Need for Awareness Spurs Drug Prevention Symposium

On Tuesday the Port Jefferson School District kicked off a drug abuse prevention program with at the for parents and students. The symposium featured speakers with professional narcotics expertise followed by a panel discussion consisting of a young people who have gone through rehab programs, their counselors and parents.

According to school officials, drug and alcohol abuse is an ever-present problem among young people in the community and the need for programs like this are dire.

“A couple of years ago we sent out a pride survey,” said Port Jefferson School Assistant Superintendent Maria Rianna by phone before the symposium. “We tried to get feedback from parents on issues in the community.”

What they found was that a number of students at a young age were experimenting with alcohol.

“We’ve had several tragedies in the community over the last ten years of former graduates and former students who died of drug and alcohol related deaths,” said Rianna. “As many communities have had.”

It’s not a problem that that everyone may be aware of just yet, but the school hopes to change that.

“Drug use by teens is more prevalent in our community than most people realize,” said Mark Doyle, vice-president of the Port Jefferson School Board, by email. “Many people are surprised to learn that there have been tragic, drug-related deaths of young people in Port Jefferson.”

He said the symposium and other programs are designed to raise awareness and encourage the whole community to work together to be proactive in avoiding future deaths.

Other organizations in the community have risen to the challenge dating back a generation.

Father Frank Pizzarelli who founded said during the panel session that when he arrived in Port Jefferson over 30 years ago, events opened his eyes to the great need for an organization like his.

“Probably some of the younger parents here don’t know how Hope House came to be,” he said. “When I first came here 32 years ago in the first eight months I buried nine teenagers from our community who died because of drugs, alcohol and suicide at a time when we never talked about those issues.”

While Father Frank continues to work with young people in the community, access to drugs seems to be easier than ever. A presentation by the two detectives who make up the Strategic Prevention Group confirms that fact.

In one slide labeled “Marijuana Use Among Young Adults” the percentage of kids in eighth, tenth and twelfth grades who reported using marijuana is on the rise. Among high school seniors questioned, 66 percent said that they had used alcohol and 33 percent said they had used marijuana in the last 12 months.

The availability of drugs is at a high level too. In a survey, 84 percent of high school seniors surveyed said that marijuana was fairly easy or very easy to obtain. Cocaine was reported to be easy to obtain by 42 percent of the senior and heroin by 25 percent.

“We would like to be a prevention community,” said Rianna. “Providing as much support and resources to our students so they are able to avoid certain involvements.”

The symposium is one in a series of initiatives to help the community address and pull the reigns in on the problem. This is only the first step in the journey.

Rianna said that the Strategic Prevention Group will bring their presentation to the classrooms of Port Jefferson High School soon.

“Our goal here is not only to bring awareness to the forefront,” she said. “It’s really aimed at students making good choices in what they do with their free time.”

Rianna said that Phoenix House–who also had a representative at the symposium–talked about coming into the community to look at what types of activities and choices the kids had available to them.

“Where are those good choices?” Rianna said. “What options are there for children?”

She hopes to have a full collaboration in the future between everyone who is concerned about this issue from the Mayor’s office on down to the individual parents.

“The PTA, PTSA, Phoenix House, administrators and staff are looking at designing opportunities perhaps with the cooperation with the village,” Rianna said. “Mayor Garant has been saying we will join forces. Hopefully we’ll have a full collaboration.”

The theme of character education is already a part of the school curriculum. This fall Port Jefferson School hosted a day of learning based on the ideas of the Shanti Fund, a charitable group dedicated to promoting Mahatma Gandhi's ideals and his philosophy of peace.

“Raising awareness is a first step,” said Doyle. “But success will require commitments on the parts of parents, kids, school staff, and community members to openly deal with this issue and work together on solutions.”