Young people deserve second chances.
Second Chances Early Intervention is a program designed for high school students connected to alcohol or drug use on campus.
The program is being offered this year at both Jefferson City and Helias Catholic high schools in collaboration with the Council for Drug Free Youth.
The six-week program requires students and their parents to participate in weekly, two-hour sessions to learn about the dangers of drugs and alcohol, as well as the factors that lead people to use those substances. The sessions, led by a counselor from the Crossroads Program in Columbia, also cover decision-making, communication and sources of stress.
Jefferson City high schoolers who run afoul of alcohol and drug policies have the option to participate in the Second Chances program, accompanied by a 10-day suspension, or accepting a 45-day suspension.
At Helias, where students are randomly drug tested as a condition of enrollment, the Rev. Stephen Jones, principal, said: "We certainly want to try intervention first before doing anything punitive."
Drug and alcohol use among high school students is a real problem. At the public school's secondary level, 199 drug discipline incidents and 17 involving alcohol have been recorded since 2010. At Helias, the numbers include 11 positive drug tests and three alcohol-related incidents in the past five years.
Although prevention is the preferred scenario, young people make mistakes.
When they do, Joy Sweeney, executive director of the Council for Drug Free Youth, said: "Let's help them recover from those mistakes before it's too late."
Tammy Ridgeway, an assistant superintendent for the public schools, added: "From a school's standpoint, it helps the students, and the parents, see that we're working together to help them be productive in society and be clean, and that opens up some communication between the parent and child that they hadn't had in the past."
Like alcohol and drug court options for adults, the Second Chances program for students is designed to help people steer their lives away from the inevitable pitfalls of substance abuse and addiction.