency skills and coping mechanisms to allow them to work through difficult situations in a healthy way."
Friday's group understands there's more than one way of tackling these problems and helping students in need, rather than punishing them or, in some cases, having them punished by law enforcement.
"We're looking to solve this problem through help and resources," Laurrie said. "When we did determine where those cookies came from, it was in a counseling, therapeutic, helping manner to find out where this originated. That's typical of the way you're going to see this going with broken silos."
"We're not going to arrest our way out of this problem. It's not only a drug epidemic, it's also a mental health epidemic," added D.J. Granville, Chief of the Erie County Sheriff's Office Narcotics Unit. "We see it in our jails, we see it in our schools. There should be no walls. Collaboratively, I think we can work together and solve this problem, and it's in all walks of life. The job has changed over the years. We're here to help, not just to show up at your door and to lock you up. We're working with our service providers, and it's something we do on a daily basis."
More from Friday's press conference is available in the player below: