Dr. Neale and his sophomore students at Hidden Valley High School are working to bring community wellness topics into the SOL requirements; they will begin this project on September 15th and 18th with hopes to continue for years to come. This awareness is present in the community, but they hope to extend the education into schools for all students, by piloting the movement at Hidden Valley. Community wellness takes direct action to expose and explain the tactics behind the underage marketing of THC.
This is the first year Dr. Neale’s students have participated in this, but they are more than willing to listen and look out for the warnings. Addison Johnson (10) said, “I knew it was a problem, but I had no idea that it was this intense.” This project is further educating students, so they can notice food boxes or signs in public that seem odd and recognize that they are marketing the use of THC.
During class on September 15th and 18th sophomore students in Dr. Neale’s English class attended an assembly lead by Nancy Hans and others. Here they learned first-hand how detrimental the effects of addiction can be, but also how you can overcome and grow from your addiction. In addition to this assembly, his students are writing an essay about the opioid crisis and predatory marketing on THC that is projected towards teenagers. The movement is just beginning, but eventually the hope is that students across the U.S. will learn community wellness as part of their mandatory SOLS.
When asked how he plans to expand these SOLS throughout schools, Dr. Neale stated, “My goal is to weave community wellness into what we are already required to teach, so that it is both sustainable and meaningful. For example, this year in English we will use the persuasive SOL essay to explore the issue of predatory marketing by vape and THC companies.” He also explained that he was inspired to speak out against these harmful tactics because he read Dopesick in the summer of 2019 and was deeply moved by the stories of the families that were devastated by addiction.
Community wellness is a new topic in schools, but not a new problem in our community. With rising efforts for education and restriction these underage marketing tactics will not be successful for long. It is very important that everyone, not just students, stay educated to keep their family and friends safe, while out in the world with very vulnerable advertising.
