Drug Education Coming to Deerfield Schools

A Highland Park family is helping educate students in Lake County in the dangers of drug overdose. Their inspiration comes from their son, Jordan who died of an overdose in 2014.

The Chicago Tribune reports the efforts of Mark and Julie Filler in setting up two initiatives backed by the Jordan Michael Filler Foundation to create programs in some Highland Park and Deerfield schools.

A text-a-tip program will be introduced in school in Highland Park, Deerfield and Bannockburn in March which will provide young people an anonymous means to intervene in a friend’s drug problem. Texts will be made to a certain number if someone suspects a person of using drugs and a response will be made from a counselor affiliated with the Child, Adolescent and Family Recovery Center in Lake Bluff. The program, first launched by LEAD (Linking Efforts Against Drugs), has already been in practice in Lake Bluff and Lake Forest.

Selected schools in North Shore District 112 and Deerfield District 109 also will be initiating the Botvin LifeSkills program in fifth grade this spring, to help youngsters make sound decisions when drugs enter the picture.The Filler Foundation is paying about one half of the cost of both initiatives.

The LifeSkills curriculum helps kids set goals, reframe their self-image and develop anxiety-coping mechanisms. The program also teaches conflict resolution techniques and a repertoire of refusal responses.

Read more via the Chicago Tribune