CHARLESTON, W.Va.– Members of the education community from across the state gathered in Charleston Friday at the 15th annual KidStrong conference to discuss how the opioid crisis has affected classrooms and schools and to learn more about how to deal with the epidemic.
Around a thousand teachers, school nurses, guidance counselors, school administrators and others were at the Civic Center to receive information about mental health, substance abuse, trafficking and trauma that children in West Virginia can experience, and Becky King, West Virginia’s state school nurse consultant, said this year substance abuse and mental health are a big part of the event.
“The Department of Education gave grants out to all 55 counties, and those grants enable them (schools) to work on mental health and substance abuse supports,” she said. “In all, they can use all of those funds to work on mental health and work toward substance abuse, so I think that’s our big focus.”
The second day of KidStrong opened with Speaker Christina Mullins, Bureau for Public Health director, speaking about the current state of the opioid epidemic in West Virginia and how it affects classrooms and schools.
Speaker Tim White, Regional Prevention Coordinator for Prestera Center in Huntington, spoke on the opioid crisis Friday morning and reviewed the resources on the new Help and Hope WV website to combat drug addiction in the mountain state. Stars of the Oscar nominated documentary “Heroin(e)” Jan Raider, Patricia Kellner and Necia Freeman also spoke and discussed how Huntington is working to combat the problem and ensure children affected have the help they need.
King said that KidStrong is focusing on substance abuse prevention for both students and their parents.
“We know that our students still, by our Youth Risk Behavior Survey, are utilizing alcohol and marijuana in West Virginia, and we are very blessed that our numbers when it comes to opioids are still low (in students),” she said. “We still have lots of support, like mental health first aid, going on, and that is for adults so that elementary teachers and other teachers can refer parents to resources.”
The West Virginia Defending Childhood Initiative, commonly referred to as “Handle With Care,” is in attendance at the event as well.
Handle With Care works with local law enforcement to notify teachers of students who have recently undergone trauma. Many times, traumas that students experience are drug-related and can greatly affect their education.
“This event is so important, and I think why it has been so successful and maintained for 15 years, because I think these are the pieces that the classroom teachers are seeing grow with our substance-abusing community, and with all of that, they see those kids need more supports outside of the academic day,” King said. “They are all trying to figure out how to support them in school.”
Lola Brown, Harrison County Schools, was in attendance today and said this was her first time at the event, but she was learning a lot.
“I attended the main speaker session which really talked about the opioid crisis and how it’s affecting West Virginia,” she said.
KidStrong is said to be West Virginia’s largest school health conference, and other topics that will be covered throughout the rest of the day are nutrition, physical education and reproductive health.
Story by Jordyn Johnson