“If you get hooked young, it’s really hard. We’ve arrested people [in Keene] who became heroin addicts at 13. [When you’re] a teen, you’re not fully capable of making rational decisions and [drug use] becomes your culture.”
— Testimony from a detective assigned to the NH Attorney General’s Drug Task force for the Western Region, which includes Cheshire County.
A 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBS) survey reported that substance abuse by Keene High School students exceeds the state average in many categories, including use of cocaine at least once in a student’s life, the taking of over-the-counter drugs to get high, taking a prescription drug illegally one or more times, using marijuana one more more times during the past 30 days, binge drinking, having at least one drink of alcohol on one or more of the past 30 days, and using chewing tobacco. The survey shows that heroin use among juniors and seniors at KHS is twice the state average.
To understand why substance abuse is so prevalent at the high school, students in Health Science Assistant Professor Marjorie Droppa’s senior capstone course spent the semester conducting research interviews and focus groups with KHS students, parents, and staff, and inmates at the Cheshire County Department of Corrections who attended high school in the Monadnock Region and have a history of substance abuse. The researchers also looked at the high school’s Substance Abuse Policy, which hadn’t been updated since 1993. They then made recommendations for more effective education to prevent substance abuse and for changes in the school’s policy. The Health Science students presented their findings to the Keene Board of Education on December 10.
Their research report offered two strategies to support KHS in decreasing substance abuse among its students. The first recommends deeper collaborative partnerships with substance abuse organizations in the Monadnock Region to help provide additional education, support, and resources for both school administrators and families struggling with substance abuse issues at home. The second advocates for a collaborative educational conference at KSC to help bring the community together to solve the problem of teen substance abuse.
Excellent project. I will use it for my Health Class here at Bosque School in Albuquerque. As an alumni I am extremely pleased with the community related work collaborated at Keene State. Congratulation.
Klaus Weber (class of (75)