Hanging Out with PVPSA

This past week I had the great fortune of attending an all-day staff and intern orientation and welcome for , better known as PVPSA. The program offers students and their families with education, training, counseling and prevention services by promoting safe schools and healthy students allowing learning and student development to better thrive.

PVPSA is one of the first models nationwide of a non-profit agency dedicated to providing services to a school district, essentially “writing the book” for other such agencies wishing to follow in their footsteps through grant-funding from the U.S. Department of Education. PVPSA counsels students caught with drugs on campus, who previously were issued five-day unsupervised suspensions, keeping students on campus and in class with support and supervision while using evidence-based intervention strategies.

Thus the need for Masters-level interns and quality staff to intervene in what are often difficult situations. Beyond mere student counseling, the agency offers a that actively seeks to include family members and/or loved ones so as to better equip students with the tools needed to succeed and to help prevent the more costly incarceration of students and their entering the legal system.

Such intervention strategy does not limit itself to intervening with known gang members or drug-users but, in the best of scenarios, also makes contact with elementary students who demonstrate early antisocial tendencies such as failing to interact with other students or who are notably aggressive or passive.

Another effective strategy, as illustrated by speaker Dr. Chad Morris, PhD, is none other than tobacco prevention. Dr. Morris highlighted that 443,000 tobacco-related deaths occur in the U.S. each year, 6 million worldwide, and 50,000 deaths occur each year as a result of second-hand smoke exposure. Moreover, smoking has serious health effects on children and adults including sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), lung and ear problems, and asthma. And then there’s the danger of “third hand smoke,” namely exposure to smoke residue that lingers on walls and seat covers and anywhere else tobacco smoke falls upon.

While the above facts are generally well-known and even passé for some, Dr. Morris’ intent was to underline the importance of intervening with school-age students. Approximately, 26 percent of high school students report using a tobacco product at least once a month; and, in turn, approximately 80 percent of daily adult smokers became daily tobacco users by the age of 18 years. Still more startling facts are that youth who smoke have over a twofold risk of suicide attempts, are three times more likely to drink alcohol, eight times more likely to smoke marijuana, and 22 times more likely to use cocaine.

Smoking is definitely bad, cocaine and suicide is definitely worse. Despite the benefits of addressing tobacco-consumption and its ills in and of itself, smoking habits are akin to emergency flares shot in the sky that point back to students exceptionally at risk, or already participating in, dangerous behaviors that can cause harm to themselves and others. PVPSA’s holistic approach seeks to identify warning signs, be they big or small and pounce on them with trained counselors who are very in touch with the community.

I can personally vouch for their proximity to the community as I was the “victim” of an informational skit in which I was "peer-pressured" by counselors urging me to “toke it up” and “go on a boonie” so that we could “hotbox the ride with some yerba mala.” It was horrifying, but instructive as new staff and myself got a firsthand glimpse at the various stages of getting in trouble, being directed to services, and involving the family.

Keep your eye out for PVPSA-sponsored events on gang and consumption prevention in the future. And if you’re interested in quitting or know somebody who is, refer them to the California Smokers’ Helpline Website, www.nobutts.org; the English hotline 1-800-NO-Butts (1-800-662-8887); the Spanish hotline 1-800-45-NO-FUME (1-800-456-6386); or various smart phone apps such as “Quit Start.”

One last tip, if you think that because there is a Native American on the box of American Spirits makes it healthier, you’re only kidding yourself. Don’t smoke! No fumes, holmes!