Editor’s note: This story first appeared on palabra, the digital news site by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
By Mariela Murdocco
In August 2022, a 16-year-old student at Red Mesa High School in Apache County, Arizona collapsed outside the school cafeteria, foaming at the mouth. He had overdosed on a cocktail of street drugs and harsh homemade alcohol.
Fortunately, he survived. But the incident terrified Amy Pérez Fuller, superintendent of the Red Mesa Unified School District. “His heart rate was off the roof,” Pérez Fuller said. “He was non-responsive. I thought he was going to die.”
The incident at Red Mesa school was not isolated. Across the U.S., secondary schools have become hot spots for illegal drug dealing and consumption. About 22% of high school students reported being offered drugs on school property in the previous 12 months, whereas over the prior 30 days, 22% said they used marijuana and 29% admitted to drinking alcohol, according to a 2019 survey by the National Center for Education Statistics.
Using alcohol and drugs as an adolescent can lead to unsafe driving and risky sexual behavior, cause permanent damage to developing brains, and even result in lifetime addiction. Immigrant families and students of color face unique challenges in preventing and addressing drug abuse, from the cost of treatment programs and cultural and language barriers to high-quality information and care. Punitive measures, school suspensions, and excessive monitoring are often ineffective — and may in fact contribute to drug use, research suggests. The solution, experts say, are evidence-based prevention programs that teach social and refusal skills from an early age, educate families, and enlist school staff in prevention.
“If we just focus on the student and not on the environment, it’s not going to be successful,” said Pérez Fuller.
Research shows that programs that aim to persuade or make students “scared straight” don’t work, she…
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