Substance education is an essential piece of high school health class. Lick-Wilmerding and Urban High Schools have two unique curriculums centered around harm reduction.
Erin Merk, LWHS’ Body Mind Education (BME) teacher, described the school’s freshman year substance education. She said, “We have a really robust substance education program consisting of nine sessions for the frosh devoted to substance education.”
The curriculum is an adaptation of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), which is a non-profit organization that seeks to promote alternatives to the War on Drugs. According to their mission statement, they “envision a just society in which the use and regulation of drugs are grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights; in which people are no longer punished for what they put into their own bodies; and in which the fears, prejudices and punitive prohibitions of today are no more.”
The curriculum taught by Merk includes lectures, scenarios and student-led presentations to allow students to “share their voices and ideas and questions.” Merk spoke about the importance of scenario work as it allows students to “practice what ways students can make themselves safer, given that there’s so many opportunities to explore and experiment with substances as a young person.”
She described how the education attempts to teach smart decision making skills. “How do we actually stay safe? Because if we just tell you not to do something, that’s not going to teach you anything about safety or making a decision for yourself.”
Another San Francisco private high school with a similar approach to their substance education is Urban School of San Francisco. Led by educator Shafia Zaloom, the Urban substance and sexual health education takes place over all four years of high school.
Zaloom explained the makeup of the curriculum, saying that 9th grade is mostly biology focused, explaining the relationships different substances have on the brain and nervous system. Moving forward at Urban, the curriculum shifts to more culture analysis and scenarios.
Both Urban and LWHS’ substance education programs operate under a harm reduction lens opposed to a “Just Say No” or abstinence style. Merk explained harm reduction as an education strategy, saying, “Harm reduction is teaching how to reduce harm when it comes to substances.”
Additionally, harm reduction seeks to reduce the stigma around substance use “so that we can actually talk about things openly and not be super judgy about people and not make the assumption that all substances and drugs are automatically bad and will ruin your life,” Merk said.
Zaloom elaborated on the importance of harm reduction as a teaching style, saying, “based on the research, just saying no doesn’t take context into account.” She continued, “When people say ‘just say no,’ the assumption is you’re just saying no to the substance itself, but it doesn’t recognize context and that actually the person you’re saying no to is the person who’s offering it to you.”
Zaloom emphasized how the Urban substance education program takes into account interpersonal relationships and how students may choose to interact with drugs. “There’s a relationship that you have and the social landscape that you’re navigating and what kind of influence or power they have within that social landscape.”
Zaloom also touched on how stress can lead some students to use substances as a crutch. “Sometimes substances come from a really good friend who recognizes that you’re stressed and is like, ‘hey, try this, it’ll take the edge off. I see you, I care about you and I want you to be okay.’”
Bay Area physician, educator and LWHS alum Dr. Alicia Callejo-Black ’10 explained the theory behind harm reduction, describing it as “thinking about how we can manage risk, acknowledging that these are behaviors that we’re often going to engage in when we’re young.” Callejo-Black poses the question, “if we’re going to acknowledge that these are behaviors that are going to happen, how do we make them safer?”
LWHS drug education has reached students differently depending on what grade they are in. For example, the graduating class of 2023 did not have a substance education unit in Body Mind Education.
Rose Mayer ’23 spoke to the lack of drug education her grade has experienced. “It feels like we’ve been playing catchup since we returned to in-person learning. We’re just at a knowledge disadvantage because of what we’ve missed,”she said.
COVID-19 also forced the substance unit on to Zoom for the class of 2024. Liam Hillis ’24 spoke about his experience in freshman BME, saying, “It didn’t really stick with me, maybe it was because it was online, but I don’t really remember what we learned in the unit.”
Zaloom spoke to how COVID-19 has impacted teen substance use. “There are different forces coming together to create a situation where kids are pretty guarded, and so they can be kind of reclusive. They haven’t gotten comfortable with being uncomfortable because they didn’t have enough social experience, so they think that somehow substances will help take the edge off and make things less anxious or uncomfortable.”
“There’s also this pent up desire to socialize, and for some kids to catch up really quickly. And I think for some people that includes substance use and experimentation,” Zaloom said.
Beyond the classroom, Zaloom spoke about the steps Urban has taken to keep their students and families safer, such as Narcan information sessions and providing the lifesaving drug to Urban families. Narcan is a medication used to reverse the effects of opioid overdose. LWHS also hosted a Narcan information session for seniors earlier this school year.
Dr. Black spoke to the importance of Narcan. “As a drug educator, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of prioritizing harm reduction strategies and providing essential resources like Narcan,” she said. “It’s crucial to recognize that substance abuse is a complex issue, and education alone is not enough to combat its harmful effects. Therefore, it’s vital to adopt a multifaceted approach that not only educates but also provides access to essential resources to reduce harm and promote safety.”
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