Student Assistance :::

The Student Assistance Program (S.A.P.) provides educational, prevention, and intervention services on an individual and group basis to all students. The S.A.P. is directed by a full-time coordinator and supported by students and teachers. Among other services, the S.A.P coordinator assists the Snowball directors  with two Operation Snowball weekends each year, facilitates two Student Intervention Teams (SIT) at each campus, is a liason with Parent Community Network which sponsors Parent University, coordinates the Alternative to Suspension Program, and also sponsors Red Ribbon Week activities.

The Student Assistance Program addresses  barriers to learning that impact both the individual student and the school in order to increase student success and  improve school climate. Partners of the Student Assistance Program include parents, students, faculty, community organizations, and police agencies.

Contact:
Jeanne Widing
South Campus Room A105J
579-6507; e-mail username: jwiding

Update of the month..December 2011

Recently, the neighboring Robert Crown Center for Health Education held a community forum on Heroin to educate community leaders, schools, and parents on the growing threat of heroin in the western suburbs. Points shared include:

  • Today's heroin is pure enough that users can smoke it or snort it, causing more kids under 18 to use it; unfortunately, in the annual Monitoring the Future national poll, more than 40% of high school seniors did not believe there was a great risk in trying heroin.
  • Initiations to heroin have increased 80% since 2002, from around 100,000 in 2002 to over 180,000 in 2009
  • Only nicotine ranks higher in dependency profile; tolerance, physical dependency and withdrawal symptoms develop rapidly due to the substance's ability to cross the "blood-brain" barrier.
  • Prescription medication abuse, which is also on the rise, can be considered a gateway behavior to heroin use.
  • Parents can be alert to behavioral symptoms of irritability, anger, unusual sleeping patterns, and dramatic mood swings, especially when accompanied by changes in peer group, the disappearance of household valuables, drastic increase  in mileage on the family vehicle, and unexplained gaps of time when your teen is not accounted for. Physical symptoms of heroin use/withdrawal often look like teens have the flu: they have runny noses, watery eyes, and appear sleepy. Parents are encouraged to  monitor prescription medication in their own household, and have conversations with their teens about the issue.

For more information, go to Robert Crown at www.robertcrown.org.

 

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