all this week we've been focusing on
issues facing our kids as they head back
to school and today we're talking about
drugs at school and how we can prevent
our kids from going down the wrong path
yeah experts say going back to school is
a particularly vulnerable time for kids
to experiment with drugs with a new
environment new friends and new
challenges here's Patrick McKee with
more he never called him before but by
the first day of tenth grade Kent Rivard
found out his son was already addicted
showed up school impaired he was
obviously using drugs pretty regularly
and we just didn't didn't key into all
the science early on prevention
specialist Xavier Barron says one of the
early signs parents can watch for is
lying why would they lie about that or
they said they were gonna be here and
but instead they're there or they said
they did this and you know things that
are kind of funny that aren't adding up
right those are indicators of something
that maybe it's not supposed to be
happening as happening I students start
new school years new friend groups now
can be a dangerous time for some kids to
be isolated which is the number one risk
factor according to Barron that leads
kids to drug he encourages parents to be
active in kids school lives and open
about communication to help prevent drug
use programs now with like muffins with
mom and doughnuts with that and you know
communicating with their teachers and
really keeping a pulse on you know
getting collateral information not just
from your child but also from the
administrators and the students there
but he says adolescents should never get
a pass even the first time you find them
using drugs or alcohol an intervention
is necessary
looking back Rivard says the one thing
he wished he knew at the beginning of
his journey all the resources available
to help his son was a scared parent your
your you know you're just like they're
drowning you don't know what to do where
to turn after many times in and out of
sobriety he said his son is in college
but still works on his recovery everyday
and we want to talk about the resources
available in our area and about science
to look out for in your child when it
comes to substance abuse nancy hands the
executive director of the prevention
council of Roanoke County
is back with us with more thank you so
much for joining us and this is a
problem that you're seeing not only in
the schools but in the community as well
so let's first start off with what
you're seeing in the schools and in the
community so use of drugs does not this
is a community problem kids are there
together they may talk about it but when
it's happening
we need everyone in the community and
especially parents to pay attention to
this because this starts at home and it
starts with the parenting piece okay so
the parents what's happening they're
just not around well I think that it
depends on what age but I always talk
about parents we have two jobs when we
have children and that is to love and
protect your children and protecting
them is setting boundaries so we now
have to navigate technology and that's
underground so the communication you
don't always hear it and then when you
move from elementary to middle and
middle to high school those are new
friends so those are new parents that
you need to get to know so they're
there's a lot about finding out who
they're with and just paying attention
and if things start to look funny if
grades start to drop if there are
friends that you've never known then
those are all sort of red flags for
parents to start to pay attention okay
so let's not talk about like how early
are we seeing this I mean I've got
elementary school kids so I'm I'm
guessing I'm I've got some time but when
are we seeing this so we know that use
is all the way down to sixth and seventh
grade and that may be because they can
get into it the medicine cabinet and
there could be a pill we know that
sometimes it's where is the alcohol
right next to the milk so it's about
thinking about and part of adolescents
is experimentation but the part that we
really need to know is parents you are
their protector and when you are
constantly talking and having these
conversations as they grow up they're
continuing to listen to you and let them
know here are the boundaries this is why
yeah because they probably have access
to a lot of the times
and now you we mentioned to me the other
day that you're now seeing some of the
students who were addicted to drugs come
back into the schools to talk to kids
right so we are very very fortunate that
when someone walks down the road of
becoming having the disease of addiction
and it is a disease a substance abuse
disorder then we have young people that
have gone down that road have actually
some of them their lives have been saved
and then they go into treatment so
treatment works recovery should be
celebrated and we have young people that
graduated from our schools here in the
valley that now want to give back and
tell their stories and help prevent that
from ever happening to another that's
wonderful yeah that you have that and
there's a lot of resources we had
mentioned some resources for the
community
there's the bradley free clinic where
they have the hope initiative correct
yes and then the next one we have an
urgent love initiative which is urgent
love org and then of course if you want
more information on the prevention
council you can go to Rona prevention
dot org