SOUTHINGTON - Town officials held the last joint meeting of the Southington Safety Forum Wednesday night at Derynoski School to discuss work done in the past eight months to combat drug abuse in town.

School Superintendent Joseph V. Erardi Jr. opened the evening by giving a brief history of past meetings. He talked about the new initiatives, the safety survey and the new arena of prescription drugs.

"What I'm most proud of is that because of the work we have done, we have been able to bring help to students," Erardi said. "We have connected the dots with a handful of students. Parents 4 A Change was on the outside, but we have been able to create a partnership between them and the school administration to work together. The message is understood."

Southington High School Assistant Principal Andrew Bayer gave a recap of the progress made. The student-run Team Life Community Committee has developed a mission statement to become a proactive presence in the community, he said.

School officials met with randomly selected students during lunch periods to discuss issues affecting teens, Bayer reported. What they found is that "Southington High School is not immune to substance abuse. Students thought that there were people inside the school who would help them, but did not know of outside resources. They did not think that drinking was a problem because everyone does it, ... but that substance abuse was a valid concern," Bayer said.

The administration will continue to meet with students.

Mary Marcuccio of Parents 4 A Change talked about the hands-on support her group is able to give.

"We meet with families on a weekly basis in crisis mode to give support," Marcuccio said. The group was recently at the high school, talking with half of the 10th-grade health classes, for 45 minutes. "All of the students left in tears, some made comments and showed their appreciation afterwards," Marcuccio said.

The group's Web site has allowed people to leave anonymous comments and take the Parents 4 A Change poll.

De Paolo Middle School Principal Frank Pepe give a brief update on the mentoring program that went on throughout the school year. Overall, it was a "positive relationship. We allowed any adult into the Building to Mentor program and the response was awesome," Pepe said.

The program gives the administration, teachers and mentors the "ability to listen to the students," Pepe said.

Sue Saucier, youth services director, gave the social services perspective side of progress. She said the Southington Townwide Effort to Promote Success will be hiring a new staff person to mobilize the community and schedule meetings. In the STEPS prevention programs, social workers have trained 47 middle school peer advocates. She said Youth Employment Services has 25 applicants for jobs and has been able to fund a program for fifth- and sixthgrade students called "What's Great About Us."

Albert Campagnano, principal of Kennedy Middle School, and Assistant Principal Pam Aldi discussed their investigation into the health curriculum at the school. What they found is that the curriculum "includes all necessary elements for drug prevention," Campagnano said, but that "there is a higher sense of urgency." Kennedy has had motivational speakers come give presentations, given out cards with numbers to call from home, and tried to reinforce communication with students. "We reminded students that we are here during the summer," Aldi said.

John Myer and Vickie Triano have been working on a fall summit to "come up with concrete ways to make a difference," Myer said. The summit, planned for after the Apple Harvest Festival, will include any group, person or organization that has contact with Southington youth. Triano was pleased with the progress made, saying "Southington has caught the vision."

Finally, Lisa Crofton of the Parks and Recreation Department talked about summer enrichment programs. New this summer is Confidence Journeys, an off-shoot of Confidence Builders. The weeklong program will include activities, peer interaction, and games to build leadership skills. Crofton hopes that after the week, students will "care enough about themselves to make a decision we would make."

No one from the Police Department was at the meeting to discuss whether Southington has a serious drug problem, but Harold Kane, founder of the Drug Task Force, says it does.

Erardi ended the night by posing this question to the panel: "Why can't we be the safest community in Connecticut?"

jzemke@record-journal.com

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