HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — One Garland County school district has been looking to be part of the solution to ending the opioid epidemic.
The Hot Springs School District is creating a new school-based peer education program.
The goal of the program would be to provide services and resources to junior and senior high students to prevent substance abuse and educate them about opioid overdoses.
"The school-based peer recovery program for Hot Springs School District would serve as the first of its kind, I believe in the state of Arkansas," Hot Springs City Director Dudley Webb III said.
He is the one who is sponsoring the new program.
"We're seeing this, this opioid epidemic happen all around us. It's happening everywhere we go in small cities and big cities. It's only a matter of time before the epidemic tries to creep inside of our school districts," Webb described.
Since he's also a parent, he has seen the need for a school program like this.
"I think we're doing our children a service, I think we are telling our child that listen, we care about you. We love you. We want you to be safe. We want you to make good drug-free decisions," he explained.
The plan is to hire a school resource officer and a peer recovery specialist. Narcan training will also be included.
Hot Springs School District Superintendent Dr. Nehus said in a statement: "As with the weapons detection system, the Hot Springs School District is proud to be a leader in our community by taking this proactive step to keep our students and staff safe. Safety and the well-being of everyone in our District is our top priority. We are excited to be the first in Arkansas to implement this peer recovery program once the funding is approved."
On Monday, the district also had a guest speaker who spoke to students about saying no to drugs and vaping.
"These pens are given to me by students, they come up after the assembly and they give me their vape pens. They turn them in. They're so moved by what I've shared with them that they want to quit so they turn in their vape pens. I got seven this morning from sixth, seventh, and eighth graders," Steered Straight Founder Michael DeLeon said.
DeLeon hopes his talk will continue to resonate with students.
"I'm not sharing something that I read in a book with kids. I'm sharing something that I lived," DeLeon said.
Around the end of October, the district should know if it will receive funding from the Arkansas Opioid Recovery Partnership to create the program.