Sandra K-Horn's Blog: Sandra K-Horn informs Drugs ARE Prevalent in Local Schools

Every time I visit Washington DC, I like to venture into a museum. Just one a visit. I am blessed to go often, so I have this luxury. Last week I visited the Museum of American History. I intended to see the display of First Lady gowns. I was so intrigued how the fashions of the first ladies reflected the culture and style of the times they lived and entered the whirlwind life of the White House. The colors of the gowns seemed more to reflect the first lady's individual personality. From the modern grey of Eleanor Roosevelt to the bright scarlet of Laura Bush.

The colors said quite a bit about the ladies.

There were not many more exhibits dedicated strictly to American Women. A few single displays were here and there. But it just seems there should be more since women have made up a bit more of the population. I didn't see a mention of the spies that helped during the Revolutionary War. Civil War? No mention of any women. Wait I'm corrected. There was one teeny tiny mention of one woman. Mary Edwards Walker. Dr. Mary Walker to use her professional name.

Dr. Walker is the lone woman recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor. A vocal advocate for women's rights and abolitionism, she became a doctor of medicine in 1855 from the Syracuse Medical College. Walker did this in her early twenties. When the Civil War broke out, she was denied a position as a surgeon because of her sex; she volunteered as a nurse in a temporary hospital in the capital. The Ohio Regiment appointed her temporary surgeon until she was captured by the Confederates. She and other War Department Medical personnel were traded for Confederate medical officers in 1863. While she worked as a doctor, she raised a few eyebrows by wearing a blue dress resembling an officer's jacket, blue trousers with a gold stripe, a felt hat, and green sash that designated her as a surgeon (Williams). When she returned from the prison camp, she became Medical Director of a women's facility in Louisville, Kentucky.

"Commended by Major Generals William T. Sherman and George H. Thomas for meritorious service, President Andrew Johnson awarded her the Medal of Honor on November 11, 1865."(Williams)

The story doesn't end there. In 1917, Congress reconsidered the qualifications of the Medal and stripped her name from the list along with several others because she had been a civilian employee of the government not a member of the armed service. She refused to return her medal and wore it until she died in 1919. In 1977, the efforts of her family caused a re-evaluation of her deeds by Congress and her name was restored to the list of honorees.

Now I know that women have only been recognized to have the right to vote for less than 100 years, but I just have to wonder why there has only been one woman awarded this medal. Women have served in the military officially since 1917-18. According to History.org, "During the last two years of World War I, women were allowed to join the military. 33,000 women serve[d] as nurses and support staff officially in the military, and more than 400 nurses die[d] in the line of duty."
One hundred and twenty-three soldiers received the Congressional Medal of Honor for actions in WWI alone according to the list of Medal Honors Recipients on the Military History website. Medal winners have been awarded for seven other wars and campaigns. These do not include the four sections for WWII and two sections for Vietnam.

It is hard to believe in the conditions of Korea and Vietnam, Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq that no women did anything that would warrant the same consideration as the men.

"Changing the Face of Medicine | Mary Edwards Walker." U.S. National Library of Medicine. June 03, 2015. Accessed June 27, 2018. https://cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov/physic....

Williams, Glenn. "Dr. Mary Edwards Walker." CMH News and Features, March 2, 2016. Accessed June 27, 2018. https://history.army.mil/news/2016/16....

Due to an extremely busy school load, I haven't written anything in two years. I am now deciding I have not been mindful of my skills.
I appreciate any encouragement I can create.

It seems at times no matter how much you work you do in education; it is never enough. We are to put the child first. And there is always someone there to imply or directly state that to be true. It is quite standard to work constantly to be only told by a parent or an administrator, you are not doing enough. But there is always the standard thank you of....Thank you for all you do.

We are now assessed by a system that most of us cannot do enough to be excellent. We test students to determine this, but I was not aware there could be grades attached. (We were told emphatically last year there could not be). But this year we were allowed. A secret well kept.

I am taking an oath starting now, to be mindful of my life and talents besides teaching. I have writing and stories to tell.

It restarts today.

The Delaware County Sheriff’s Office arrested a Powell mother for allegedly trafficking heroine out of her home April 29, 2010. In some neighborhoods, it would not have even raised an eyebrow. But on the north side of Columbus in an area that would be considered the affluent section of a housing development, it is astounding. How could this be? People move to the suburbs and believe that their kids are safe from this type of influence. This is no surprise for the officers who work in drug enforcement. They are not surprised that there are drugs in the suburbs, but are surprised that people would think their kids are safe from drug influence in the suburbs. Street Smart program officers who work in tandem with the Dare program and the Franklin County Sheriff Special Investigation Unit tell in their 4-hour program that drug pushers are entrepreneurs. They simply go where the money is. Why would they go to the urban streets and sell a bag of brown heroine for five bucks when they can sell it to the kids who have more money in the suburbs for twenty-five? Any organization can see this presentation by emailing StreetSmart. Find more information about this program on the Franklin County Sheriff Department website http://www.sheriff.franklin.oh.us/

Every parent should acquaint themselves with the website of Drugfree.org. It will tell a parent what the growing trends are. The parent that goes to this website will learn heroine is the growing trend in the Northeast. Most likely it is not just growing in the cities of the Northeast.

I cannot tell people enough to keep on ear open with their kids at all ages. Campbell Brown's report on Adderall is really worth checking on . Seven percent of the kids in college right now are using Adderall illegally. I am not sure what it is saying about our kids or the college environment, but the need to achieve or stress is causing kids to use Adderall (known to students as vitamin A) to make the grade is growing. One thing I noticed in the interview with a student, is he said since he had partied too much he had taken the drug. He also said he had taken the drug for the interview with Campbell Brown. If not under doctor's care, this drug is not harmless. First it is addictive. Second, if abused it can cause tremors, heart problems, or stroke.

It doesn't matter who you were when I grew up; you knew Walter Cronkite. My memories of him are made up of important news items that even a kid would remember. I remember his announcement of my favorite president (okay, I knew only one other) had died. Not only will I remember his words, I even remembered the music that played behind his words. I remember his joy when he announced the first man walking on the moon. Amazing he said. I remember when he broke character and came out against the Vietnam War. My dad dedicated to the United States principles who personified a United States Marine until he died finally paused to give thought that maybe the war was not a good event.

News 24/7 could be the reason we don't have an icon to replace this man in the media. Tom Brokaw came close. But he will remain the image of what a broadcast newscaster should be to me, and that is the way it is.

http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsSto...

One of the most interesting attitudes that I sometimes see in suburban schools is that parents believe that drugs can somehow be eradicated from our schools. Or that somehow all the other kids in the school are using except for their child or their children's friends. I feel bad for them because while they may find this comforting; it allows their child to be at risk.

We must never forget that drug sellers are in business to make money. They will seek where they can get a better price for their merchandise. This is not in the stereotypical ghetto. It is in the stereotypical suburb.

The article that I supplied the link to really is a fundamental article that all parents should read before the school year starts. Parents have to realize that in fact every single child sometime in his or her school career will be offered a drug at least once. Whether that young person takes the drug depends on the environment in which he or she was raised, the drug education that he or she has had,and how aware this child is to how a drug can affect him or her.

'“The chances of your child learning about drugs and alcohol from their peers is high,” comments Mary Rieser, Director of the Atlanta Recovery Center, Narconon Drug Rehab in Georgia. “ Eleven million high school students (80 percent) and five million middle school students (44 percent) attend drug-infested schools, meaning possession, student drunk and/or student high on the grounds of their school, according to the National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XII Teens and Parents."'

Drug-infested is really a scary term that Rieser uses. But what are the chances the above definition could be applied to any one of our schools? Well, let's see. Marijuana is easier to get than beer (please see Columbia University Study Aug. 30, 2008 on my blog.) How many parents take the time to count how many prescription drugs are in each bottle in their medicine cabinets that is an opiate? Plus count how many pills is each one of those bottles?

I like this quote also. "Couple this with the increase in back-to-school themed ads, marketing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) drugs, and you have the potential of chemical experimentation at school, beyond the scope of the chemistry classes."

I wish I could reassure each parent of my students that teachers keep an eye on each child. I think teachers do. But again let's be realistic. The recession we hear about in the news is hitting schools too. As each levy doesn't pass, there are cut back in staff and teachers. That is one more set of eyes that is no longer there to help safeguard each child in a school.

One more time. Safe guard starts at home. Talk to your kid. If you do have prescription drugs do one of a few things, throw them in the used kitty litter or coffee grounds or keep a count and place it with your important papers. Kids are not only watering down the gin (or vodka I forget which they water down), they are taking pills from parents. Ask your parents to do the same.

I decided to consolidate the many articles that have come out in the month of February. There has been so many that report the same type of discovery about kids and prescriptions drugs but notice how they come from sea to shining sea. But wait there is one that I found rather ironic. Among all of the reports that have come from Stamford, CT; Maryland; Madison, WI; Indianapolis, IN; and Arizona, there is one curious Associated Press item from Partnership for a Drug-Free America.

From The Advocate in Stanford, CT
Dr. Kasey Spoonamore repeats the mantra that kids take prescription drugs because they think them safe. She is a psychiatrist and addiction specialist who works primarily with young people in Greenwich, Roweyton, and New York City.

A new term for PHARM parties is a "bowling" party. Kids are popping a handful of pills in combination and then sometimes mixing them with alcohol and weed.

From the Carroll County Times

Results of the 2007 Maryland Adolescent Survey from this county were released Weds. 2/25 and showed almost 13% of seniors and 6.4% of sophomores had abused some type of narcotic.

Lisa Myers, director of Westminister-based treatment facility said, "They (prescription drugs) are chemically equal to heroin."

Officials cited in the article claims parent involvement may be the key to combating the rise in prescription drug abuse.

from the Huntington Herald Dispatch 2/19

A toxocology report in an Ashland, WVA teenager's accidental death confirms the combination of alcohol, prescription drugs, and marijuana caused his death.

from WKOWTV.com Madison Wisconsin

Two in every ten teenagers have used prescription drugs to get high. Wisconsin's Attorney General claims part of the problem is lack of public awareness. Sixty percent of high school students have access to controlled substances in their homes and twenty percent have used them to get high. This is according to published reports.


In Indianapolis, IN wthr.com
Jennings Cty teens are facing drug charges for bringing drugs to their middle school. Fearing an overdose, other students reported the incident after watching the student ingest pills.

Now here is the clincher:
Associated Press reports that Partnership for Drugfree American president and Chief executive officer Steve Pasiero said that "parents are talking and particularly girls are listening" according to a recent commissioned survey. This study marks the first increase in percentage that kids are listening to parents about the dangers of prescription drug use.

Not enough Mr. Pasiero. Not enough. Are we trying to validate our existence here?