Donna's Dispatch
April 08
A message from Donna Bernard
Superintendent of Schools
Do you know what industry is an industry of billions of dollars?
It is the pharmaceutical industry. They spend millions and millions on advertising directed at people who read magazines and newspapers, watch television, and use the internet. The media portrays drugs as an immediate cure for anything, “Take this and you’ll feel better in 30 minutes. Your life will be happier.” The messages are blasted to the public as the “cure du jour.”
Although we know that drugs and pharmaceutical intervention is appropriate and called for, as it relates to medical needs, there are many critical issues connected to the significant increase in the misuse of legal drugs in this country. We are more worried than ever about the quantity and frequency of these drugs being ingested into our systems unnecessarily, including through drinking water and animal by-products.
How is this meaningful to a Superintendent and our education system? Use and misuse of legal drugs is at such a large scale and some of our children are in homes that have more of these drugs around than ever. Because of this, our young people are not as afraid as they should be of the pills and medications they see in their environment.
We need to work together to create a valid and healthy fear.
The human body is a huge chemistry experiment. Our immune system balances all of its inputs as it attempts to keep us healthy. Ingesting substances of any sort has repercussions. Our students need to know this. In schools, the use of illegal drugs is declining in this country. However, the misuse of over-the-counter and/or prescription medication is seriously increasing. Yet, students are more afraid of “getting in trouble” than of the medical effects of experimenting. We need to do much more as a community, in our homes, and in our schools to inform children of the dangers of using pills inappropriately.
The schools will continue to become much more aggressive regarding the development of programs and practices that address the misuse of legal drugs. Please join me as we work to keep our children safe and increasingly informed.
Donna