Monday March 14, PPLP and the Counseling Department will be kicking off Chemical Health week. They will open up the week with a convocation and posters plastered on the walls. There will be minor events all next week taking place. They will have a potential speaker and some statistics on chemical health announced in the morning after prayer. The goal is to get students to recognize that they will be present all week in smaller ways.

At the beginning of the year, Chemical Health week took place and PPLP and the Counselors were happy with the results. During the week, they had teachers talk about their experiences with drug and alcohol in their life. Because of the feedback they got back in the fall, PPLP and the Counseling Department agreed they wanted to do something in the Spring as well. According to Ms. Blaido the week will be focused on social norming and they will be, “providing some stats and data on the number of kids who don’t use and don’t drink and don’t smoke and don’t do drugs.” The reason for this is so people who aren’t doing those things can feel empowered with the choices they’re making.

During the week there isn’t going to be a lot going on throughout each day. PPLP and the counselors are going with more of a subtle approach. The main point of the week is so students that aren’t doing drugs and alcohol can feel good about themselves and know that there are other students who are on the same page as them. The Counseling Department is still working on getting a speaker for the week. Instead of having the whole school go to the speaker, teachers will have the choice whether they want to bring their students to the speaker or not. They don’t want to overwhelm the students because they already had a bigger chemical health week in the fall, but they encourage the students to be open to the week.