Help you school in drug prevention

<br /><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj0qbNhCtOlDdmksXULkQCOETjBUDkiuVjEuOmVt8LpTahyphenhyphenI0yb4dUnsU-GDZpewypYSBcKxp-Xmsl1Sf4Z2JmPrZsqYXiPwz1j80lHFpjsVKaIeo5Q46oxGnP4W-4IhP-HgZ3A7NsSz4E/s1600/4e409a52b7a19_image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" ida="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj0qbNhCtOlDdmksXULkQCOETjBUDkiuVjEuOmVt8LpTahyphenhyphenI0yb4dUnsU-GDZpewypYSBcKxp-Xmsl1Sf4Z2JmPrZsqYXiPwz1j80lHFpjsVKaIeo5Q46oxGnP4W-4IhP-HgZ3A7NsSz4E/s200/4e409a52b7a19_image.jpg" width="200" /></a> </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Children have the best prospects for leading healthy, drug-free lives when schools support parents in </div>their anti-drug message. There should be nothing confusing or contradictory in what children learn <br /><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">about drugs from the adults in their lives, and school policies need to reflect the same attitude </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">toward alcohol and drugs that you express at home: Drug use is not acceptable. Drugs diminish a </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">child’s ability to concentrate and follow through on academic responsibilities, they cause </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">absenteeism and loss of motivation, and students who use them can be disruptive and drain </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">teachers’ time and energy.</div><br /><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"> </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><strong>The best way to ensure that the anti-drug policies at your child’s school are strong is to be involved. </strong></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><strong>You can: </strong></div><ul><li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Learn about the current policies regarding alcohol and other drugs at your child’s school. If there is no anti-drug policy in place, attend parent volunteer or curriculum review meetings, or schedule an interview with the principal to help develop a policy. The policy should specify what constitutes an alcohol, tobacco or other drug offense, spell out the consequences for failing to follow the rules, and describe procedures for handling violations.</li><li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Familiarize yourself with drug education in your child’s school. Faculty members should be trained to teach about alcohol, tobacco and other drug use. Drug education should be taught in an age-appropriate way at each grade level throughout the year rather than only once during a  pecial week. Drug education may be taught during health class, but all teachers should incorporate anti-drug information into their classes. There should be a parent education component. The school’s program should be based on current research. Depending on the drug education conditions at your child’s school, you may want to become more involved and inform the school administrators that there is a need for improvements in these areas.</li><li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgynDvpQoL0fKokI8bANbmNRLELXAnbkGCnHLldlIpB79NKdiv7lrAR6rv_FOF1ACY49HhcXPlnJUJMWFglrruL2kUHWHV7IXjQ88WAYp6TH9nkEK2uDf7OCR5ozh30LaalODx0roHUEKXY/s1600/redribbon.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" ida="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgynDvpQoL0fKokI8bANbmNRLELXAnbkGCnHLldlIpB79NKdiv7lrAR6rv_FOF1ACY49HhcXPlnJUJMWFglrruL2kUHWHV7IXjQ88WAYp6TH9nkEK2uDf7OCR5ozh30LaalODx0roHUEKXY/s200/redribbon.bmp" width="152" /></a>Immerse yourself in the school’s drug education program at home. Ask your child to show you any materials distributed during or outside class and take the opportunity to review them together.</li><li>Find out if your child’s school conducts assessments of its drug problem and whether these results are used in the program.  </li><li>Ask what happens to those who are caught abusing drugs. Does the school offer a list of referrals for students who need treatment? </li><li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Request and examine any existing materials. Do they contain a clear message that alcohol, tobacco and other drug use is wrong and harmful? Is the information accurate and up to date?</li><li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Investigate whether your school’s drug program is being evaluated for success. Research indicates that some of the most effective programs emphasize the value of life skills such as coping with anxiety, being assertive and feeling comfortable socially. When these lessons are  combined with drug education, students confronted with drugs are better equipped to resist them.</li></ul>

Help you school in drug prevention

  Children have the best prospects for leading healthy, drug-free lives when schools support parents in their anti-drug message. There shoul...

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The truth about drugs: Teens Lie, but so do their parents!

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSlq4rz_0ZLqvvc33YpEo2B50EOQ2mPDZngA2kC35vC6gbaWy4uFTtm2UWZrjFJ6rA0_7GymAiDMGi1dseiBz-Ave18bUsm7xeEvAxOXJC5JcTl6h67DIFlkC1JcUihdAJ7anJr7TfYx5v/s1600/3_22-Drug-Abuse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" nba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSlq4rz_0ZLqvvc33YpEo2B50EOQ2mPDZngA2kC35vC6gbaWy4uFTtm2UWZrjFJ6rA0_7GymAiDMGi1dseiBz-Ave18bUsm7xeEvAxOXJC5JcTl6h67DIFlkC1JcUihdAJ7anJr7TfYx5v/s200/3_22-Drug-Abuse.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Teenagers' confidential reports about illicit drug use are used by doctors and public health experts to measure the extent of the problem, and to help teens in trouble. But it turns out that teens fib big time in those anonymous surveys—and their parents do, too.<br /><br /><div></div>A study conducted by researchers asked 432 African-American teenagers and their parents to participate in an anonymous survey about their use of cocaine, opiates, and marijuana, and said they would also be drug-tested. Of the 211 teenagers whose hair was tested for cocaine, 2 said they used it—while 69, or 34 percent, tested positive, according to a new study in Pediatrics. Of the 244 parents tested, 15 said they had used cocaine, while 69, or 28 percent, tested positive.<br /><br /><div></div>The parents surveyed were pretty bad at guessing if their child was using alcohol or drugs. For instance, 9.6 percent of the parents said their teenager drank alcohol, while 25 percent of the teenagers said they did. With marijuana, 9.5 percent of parents said their teenager smoked dope, while 17 percent of the teens said they did.<br /><br /><div></div>This is not the first time that a study to found parents are clueless about teens' drug and alcohol use. That may be because parents tend to shrug off drug and alcohol use as standard teen behavior, according to a survey published last January in Pediatrics. But that cluelessness comes at a price. Early drug and alcohol abuse increases a child's risk of addiction and health problems in adulthood, and also of teenage suicide.<br /><br /><div></div>But the key take-home here is not so much that teens are using drugs, but that they are not likely to admit it. That's not a huge surprise, given that we're talking about illegal behaviors that can have big consequences. The self-reported drug use in the study was typical of the amount reported in national anonymous surveys of drug use for urban neighborhoods. The researchers, at Wayne State University in Detroit, say that relying on anonymous surveys could lead researchers, parents, and pediatricians seriously astray in estimating the health risks teenagers face.<br /><br /><div></div>Parents can increase the likelihood that their children will come to them with questions and concerns about drugs and alcohol if they:<br /><br /><div></div><ul><li>Start talking about the risks of drugs and alcohol when children are still young. Children who learn about drugs and alcohol from their parents are half as likely to use as are children who learn from peers, according to the <a href="http://www.drugfree.org/prevent">Partnership for a Drug-Free America.</a></li><li>Help children rehearse what they will say to peers who want them to drink or use drugs with them; studies have found that practicing responses makes it much more likely that teenagers will successfully fend off peer pressure. </li><li>Use brain science. Researchers now think that teenage brains are more vulnerable to tobacco, drugs, and alcohol because they are still forming vital connections. Drug-prevention efforts increasingly include information on how to keep a teen brain healthy and powerful.</li></ul><br /><div></div>There are a lot of reasons for teenagers (and parents) to say "I don't" when asked about drug use. But by making the perils and lure of illicit substances part of ordinary family discussion, parents may be doing their children a big favor—and may get a clearer sense of the realities of teenage life.<br /><br /><div></div>

The truth about drugs: Teens Lie, but so do their parents!

Teenagers' confidential reports about illicit drug use are used by doctors and public health experts to measure the extent of the proble...

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Father's Day, the search within all men.

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUu345V4jzxNybFApy0YEFA6CuWP36Wl7XudCwMljYm0ok1gKrUIHcRkV8W6czJvrbN-9bbiWYMCPSahJjq-QweWvUtHgbsF3jntRYgu3bAT41VHXFCtaxleQ9UN2HPBQrimW1jxgzGKor/s1600/001-hfdc1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUu345V4jzxNybFApy0YEFA6CuWP36Wl7XudCwMljYm0ok1gKrUIHcRkV8W6czJvrbN-9bbiWYMCPSahJjq-QweWvUtHgbsF3jntRYgu3bAT41VHXFCtaxleQ9UN2HPBQrimW1jxgzGKor/s200/001-hfdc1.jpg" width="200" /></a> Well once again Father's Day is here and to each father amongst us the question is am I a good father? That question although valid can be result in some misleading answers. <br /><br />What does being a good father mean? First the most obvious is gathering a child does not automatically mean you will be a good father. Unfortunately, bearing off-spring does not make any man a good or bad father. Simply put, its what you do afterwards that defines our question. By that we mean, are you present in your child's life, do you take the time to interact, and most importantly do you truly listen to your child? These are the questions we should be asking ourselves.<br /><br />Being present in your child's life is more than showing up with a toy every once in a while. It means being there to change the diaper, going to the doctor, remember important events such as their first steps or words. Involvement also means playing games with them, projects, sports, and their other activities. It also means being present at there activities, school events as well as being available to them at times if trial and tribulation. Children need there fathers in there lives. That involvement makes the difference between being a father and being a Dad!<br /><br />My interactions with children and teens places me into interactions with teens that allow me to hear their concerns. They frequently express concern over being understood by there parents. So listening for all young people is imperative for parents. Now I do not mean to say that your children should do all the talking. Simply that when they talk, listen to what they have to say. Listen to the content and the context of what they are saying. Do not be so quick to judge, so quick to change the course of their direction. Teens understand the dynamic of parent and child, but what they frequently rebel against is dictator and peon Be a good listening and you will be amazed at what your will here.<br /><br />To all the father's out there and those future fathers Happy Fathers Day.

Father's Day, the search within all men.

Well once again Father's Day is here and to each father amongst us the question is am I a good father? That question although valid ca...

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Parents, Hosting teen parties be smart and safe

<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwaDpE8tzEd7i5snFCei4WH4VTlykicfmC6a3nTz3ho095mgob92BXVrVCPgo2Z8AgN2cP09jNub1DZy6UG1Ang7i4-MGEY0q0K9xDMclq_5ZGcsdXNGxwL6c9ncAq-BD8kdnFKE509SCd/s1600/high_school_graduation_ceremony.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwaDpE8tzEd7i5snFCei4WH4VTlykicfmC6a3nTz3ho095mgob92BXVrVCPgo2Z8AgN2cP09jNub1DZy6UG1Ang7i4-MGEY0q0K9xDMclq_5ZGcsdXNGxwL6c9ncAq-BD8kdnFKE509SCd/s200/high_school_graduation_ceremony.jpg" t8="true" width="200" /></a>High School graduations brings all kinds of emotions for teens and parents alike. There is a cross section of emotions for parents from elation and pride of your child's academic accomplishment too sadness, knowing that your little one has grown up so fast. And for those parents hosting a graduation party, there's some trepidation that comes with such responsibility.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /></div><div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Yes you want to host a party because this is a momentous academic milestone you're celebrating, after all. But hosting a party places you at incredible risks, it could make a teen or child a statistic and put your in legal as well as financial trouble..</div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /></div><div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Alcohol related fatalities spike during this time of year, in particular because of the amount of teen partying that occurs. A recent National Highway Traffic Safety report revealed that more than 60 percent of traffic fatalities in the 15-to-20 age group that occur during the weeks of graduation are alcohol-related. </div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdXLkK4AH7By75BDLVI-THvwn97ReiOo6VWxSNe0sX5hbAfgS4xbEzfC2yDNvUVbi70ltpfQ8j-cLkepiT9rmLZtYTZrColTzsCuIEuHHpHx37oVW20Y6NkJIX_3ziZ9TuFH0M1cwhvYMI/s1600/party-drinking.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdXLkK4AH7By75BDLVI-THvwn97ReiOo6VWxSNe0sX5hbAfgS4xbEzfC2yDNvUVbi70ltpfQ8j-cLkepiT9rmLZtYTZrColTzsCuIEuHHpHx37oVW20Y6NkJIX_3ziZ9TuFH0M1cwhvYMI/s200/party-drinking.jpg" t8="true" width="200" /></a>Remember <a href="http://www.drugfreeactionalliance.org/pwh.php">Parents Who Host, Lose The Most.</a>  Many well-meaning parents think that it is enough to take away car keys at their teen's parties so the teens can't drink and drive. Parents provide the alcohol or allow alcohol to be consumed based on the false belief that it's a rite of passage, especially at prom and graduation parties.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">You're probably well aware of what it takes to throw a fun, yet safe graduation party. But you could always used more help, here are some tips, such as:</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /></div><ul><li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Stick to a guest list - no strangers</li><li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJD4qO5SbdPic3PIxmefUteiQeqf7_rlwaRa8Sq6DR9joKHMdCFId48hBOchd0P7A3T06rDs6FWVZG5LBGKdT6mbU3XsDDvywrWZXQ_xgDwwp1m9xbwVl-pTjQf-AdgYwlXBHPrRsgFLix/s1600/partyDM2802_468x296.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="126" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJD4qO5SbdPic3PIxmefUteiQeqf7_rlwaRa8Sq6DR9joKHMdCFId48hBOchd0P7A3T06rDs6FWVZG5LBGKdT6mbU3XsDDvywrWZXQ_xgDwwp1m9xbwVl-pTjQf-AdgYwlXBHPrRsgFLix/s200/partyDM2802_468x296.jpg" t8="true" width="200" /></a>Lay down the 'no alcohol, no drugs, no tobacco' law and stick to it!</li><li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Secure all forms of alcohol in your home in a safe place</li><li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Contact parents of anyone who arrives in possession of alcohol or under the influence</li></ul><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /></div><div><br /></div>

Parents, Hosting teen parties be smart and safe

High School graduations brings all kinds of emotions for teens and parents alike. There is a cross section of emotions for parents from elat...

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