Tag Archives: Out of the Dark

Nonprofit Fights Teenage Substance Abuse

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by Kayce Wilson
Delta Digital News Service

JONESBORO – Active in this community since 2008, the Craighead Out of The Dark Coalition plans to jump-start the organization.

CODC’s executive board attended the Arkansas Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention Summit in Hot Springs. CODC received a $175,000 Drug-Free Communities grant to apply to its goals. Efforts to receive the grant started five years ago.

“I started out as a community volunteer and was contacted by the board because they had heard that I was running another youth state program,” President Noelle Richardson said. “Last spring we wrote for the DFC grant through Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and we found out in the last week of September that we were awarded the grant.”

The DFC grant will provide CODC with full-time and part-time staff. The grant assists communities in connecting with 12 different sectors, from government to education.

Meeting the Community

Noelle’s husband and CODC chair Kevin Richardson thanked attendees of the November meeting at the NEA Food Bank for their support.

“Even though you haven’t heard a lot from us, a lot has been going on,” he said.

CODC challenged Craighead County fourth-graders to create drug-free posters. The top contestants attended the meeting and displayed their posters; Cason Kifer of Buffalo Island Central West Elementary won the competition. His poster can be seen on billboards throughout the city.

The Prevention Squad held its Christmas party at Lost Pizza Co. (back row, l. to r.) Melissa Ayers, Noelle Richardson, Zavier Roberts, Mia Goodrich, Lauren Lewis; (front row, l. to r.) Jackie Sosa, Rylie Fanning, Abigail Pausch. Photo by Kevin Richardson.

The Prevention Squad, made up of six high school students from the area, gave a rundown of the events held within the last year. The Prevention Squad hosted a Back 2 School Bash and the “Leave Your Mark” rally in October. It also participated in the Mud Ball Tournament, which benefits the St. Bernards’ NICU.

The CODC’s chapters curently include the Bay, Brookland, Buffalo Island Central, Nettleton, Riverside, Valley View and Westside school districts. Seventeen school chapters exist across Craighead County alone, as well as more than 250 students who attended a five-hour leadership training course put on by CODC. Noelle Richardson said she believes they will have a chapter in every school within the next year.

“People should be on the lookout for Out of The Dark,” Noelle Richardson said.

Benton police department Cpt. Kevin Russell from the Coalition for Safer Arkansas Communities showed a video created by a Colorado-based group, Smart Colorado that provided information on the negative effects of marijuana in Colorado since they legalized recreational marijuana use.

Russell said youths need to be taught the importance of the word “yes.”

“They not only need to say ‘no’ to drugs but ‘yes’ to life, which is a life free of drugs,” Russell said.

CODC also participated in the Arkansas Rx Drug Take Back, which collected over 60 pounds of old prescriptions during the four-hour period.

High Schools Tackle Opioid Problem

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by Madison Gomez
Delta Digital News Service

Opioid Crisis

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JONESBORO — Opioid use and addiction have become a crisis in the United States, but area high schools are working to help raise awareness and promote prevention.

High school students often encounter opioids, mainly through prescription medicine found in relatives’ cabinets.

“Probably one of the things that we struggle with most here at the high school would be pills, such as something you are going to find in your grandmother’s cabinet or your parents’ cabinet,” said Michelle Crain, assistant principal at Valley View High School.

A study of prescription opioid use among high school seniors found nearly one out of four high school seniors had exposure to prescription opioids.

Valley View High School works with an organization, Out of the Dark, which helps raise awareness of drug and alcohol abuse and awareness for teenagers. The community volunteer movement is located on East Mathews Avenue. This organization, and others like it, can be helpful in awareness and prevention. These clubs can help students band together while promoting safe habits.

“We have one of the most marvelous programs here,” Crain said. “We probably run right now around 85 – 95 in this club. I strongly feel that that sort of thing, sort of club, where like-minded individuals could come together is probably the best thing for teenagers.”

Valley View isn’t the only high school addressing the opioid problem and raising awareness. Jonesboro High School also is raising awareness and prevention amongst its students.

“I know that the school is very proactive now at trying to prevent drugs from coming into the school,” JHS school resource officer Brian Sawyer said, “and they deal with it if the drugs do come into school.”

If a student is found in possession of illegal substances — such as opioids — they are not only brought to the school’s resource officer, but also dealt a punishment through the school.

“If you are caught with any prescription that could be considered a drug of abuse … then we investigate that,” Westside High School principal Michael Graham said. “And if you have possession of it or distribute it or are under the influence of that while at school, then the policy says that the principal shall make a recommendation to the superintendent that the student be suspended for 10 days and recommend to be expelled from school.”

High schools use locker searches or backpack searches to help locate and deter drugs and other illegal substances from being in the high school. Jonesboro High School has an “open-door” policy with the K-9 unit that allows the police dogs to sweep parking lots and classrooms.

High schools are also attempting to tackle the problem outside of school by providing after-school programs and activities for students.

Parents and guardians are also encouraged to take action in prevention by locking up and keeping track of prescription medications for themselves and the teenager. Sawyer said parents must take steps to ensure their children do not abuse or sell household medications.