Experts Help Students See How Perceptions of Drug Use May be Inaccurate

What did your kids learn in school today? With help from the and the , several hundred students from across all grades at learned Friday that their perceptions of drug and alcohol use among peers may not match reality.

Presentations from Community Coalition Executive Director Donna Schaerer, youth director Lisa Kaplan and school liaison officer Chuck Mendham over three classroom hours used anonymous surveys and computer media presentations to ask how often students felt their peers at WBHS were using alcohol, marijuana, and prescription drugs. Then students were asked, again anonymously, how often they themselves used these substances illegally.

It was the first in what Schaerer hopes to be a successful partnership between the Community Coalition, Police Department, and high school. She added that upon realizing that there was nothing of the sort available to students beyond ninth grade, she was happy to accept an invitation to present.

"They get a little bit of drug and alcohol information in ninth grade health (class) and there is nothing else available after that. We do a great job of teaching prevention in elementary school in West Bloomfield ... but there’s very little going on after that," Schaerer said.

Schaerer added that the Community Coalition will return in the second semester with a deeper range of guest speakers.