Rabbi Eliezer Rubin, principal at Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School in Livingston, says children “want to know there are adults who care about them and are creating a structure.”
Photo courtesy Eliezer Rubin
Sidebar
September 18, 2008
Fourteen Orthodox high schools, including Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School in Livingston, are enlisting in a new program to raise awareness of drug and alcohol abuse.
The Safe Schools Yeshiva Network Policy is intended to provide “support, education, prevention, and intervention,” according to a statement by the Orthodox Union, which spearheaded the effort.
Bu the policy can also include random drug and alcohol testing, locker searches, and mandatory counseling and treatment for the alleged abusers.
The OU said the efforts are “proactive”; local educators said their institutions are not currently dealing with drug or alcohol abuse in their student bodies.
“The motivation is very simple,” said Frank Buchweitz, national director of community services and special projects at the OU. “We live in a world which is susceptible to a number of influences, both positive and negative, and we want to be ahead of the curve in dealing with prevention. Where a situation may exist, we want to be involved in intervention and propose guidelines to help.”
Like all the educators who spoke with NJ Jewish News about the program, he insisted that it is not being implemented in response to any current drug or alcohol problems among the teenagers in their schools’ populations.
Rather, it is a “proactive approach in helping prevent substance abuse among teenagers and assist them in standing up to peer pressure” (see sidebar).
Chanie Moskowitz, principal of the Rav Teitz Mesivta Academy in Elizabeth, which is also participating in the program, believes the OU program was needed and has been “very successful as a deterrent.”
“Other schools were hesitant to begin programs because people were afraid that a school with an anti-drug program would be labeled as a school with a drug problem,” said Moskowitz, whose student body includes close to 200 boys. “That is not the case, because these policies prevent the problem.”
The school performs periodic hair sample tests on boys, which can detect illicit substances in a student’s system over the previous three months. Moskowitz said that the prospect of a random drug testing provides kids with an acceptable way to resist social pressure to drink or use drugs. When pressured, they can say, she said, “I won’t do this because if I get caught I am going to be expelled.”
“However,” she added, “if at any time a kid finds that he made a mistake and is seeking help, he can come forward, and we will work with the student and his parents to get him into an appropriate therapeutic situation.”
Rabbi Dovid Komet, newly appointed principal of Moshe Aaron Yeshiva High School, another participating school, and a math teacher at the South River school for 10 years, readily acknowledged that he has “no prior track record” of handling substance abuse problems.
“I had no incidents where students I was aware of were involved with drugs or alcohol, and I am not aware of any current problem, but I think it is best for all of the schools that we are unified” in fighting substance abuse, Komet said.
All of the yeshivas should have a uniform policy regarding the use of drugs and alcohol, he said.
“In today’s society, drugs and alcohol are rampant, they are not hard to find, and the best way of preventing our students from getting involved with them is to stand up and have a policy of strict enforcement.
“If students are aware we take it seriously, that will be the best way to head off anybody’s usage of these prohibited items,” said Komet.
‘Caring adults’
Rabbi Eliezer Rubin, principal at Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School in Livingston, also described the effort his school has implemented as a “proactive policy” whose aim is “to help students in making decisions.”
“Kids want to know there are adults who care about them and are creating a structure, which mandates drug counseling and testing for a student suspected of abuse,” he said. “Even for the vast majority of students who are not substance abusers, this is helping them feel safe in an environment in which they know adults are caring.”
At Kushner, however, random drug testing is not a part of the prevention efforts.
Such testing, said Rubin, “creates a shadow of suspicion in a community where the vast majority of children are healthy and community-minded. A successful school community is one where there is a certain amount of collaboration and cooperation among educators and students.
“The minute you start creating an atmosphere of suspicion and accusation, it will create a distance between learners and teachers.”
Komet continued: “I’m not denigrating the value of random drug testing. But I’ve heard it creates animosity and some kids carry extra bottles of urine” to subvert a test, he added.
“I would rather have a policy that meets our overall needs than a policy that undermines what we need to do for the majority of the children.”
OU’s Buchweitz said the specific implementation of the guidelines is up to the local schools.
“We cannot take away the power of the principals. That is up to them,” he said. “The main key is prevention through education and intervention.”
The OU has been active in substance abuse prevention for a number of years, spurred in part by an incident in 2004, when police were called to a raucous party in Livingston that included students from Kushner and other area public and private schools. Kushner also instituted a series of programs meant to educate students about the risks of abuse.
The OU policy includes an array of directives for responsible action by parents.
“There has to be proper supervision,” Buchweitz said. “People have to be vigilant. The bottom line is you can’t be oblivious if your kid is hosting a party in your home. If your kid is going, call the parents. Make sure there is actually a party, and the kids are going to be actively supervised to make sure drugs and alcohol are not going to be there.”
Guidance and discipline
OFFICIALLY, IT IS called the Safe Schools Yeshiva Network Policy.
At the schools adopting guidelines spearheaded by the Orthodox Union, the policy kicked in at the start of the school year.
Students and their parents are required to sign an agreement to abide by rules that can include random drug and alcohol testing, locker searches, and mandatory counseling and treatment for alleged abusers.
A student who voluntarily admits using drugs or alcohol before being detected will be given “the necessary help and guidance in a safe environment,” according to an OU statement.
“If intervention outside of the school is recommended, the student will be asked to return to school only after he/she has met with an approved mental health professional and the professional indicates in writing that the student is ready to return,” the policy says.
But a student who does not come forward or denies involvement and tests positive “may face disciplinary action or expulsion at the discretion of the school,” according to the program’s rules.
The scope of the program extends beyond the walls of the school.
“If it comes to the attention of the school that students attended an event or party where alcohol and drugs may have been used, the school, at its option, may test any student possibly involved, without further parental consent and at parental expense, for illegal drugs and/or alcohol. This on-campus testing will begin as soon as is practical for the school,” the guidelines say.
To assure compliance, “the student may be asked to leave the school” if he or she fails to seek treatment or tests positive for prohibited substances.
— ROBERT WIENER
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