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In 2017, the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment published a Youth Health Assessment report that provided a glance into the health of young people here in Denver. The report included information that was collected from 447 surveys of students ranging in age from 13 to 25 years old. It is also included research collected in 4 listening sessions with youth and 21 partner organization interviews. One of the questions they asked young people was "What is the most important issue impacting your health and the health of the young people you know?"
Community Issues Family Tracker_Student Work.pdfunderage Substance use
underage Substance use
The answers they collected in their research confirmed our own findings when we asked our families to help us identify some of the issues facing young people today. One of the biggest problems that came up repeatedly was students vaping and using illegal substances.
"The use of drugs and alcohol came up as a key issue affecting Denver’s youth. The main substances young people spoke about were alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco." - Youth Health Assessment Report, 2017
evidence of problem
evidence of problem
As 6th graders in Ms. Glosser's World Studies class, we made a democratic choice to address this problem by voting in a direct election. We chose this important issue as many of us personally knew someone who struggled with this problem or had struggled with it ourselves. We also came to the conclusion that the school government had to be involved in helping us to find a solution because they were responsible for creating the policy around student substance use and enforcing the consequences for violating it. Our Dean of Culture, James Rader, was able to provide direct evidence of this problem within our own school.
Youth Vaping in Schools
Youth Vaping in Schools
The majority of students caught using substances at our school were caught with "vapes", "Juuls" or "puffers". These electronic devices, also called e-cigarettes or vaporizers, are battery-operated devices that release substances which are inhaled by the user. The devices vary in shape, size and general appearance and might look like a ballpoint pen or flash drive used to store digital information. They are hard to detect as they are often disguised as everyday items and are easy to hide in your backpack or stash in your pocket. Most of the vapes that students were caught with contained nicotine cartridges or marijuana, both illegal substances which can negatively impact a person's health and wellness.
We turned to the people in our community for their opinions on our current substance use Policy...
We turned to the people in our community for their opinions on our current substance use Policy...
Middle_School_Handbook_2022-23_FINAL.pdfExplaining the Problem_Student Work.pdf
The Student Vaping Crisis_ How Schools Are Fighting Back.pdfDigital_Print Sources Form_Student Work.pdfDigital Sources
Digital Sources
In addition, we identified some credible news sources to try and learn more about the disagreements that existed in our community. We determined that the most common disagreement about our problem were the strategies that should be implemented to try and prevent students from using illegal substances. People suggested the need for harsher consequences, backpack searches, education, awareness training, counseling, treatment programs, drug testing, clearly stated consequences and consistency in enforcement of the policy, in addition to an educational philosophy statement and clearly defined goals. Many of these ideas appeared also in a School Substance Use Policy Development Guide that was created by the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention in collaboration with the Maine Department of Education, and other State and local partners. We used this guide to assess our own policy for missing components and to help us identify stronger policies that already exist.
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