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Overcast Understanding why to say no
Five Towns yeshiva students learn to avoid drugs and alcohol
In an effort to help ensure that their students make positive lifestyle choices, four yeshivas in the Five Towns have designed programs and incorporate lessons that aim to educate the youngsters and their parents about alcohol and substance abuse.
At Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway High School in Cedarhurst, the Culture and Value Initiative covers an array of topics, with the aim of teaching teenagers to make the proper choices when it comes to drug and alcohol use, safe driving and the use of social media.
In addition, HAFTR has partnered with Woodmere-based Madraigos, a nonprofit that provides clinical services and youth-oriented programs, to create a workshop for parents. There is also a student intern from Madraigos at HAFTR who helps guide the students through potential challenges.
“We do not have a huge problem,” HAFTR General Studies Principal Naomi Lippman said, referring to alcohol and drug use. “We are doing this to be proactive. If the students found themselves in those situations, they can conduct themselves in their best interests. It’s not only in terms of maturity, emotional and physical well-being, but it’s to understand the ramifications of those choices.”
Rabbi Gedaliah Oppen, HAFTR’s Judaic Studies principal, said that school officials are not denying what is happening on Long Island today, with frequent headlines about a drug epidemic and heroin and fentanyl overdoses.
“We take a lot of pride in doing both — educating kids about choices and drugs — and we don’t sweep things under the carpet,” Oppen said. “We drug-test, help guide them to be safe and understand the consequences of their actions, and that we will always be there for them.”
HAFTR conducts random drug tests, selecting one boy and one girl at a time. “This is preventive in nature,” Lippman said. “We publicize it and what the consequences are.” Students who test positive for drugs, or are suspected of using them, are referred to Madraigos for counseling and testing, she added.
Davis Renov Stahler Yeshiva High School for Boys, in Woodmere, also conducts random drug tests, Principal Yisroel Kaminetsky said. “We maintain a close, positive relationship with our students and families, such that in the rare instance when there is a problem, we find out about it and deal with it in a discreet, forthright fashion,” he said.
Possession or use of drugs or alcohol at a school event can get a student expelled, Kaminetsky said. A student who is found to be using such substances off campus is required to attend counseling and undergo testing until the use has stopped.
Sophomores are required to attend an annual substance awareness and education forum with their parents. DRS students cannot graduate without having attended, the rabbi said. “That is the age that our experience has found that most kids begin to wrestle with this issue,” Kaminetsky said.
Shulamith High School for Girls, in Cedarhurst, which opened in 2014, has students in ninth and 10th grades, and is preparing for its first 11th-grade class next September. Guidance Director Shira Botnick said that the goal of incorporating information about healthy living and good decision-making in the curriculum is to “create a mindset of accountability for oneself, one’s choices and one’s body.”
Weekly sessions with designated advisers facilitate discussions of the students’ physical and psychological heath, and there are also monthly workshops with Botniuck featuring in-depth talks on self-control, peer pressure, communication, self-esteem and coping with stress and anxiety.
“The tools that the students develop during these sessions and workshops are the first step in arming them with a health mechanism to combat situations where others, who may not have been prepared, would turn to drugs or alcohol,” Botnick explained. “This proactive, preventive approach, focusing on building up the students’ resilience and self-control, has been proven to be an effective method in averting dangerous or harmful adolescent behaviors.”
The program includes guidelines and rules for students that apply in and outside school, and a component to help parents understand how to monitor and communicate with their children, Botnick said, adding that the 11th-grade program will consist of workshops and advisory sessions focusing on the short- and long-term effects of drug and alcohol use.
The Brandeis School in Lawrence, which has children in pre-K through eighth grade, has initiated a new schoolwide curriculum. Each month, every teacher has a lesson on core values and how social, moral, ethical and educational behaviors intersect. Teachers also use current events, first-person stories, videos about decision-making and role-playing to discuss under-age drinking and drug use.
“To tell students to ‘just say no’ is not enough,” Head of School Raz Levin said. “They have to know why you must say no.”
Have an opinion or story about drug and substance abuse? Send your letter to the editor to jbessen@liherald.com.
