Help students beat addictions
Some school districts nationally have special pull-out classes that kids in high school can attend instead of their regular study hall.
The attendees have all self-identified as needing mutual support to remain clean and sober. Some youths report that when they’re having a tough day and the urge to slide back into active methamphetamine/cannabis/alcohol use is intense, they can delay (thereby rejecting old-lapse “permission self-talk”) by thinking of their next recovery meeting and how disappointed their authentic peers would be if the student shared of having “gone back out” rather than reaching out to these same pro-sobriety cohorts.
Positive peer pressure indeed. I would love to see Fresno Unified School District give it a go here in one of our nation’s meth lab capitals.
Thomas O’Rourke, Fresno
This story was originally published July 24, 2016 at 3:51 PM with the headline "Help students beat addictions."