Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, Loudoun Education Alliance of Families (LEAF) Committee Meeting, Monday, November 20, 2023

Date: Monday, November 20, 2023
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 2h 5m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/886626976?rel=0
BoardDocs (School Board): https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/loudoun/Board.nsf/Public

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-21. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:01:08] Good evening. Can everyone hear me? Welcome. My name is Erica Daly. I am the Vice Chair of Planning for LEAF, and I know that it's a very busy time for everyone, so we really appreciate you taking the time to be here.

[00:01:23] If you haven't already done so, please find a laptop and register that you're here. And you should be picking up, every time you come, a copy of the agenda, which also has the minutes from the last meeting, as well as a packet that has a blank space for notes.

[00:01:42] It always has some resources in the back, and I know we're going to get into those today. So welcome to the November 20th Loudoun Educational Alliance of Families meeting. This meeting will come to order. the first item um well first i would like to invite you all since we're a small group if you'd like to scooch in and get get a little closer get some warmth we're going to be having um with our guest speaker today a a back and forth discussion so um you don't have to move but if you'd like to you're welcome to kind of come a little closer to the front or to the middle so the first item on

[00:02:21] the agenda is public comment leaf meetings are open to the public and loudon county residents are welcome to attend the meeting but must refrain from interrupting the meeting's agenda. Per the LEAF Charter and Bylaws, public comments should address an agenda item. Members of the public who wish to address items on the agenda may do so at this time.

[00:02:41] Tonight's agenda will include a school board member update read into the record in the absence of the school board member, a presentation and facilitated discussion about fentanyl from the Director of Student Mental Health Services, and reminders, upcoming FYIs, and some housekeeping items. Do we have any public comments tonight? No public comments. Thank you. Seeing that no one is providing public comment, we'll move to the agenda item number three, which is approval of

[00:03:12] the minutes. The meeting minutes for the October 20, 2023 meeting are posted on the LEAF website and a few copies at your table for those of you who would like to review them. I will entertain a motion to accept the minutes from the October 20, 2023 meeting as submitted. Could you tell me your name? Thank you. Is there a second? And your name? Thank you. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any

[00:03:48] opposed? With no changes requested, the minutes stand approved as submitted. We'll now move on to the information items. It's just me tonight, so you're going to be hearing me a lot. Our school board member representative for LEAF, Erica Ogadegbe, is unable to join us this evening. However, she submitted a statement that she was hoping I could read.

[00:04:13] Good evening. I have an obligation out of town that prevented me from being able to join you this evening, but wanted to share my thanks for the opportunity to join you over the past year. I also want to congratulate and recognize Lauren Chernoff, our new school board member elect for Leesburg.

[00:04:30] A few updates on school board activities for the upcoming month. Based on the circumstances with the full board turnover, I've been working with the staff for the two committees I chair to wrap up things for the year and they will not have new policies starting review through either human resources and talent development or student behavior and accountability committees. This approach allows the new board to start fresh when they begin work in January. I expect there will be some policies coming through to the school board over the next two meetings from other committees. The three most significant items I

[00:05:10] understand the board will be scheduled to take action on by the last meeting in December include school boundary adjustments in Dulles South for elementary schools and an abbreviated secondary school boundary adjustment in Western Loudoun, review and approval of the capital improvement program, budget, CIP, vote on the collective bargaining resolution is anticipated for our last meeting of the year on December 12th. The draft will be discussed again in a special session of the L&P committee on Monday 11 or November 27th and during the school board meeting

[00:05:47] the next day on Tuesday November 28th. I've enjoyed learning from you and wish you the best for the rest of your term this year. Okay back to myself Erica spelled the same. Before we move on to the next informational item LEAF membership would like to remind the alliance which is all of us that the chair and vice chairs have continued to move forward according to the recommendations of its members. So, we've taken the subject matters that you have said that you want to discuss and learn more about, and we're working with the professionals and the staff

[00:06:24] administration to coordinate and have them come and talk to us. However, we, the staff that works with LEAF has not been getting a lot of feedback, questions in advance for those professionals, And so I want to remind you about ways that you can provide feedback.

[00:06:46] On this packet that I mentioned earlier, there's two QR codes. One is to sign in. The second one is feedback for after a meeting. When we are done with a meeting a few days later, you should be receiving an email that has what we talked about, the minutes, a small recap, as well as an opportunity there to provide feedback, ask questions, and then about a week prior, five days prior to the meeting that we're going to have, there's another opportunity. You can email someone questions when you find out

[00:07:26] who is going to be here, and there's also a link to provide questions. So we want this to be interactive. We want to know, the staff want to know specifically what you want them to address, if there's any issues that you really want to highlight.

[00:07:43] So please, in order for this group to be effective, we need to have communication. It's hard in a big group, so we're trying to provide forums. If that's not working, then we'll kind of have to go back and revise. Okay, back to the script.

[00:08:00] As the school board is about to engage in its organization meeting and LEAF will receive a new representative, this is a good time for the Alliance to reflect on participation and the two-way participation. Tonight is going to be a different kind of forum, as Mrs. Evans will be asking for assistance from us on how to increase community engagement and bring the information that you are learning back to your communities, as well as soliciting feedback through whichever channel you use, the PTA, principal, newsletters.

[00:08:34] And with that, I would like to shift our next informational item to the presentation and facilitated discussion from Jennifer Evans, who is here, the Director of the LCPS Student Mental Health Services. Thank you. Thank you all, and it's nice to be here.

[00:08:55] I appreciate the time in front of you to talk about something that's very important that's impacting Loudoun County. I don't have a script because I want this to be informal, and I want to have a dialogue with you all about the issue because the challenge is we've done many events for parents and for students and we're not seeing the numbers of people come out to learn about this risk that's in our backyard. So as you introduce me as the director of student mental health services, I think it's important to share my background. I'm a clinician. I've been in the mental health field for 25 years and 15 of those were treating adolescents and youth and adults who have

[00:09:34] substance abuse disorders. So I have that background and that's why I'm very passionate about this work. So I shifted to prevention to try to get ahead of it because I've seen where it goes. I've seen what addiction does to individuals, to families, and I wanted to prevent it from happening. So we're in a situation where we're not seeing that happen. And we don't have a lot of the services we need in Loudoun County. And we do have a lot of work that we're doing in the schools to prevent and educate. But that's where I need to lean on you all to help me get the word out about the risk associated with substance use. I should probably turn this on.

[00:10:13] There we go. Did you just click it? Oh, okay. I'm going to turn it on now. Thank you. Okay. So what I'm going to do today is just walk you through some of the challenges that we're seeing among youth, which do make them more at risk for substance use. I want to talk about some of the trends we're seeing, some that you're probably already aware of, some that you're not, but then get into fentanyl specifically. I also want to make sure you're aware of the supports in our schools, for students and for families. And then I want to get some information from you about next

[00:10:46] steps. So I'm going to ask you, outside of what you're seeing on the screen, what do you see as like the number one challenge for adolescents right now? I mean, I can go through this list, but it's really hard to be a teen right now. I remember being a teenager. It was a really long time ago. And the amount of stress I felt, I think we need to multiply that by 100 because what they're seeing is so different than what we explore I experienced a 4.4 GPA is the norm the

[00:11:21] dual enrollment the graduating with associates degree having to take IB courses and I appreciate all those but that's just additional weight on our students shoulders and expectations right and then they can compare themselves so comparing class rank comparing who gets into what school that happened a little bit but now it seems a lot more intense and then parents not I'm a parent myself so there's the comparison of even the own siblings right that happens which we don't intend to cause harm but we do in some regard because all kids are different they all have

[00:11:55] different strengths so academically do you see and I want you all just to chime in anything that I have left out here I mean they're expected to be independent at this age but they're still kids but I want to open up to you all to add any academic components that you're seeing yes

[00:12:15] Hi. Yeah, I was just having a conversation about this yesterday with a parent, and our consensus was that at the middle school level, the expectation that they go online to figure out everything that they need to figure out, like, so there's a little less, we've seen less from the teachers, like, okay, yes, this is what you missed, and this is what you need to do, and more of a, like, well, it's on you, you need to go online, you need to go find it, and that wasn't even an option when we were young, because there was no online when I was young.

[00:12:50] It was just, if you miss something, you got a packet of paper and you knew what you had to do. So just, I think, the technology and sort of the, I guess, leaning on technology to sort of make the kids more independent, maybe before they're quite ready to be independent.

[00:13:07] Thank you. And that is that independence that we're trying to foster. But some might think it's too soon, right? And for me, I have a ninth grader, so the jump from I can't get involved at all now because it's embarrassing to them. so I'm like okay just write your teacher advocate for yourself but he's still struggling with that go ahead honestly it's not just the expectation of independence it's the expectation without the demonstration so it's fine if you have that expectation of independence for your kids or for your students what the problem is is that it's not being demonstrated before it's expected

[00:13:44] And so just to use your example or your situation as an example of having your kids advocate for themselves, literally from the time my kids were in elementary school, really, fifth grade probably, I, when I would advocate for them in writing to their teacher, would copy them.

[00:14:07] So then when they started advocating for themselves in middle school, they copy me. And my 28-year-old, who's my oldest child, she still sometimes says, hey, do you have a minute?

[00:14:24] I want to make sure that the tone is right, that I'm not pushing too much or whatever. And she just forwards me whatever email or thing that she's doing. And that, I feel like, is the challenge, that they have the expectation of independence without the demonstration of how to do it.

[00:14:46] I love that example, and I appreciate you CCing your child on the email so they can learn from that. One more, and then we'll move to relationships because we'll have a lot to talk about. Go ahead. With all of this, I think that there is a loss of childhood in so many ways.

[00:15:06] I have a 12-year-old middle school boy, and he said to me the other day, well, I'm never going to get into a good college then. He's 12. You know, when I was 12, I was probably still, I mean, given that was a long time ago, but I was probably still out playing with my friends.

[00:15:26] And I want him as a 12-year-old to not have to think about all of this and constantly checking Schoology and worrying about what his, you know, grades are every minute of the day. I want him to be able to go play Legos and ride his bike with his friends.

[00:15:43] And that's lost when they have to have 4.4 GPAs as the norm. Right. I appreciate that. So let's talk about relationships, right? So the way that they manage relationships looks very different. The expectations of relationships look different.

[00:16:01] Social media has changed the landscape. Video games has changed the landscape. the pandemic changed the landscape on what friendships look like and what time together what quality time looks like so um one of the things that i think is really important is to look at social media and the comparison that often happens on social media which kids i mean we're flooding them they're flooding them with messages and those algorithms of what they want them to see what's going to get their attention what's going to make them want this product or what's going to

[00:16:37] what's the new makeup product? And then just the illusion of what a normal teenager looks like is constantly in their face. So is there anything that you all are seeing outside of social media, cyber bullying, all those other concerns that didn't necessarily exist when I was growing up?

[00:16:57] I remember like the most embarrassing moment I had. And then what happened after that is I got home and no one talked about it. Now, if you have an embarrassing moment, it's blasted out and it goes viral so you can't get away from your embarrassing moments but i see your hand i just want to touch on academic a little bit um my daughter took algebra i think in eighth grade maybe yeah so she already had three maths and she was going to take her fourth math which was algebra two whatever pre-calculus something like that pre-calculus her junior year and she's not a

[00:17:35] math person she struggled she was really struggling especially because she took geometry and algebra a two in COVID. So I don't know how much she really did. And so to come into pre-calc, we wanted to drop it. It was a fight because they're like, she won't get into college. She won't get into college.

[00:17:54] We're like, what? She already has three masks. Her senior year, she'll take a fourth. She won't get into college. This is what you're going to look at. Guess what? She's in college. Like she got into the school she wanted to go to, but it was a fight from the counselor and the head of the director of counseling it was so frustrating and it made her feel like crap right and they told her you will not get into college yeah we need to change that message consistently from all angles right like if a kid says this is enough parent says this is enough we need to draw that line and let them be and not have those expectations but i do want to talk about relationships because i think what's

[00:18:32] interesting is that the kids text right they don't have face-to-face conversations and if the teacher is not having that face-to-face conversation with the kid and really really building those relationships the kids are not going to them if they don't understand something they don't go to their teacher they sit and they're quiet and they're frustrated and they fail because they don't have that comfort level because they're not texting their teacher like they don't know how to have that one-to-one especially if the teacher's not engaging which right it's that sense of belonging wanting to feel part of something not only with your peers but also with the school

[00:19:09] community? I saw a hand over here. Okay, so I think this is going to be academic as well as relationship. It's hard to stop. So as, you know, our kids are being pushed, for the most part, going to college is what the gold standard is. That's what you're trying to do. Not every kid's going to go to college. Not every kid, that's what they want to do. Maybe they want to go in the army, or maybe they want to do a vocational training, but no one's celebrating that.

[00:19:43] You see, whenever there's award ceremonies, it's always on academic excellence. It's a real big push for that, not on the kid that is like, he was super kind, or maybe he has a great art project, or she's really good at working with robotics.

[00:20:01] It's just not celebrated as much. It is solely on, you have the 4.4, and then it comes to, and I'm talking about relationships of us as parents, as I'm sharing things, everybody's like, my kids got into this, my kid does this, look at what my kid does. What if your kid's the one that's not doing that? And it's hard because I know at our middle school when the eighth graders are starting to, I guess, not graduate, whatever you want to call it, the kids that are not getting those academic special accolades, they're not invited to the

[00:20:36] assembly at the end of school they don't get anything you get oh you can get a cupcake but all of your friends and all of their parents they get to go to this assembly and talk about how great they are but if that kid you know how does that make them feel all of their friends are at the assembly with their parents they're not celebrated and that is a real it breaks my heart I mean it's not my kid but I know two of my friends that's their kid and they don't get to they they almost feel ashamed like it's tough they don't want to what do they have to say my kid is barely

[00:21:11] struggling they're barely making it and i'm not making it i'm not positive so it's tough it's tough for the whole family and the whole community and what does that do for their sense of worth if they feel like they're outcasted from the celebration when success is really subjective right right totally not that gold standard that you're describing right okay okay so i kind of want to piggyback off of um what you said earlier about the modeling because i think it works both ways modeling positive um behaviors for academics and relationships but it also it can really work

[00:21:47] against us and i think right now kids not only have a relationship with each other a relationship with their community but they are expected through social media to have a relationship with the world and with what's happening in our world and they're processing that in their schools in their communities in their homes and if you look at the decorum online with the way people talk about each other and treat each other it's pretty rough and so what example are we setting when we have adults behaving that way how can we expect our children to have a higher standard of moral accountability

[00:22:22] than we do and that's something that really makes me nervous about giving my 11 year old any access to the digital world, and not because I don't trust her, but because I just don't want her to see any of that, that that's okay, that that's how we treat each other, or for her to be a victim of any of that, so I would challenge us to be introspective that way as parents and as community members to, you know, flip this on its head and take accountability for ourselves and the way we behave first before we expect them to, you know, have those strong interpersonal relationships as

[00:22:58] well. Very good point. So I'm going to shift to mental health because we have a lot of information we're going to go through. But mental health, adolescence, that's the time where you're identifying who you are, right? But it's also the time where peer pressure comes into the mix. And then it's also the time where onset of mental health issues can emerge, right? So I'm going to ask you to tell me, and I don't want you to raise your hands yet. I'm going to read a set of symptoms and I want you to tell me what you think it's a symptom of, what they're symptoms of, okay?

[00:23:28] So low motivation and energy, sleep or appetite disturbance, irritability, depressed mood, decline in school performance, loss of interest, pleasure in activities, thoughts of self-harm, and problems with primary support group.

[00:23:43] How many of you think that's mental health? How many of you think that's substance use? That was a trick question, right? Because oftentimes we think it's mental health, and nobody's asking about substance use.

[00:24:00] So a lot of kids are going with these set of symptoms and we're never asking about use. They're all the same. So I wanted to just make that a point. And oftentimes, middle school is when kids first try something. That's when they first try a vape because of the illusion that it's safe.

[00:24:18] So I am going to move into some of the trends that we're seeing. But I'm going to ask you to tell me what you know about these trends as well. So how many of you know what an e-cigarette and a vape is? Okay. Everybody does.

[00:24:33] Okay. How many of you know kind of the history of the Tobacco 21 law and the loopholes with that? So they changed the age to 21 to buy anything, right? Any vape device. But what they didn't do, and to buy the flavored liquids that every kid is being sold on, right?

[00:24:54] Like cotton candy and caramel latte and all those things that sound fantastic. But what they didn't do is keep kids from buying disposables online. So there's a loophole. So you can get tons of disposables, use them, throw them out, use them, throw them out.

[00:25:12] So kids are still using this. And there's often stores, vape stores, that will sell. Even if you're not 21, they're not asking for IDs in our area. One of the things I always like to point out is, have you ever seen those vape stores? And they're all bright and they have the LED lights.

[00:25:28] How many of your kids have LED lights in their rooms? So they're marketing that. They're trying to make it look like their space. That's part of the marketing scheme is to use those lights because those lights are what every kid has. I actually heard some parents raise their hands before, but they're trying to appeal to the younger kids.

[00:25:48] I mean, that's part of them wanting to make money off our kids. The content, regardless of whether they say it's nicotine, there's no nicotine in it. It's a lie. Nicotine is in every single one, and the amount of nicotine is one cigarette to one vape, one little jewel, is equivalent to 50 cigarettes.

[00:26:07] And it's this much liquid, right? Talk about addiction. You're priming the brain for addiction. So when kids are saying it's vaporless, it's odorless, there's no nicotine in this, their brain is being wired at such a young age, which then sets them up for more likelihood to develop substance abuse.

[00:26:29] Kids are being sent to the hospital. They're becoming nick sick, which means they've had so much nicotine. They have an overdose of nicotine. So they're vomiting. Their heart rate goes up. they're sweating, difficulty concentrating, all those things.

[00:26:44] So we've had those situations in our schools. We didn't know what it was. Many thought it was marijuana. It was actually just nicotine when the parents tested. So 24.8% of high school students have tried, and about 15% to 16% use regularly in high school.

[00:27:04] I want to pause because I want to see if you have any questions about nicotine, e-cigarettes, but I'm also going to show you some of what they look like. They've evolved. They're very discreet. some look like highlighters some look like thumb drive then you can see all the ones on the bottom left are the disposables they're puff bars so what

[00:27:32] questions do you have about these yes I don't so they do education in dare about e-cigarettes but then we also have in health and PE lessons but then our student assistant specialists do presentations in sixth grade eighth grade ninth grade and they go into all this detail about the risks the question was, is this incorporated into DARE? I think DARE does an overview in elementary school, but then

[00:28:10] our student assistant specialists and our health and PE teachers, as well as FLE teachers, layer more education for kids. And we'll do vaping-specific lessons as well for students, especially when there's a middle school that's having an uptick in the restrooms. And the other thing is, it's not always nicotine or e-juice that's in these, because they can empty them and add other juice, so we're

[00:28:37] finding THC oil in some of these as well. Yes. No. So some, so we, most of our 11th and 12th grade presentations are more about preparing for the transitions, right? And so they're a little bit different depending on the school, but we have one student assistance specialist to every middle and high school. So they do presentations whenever they're asked to, they go into the health and PE classrooms and support that education there. But they also do assemblies. We've had a couple

[00:29:12] related to fentanyl exclusively and some specific to just vaping okay who's heard of a cart yes okay so a cart they're um they're rising in popularity too because what you're taking is a very highly concentrated amount of thc which makes it that much more potent than they're putting it into this device and smoking it so concentrated meaning if you look at like the marijuana of the

[00:29:52] 70s, it was about 30% THC. Now it's about 90% THC. So the high is that much more intense with the marijuana we're seeing today. And then if you concentrate that and you heat it and extract just the THC, it becomes a goo, kind of like a paste, and they're putting them in devices and smoking them. So the intensity is that much higher, plus the addictive potential is that much higher. So

[00:30:25] you can easily see a kid who goes into intoxication with this amount of marijuana, and those are just some of the symptoms that we're seeing, but it's also called goo and dabbing. There was a dance probably like four years ago that was called the dab. I didn't really realize what it was, and then I found out what it was, and my kids were doing that dance, but not for that reason. They just saw it on social media, right? So again, one of the things that I always want to point out here with the e-cigarettes and the marijuana is when you have a perceived low risk of harm the use of a

[00:31:01] substance goes up when there's a perceived higher risk of harm we see the drug use go down so we've legalized marijuana you can get delta 8 right now in the in the stores which is light marijuana and it's legal delta 9 is the traditional thc but if you went into any of these vape shops or even gas stations, you'd find something called Delta-8, which will give you a really significant high as well. So I think a lot of parents don't realize these things are available, and there's no regulation on any of those right now. There's Phenibut, there's Kratom, there's things that

[00:31:40] you see the signs for. Kratom is similar to like an opiate, and then Phenibut is like a pain pill as well. Go ahead. Delta-8, is that for 21, or is it 25, or what age is it? 21. Delta-8, Interesting.

[00:32:03] Yeah. So all of those things that I mentioned, some are advertised as dietary supplements, herbal supplements. Kids can get those from these stores that aren't asking for IDs. And they can have a high or a low or some sort of experience with them.

[00:32:20] And the Delta-8 from research has shown that it's similar to, you get like a 50% of the high you would get from Delta-9, which to me is pretty significant and unnecessary.

[00:32:37] Any questions about this? All right, and now we're getting into this one. How many of you know about these? Okay, lots of hands going up. And this is really a good marketing strategy.

[00:32:54] I don't know if anyone's been to New York, in Times Square. I went last year, and tables all along the street with cinnamon toast crunch, Doritos. They're marketing to kids right on the street there. I haven't been to D.C.

[00:33:09] I would imagine some similar are being sold there. We have had students with what looked like a cinnamon toast crunch snack in our schools. And when we did a search, we found it. The kid's face went completely blank. And then you read it really close.

[00:33:26] It says what? Chronic? What does that say? I can't even see that far. Chronic toast crunch, not cinnamon toast crunch. So it is really, really in the fine print. You'll see. But the concentration of marijuana in these is significant.

[00:33:44] So I don't know if you've heard of what happened in Colorado when they first legalized edibles. There was a person who ate a fourth of a cookie. And I don't know about you, but I ate a full cookie if I'm going to have a cookie. But he ate a fourth of a cookie. And he thought he could fly, and he jumped off a parking garage and killed himself as a teenager.

[00:34:02] So it's something that we all need to be aware of, and you can easily overdose. Edibles, questions about that. It looks like gummy bears. It looks like typical snacks that you would get in the grocery store. Stash items.

[00:34:25] There's a whole market in clothing and ways to hide the substances. So these are just examples. There's a phone case that has a place to hide your drugs. That backpack is a spray ground backpack, which once I saw this, I was like, I've seen that a lot.

[00:34:43] I've seen kids with that. So you get the backpack, and inside there's a teeny little pocket, and there's a card inside that says, congratulations, you found your stash pocket. Shh, so don't tell anyone. So, perfect place to hide substances until they find out this is that type of a backpack.

[00:35:00] That hat, you can see they have a hidden pocket in like the seam. There's highlighters. There's medication bottles that people can hide things in. There's jackets that actually, the strings for the jacket are actually vapes. So, I saw those at the vape store right up here in Goose Creek when I walked by.

[00:35:20] So, I would encourage you all to go into those stores and just see and ask questions and see what products are out there any questions about stash products spray ground and that's the classic mouth it's a shark right so that's appealing to kids like middle school kids yes are there any efforts being made to keep it out of the school like when i see things like this i've heard my daughter's friends talk about they know where drop zones are like it's well known in

[00:35:59] the schools that it's happening is there anything being done to keep it out absolutely but these things are very hard to find um they because they make them look so um small and look like markers look like pens unless there's a reason to suspect or kids presenting a certain way you can't just search a kid but if they're seeing things like shirts hats things that identify with that gang affiliated things they're addressing that but is there a protocol to address it like what is the protocol if to search so if a student done regularly yes so if a student presents and they

[00:36:39] seem impaired the student is then seen with the nurse if the student is not impaired but someone says they have something on them that's and their question that's ground for a search and the student can search their own bags parents can come in and search the bags in front of administration sros have to be part of that so that's more of a school administration but if there's reasonable suspicion they can search a kid. So does that mean a kid has to be in crisis before that protocol is triggered? No. So you can have a kid under the influence which would be that situation but if there's also concerning behavior reports that come in that a student might have

[00:37:19] something they will question those students as well. So if there's a group of kids in the bathroom they're caught on camera there's a puff of smoke that comes out with the kids they can question all of those kids yes so two things i was when i was teaching i had a kid sit on the floor and he got up and a thumb drive fell out of his pocket and i was like who's is this you know i totally know like who's is this and he was like i was like how's more work for me like now i have to do something so that can happen it just falls out the other thing i do know they search in the bathrooms

[00:37:57] because the kids hide them up in the drop ceiling and so they'll swing through the bathrooms and go into the drop ceilings because kids will leave them there for their friend or something like that. So they are actively searching. I mean, not just the kid presenting.

[00:38:12] Yeah, they're sweeping like the high traffic bathrooms. There's a shift, right? It's one bathroom one week. It's the next bathroom next week because they move, right? And they hide things in the ceiling tiles or in the toilet paper holder or in the tampon machine. You'll find a lot of things.

[00:38:29] Yes. Sorry, who is they doing the searches? - So SROs, good question, safety and security officers and school resource officers, as well as administrators are all part of that, maintaining the environment and checking those things.

[00:38:45] - Is there like a policy that gives a frequency? Like how often do they do it? Do they do it like once a week, once a month, once a day? - I can't answer that, I'm sorry. I can find that out though. - Yeah, I know we read things about reports from kids, I think at the, I forget the name of the school, where the 19 overdoses or whatever it was happened.

[00:39:06] that were saying that there's stuff stashed in all these different places all throughout the school and they, you know, kind of know where it all is. We didn't see anything about any search happening, so it's like I guess that would be a communication point. It would, but typically if we hear something like that, they're sweeping the school to make sure that there's nothing, that they are hearing about the locations, they're checking those locations.

[00:39:29] But that would be a communications office question. Yeah, no, I guess that does be a good take back for them for letting parents know that there's some outcome to that because we hear the rumor but then we see no outcome. Yeah you would want to know. Yeah. Did everything get checked? Are we all clear? Yeah. Yes. I understand that. Yeah. Thanks. Yes. My question is is there any was there any thought that has gone into perhaps creating like a chaperone system for the bathrooms or a volunteer program for parents to volunteer to chaperone in the bathrooms and my question is coming from

[00:40:09] I had teenagers that brought up that the bathrooms, it's like a common location where they've actually witnessed children or other teens smoking marijuana or vaping and exchanging pills in the bathroom and using it, too.

[00:40:30] And they mentioned that there's no supervision, and it's a common thing. And I agree with you. I think that is a common issue, not only Loudon, but nationwide, because kids will go into stalls together, right? And we can't monitor what they're doing. We can go outside, knock on the door, and they can hide the things that they're using, right?

[00:40:50] So there's that challenge. I don't know if we've looked into chaperones, but I do know that we are looking at just monitoring, sweeping, doing that more regularly when we find out about those high-traffic bathrooms or if there's concerns.

[00:41:06] But I always tell parents and students that they should download that Safe to Talk app because they can report it anonymously. They can say the student's name. They can say anonymous, and it goes straight to the school, and then they'll do an investigation. The administrators get that when it's a school safety concern.

[00:41:23] Yes? Do they still have dogs that do random drug sniffs throughout the school? When I was in high school in Loudoun in 2000, they would do random, random checks, locker checks.

[00:41:40] So when I first started in Loudoun County, I remember that happening too. I know they're talking about that. I'm not sure where we are with that. It would be a Loudoun County Sheriff's Office. It was very efficient. Yes. They like did a lockdown, right? And then the kids had to stay put. I think the challenge with that is a lot of the stuff might be on the kids.

[00:41:58] And we can't sniff kids. You know, high school students aren't really using lockers unless it's in the bathrooms that we're talking about. So I know they're talking about that. I don't have an answer. So I asked, and they actually don't train dogs to do marijuana anymore, and they can't really smell the vapes and the pills.

[00:42:21] So the dogs aren't trained. I asked the same thing. I'm like, so what? I'm like, yeah, let's just still do it for the office, right? Kids don't need to know that. But they also are not in their lockers either anymore. So that was another thing. They need to get close to the substance to smell it.

[00:42:39] I went to high school in a military base, so I think our rules were a little different. We had the dogs come through. We would have to put our backpacks out in the hall. I don't think that would be allowed anymore because people would freak out. But we had to put them in the hall for the dogs to sniff.

[00:42:57] But yeah, they're not trained to smoke. I was surprised. But don't tell the kids. Yeah, I think we should still do it, even if they can't smell the marijuana. or the fentanyl yes um i just wanted to say that if volunteering to monitor the halls or the bathrooms in your school is something that you're interested in you should reach out to the principal because i know that our principal has been more than happy to have parents volunteer extra parents volunteer to be around during class changes near the bathrooms in the hallways near the cafeteria

[00:43:35] i don't know if there's like an official sign-up sheet for that but i know that it happens at least at our school. There was a group of dads that went to Loudoun and offered. They all had top security clearance. They were shut down. They were told it was not allowed. They would not let parents in. It was a hard no. I can certainly ask and share the feedback to see if that's something they would consider. I do know at my kids high school they're doing hall monitors to have one kid into the bathroom at a time. Like they're monitoring that to not allow. It's harder I think at lunch

[00:44:14] and that's where a lot of this happens and so they kind of lock down all bathrooms at lunch except for two so they can stand outside um but that's what they're doing at lightridge all right so i want to move on to fentanyl because that's what we're here really to talk about um what do you all know about fentanyl i mean i could sit here and tell you what it is but it's what go ahead

[00:44:48] my only uh fentanyl um i guess exposure when my dad had cancer they had patches on him because It was something they could apply dermally because he had mouth sores from chemotherapy. So they put it on. That was his only pain relief. And it was great because it, you know, goes dermally.

[00:45:06] It is very potent. As soon as he, you know, we needed to move him, everything had to be taken away. All the patches, all the stuff, all of those things were taken and locked down and, you know, dealt with.

[00:45:23] But we still had liquid morphine, I will say that. We just dumped it in the toilet, which I know is not a good thing. But I know that they said it was, I mean, actually it's up there. Never mind. It's like 100 times more potent than the Percocets and the liquid morphine that he was getting.

[00:45:39] Right. So that's pharmaceutical. Right. Yes. Patches. Absolutely. And this is synthetic, man-made drug dealers making this. And it's very easy to make it. So as you can see, those are fake pills and authentic pills. And they look very much the same.

[00:45:55] Even the DEA said they can't tell the difference. The only way to tell the difference is if you crush it up and test it. Because even if you just test one part of the pill, that might not be where the fentanyl is. So it's 50 times more powerful than heroin and 100 times more powerful than morphine.

[00:46:12] And it only takes 2 milligrams to kill you. So I'll show you the size of the amount. But what's happening is drug dealers from different countries have found a way to make a lot of money. And some people are taking pills thinking it's a Percocet, thinking it's an Adderall, thinking it's a Vicodin.

[00:46:29] from their trusted friend, and they're getting this. So no one knows this is in there. So it's pretty much fentanyl poisoning. We also have people in our county who their drug of choice is fentanyl because they're so far along in their addiction, that's all they can afford.

[00:46:45] So every time they're using it, they're gambling with their life and they have no treatment options. So that's kind of where we are with it. But I think it's important that you know that there's poisoning is happening a kid may take some drug for the first time ever and they die I've heard from parents who lost their kids who were LCPS graduates 21 23 25 died from taking one pill so the one pill can kill is really the message we need to get out there as well as my passion which

[00:47:20] is getting treatment for people who are struggling with addiction but go ahead yeah I was just trying i don't um i don't know if i'm the only one but i don't understand why drug dealers are putting fentanyl in fake pills like i guess i don't understand the concept aren't they just killing off their customers like what like what why are they doing it why is it happening because it's cheaper to make the pills with fentanyl than it is to make to get oxycodone percocet adderall real pills are much more expensive but wouldn't they just give them like a fake but like with nothing

[00:47:56] in it then instead of a fentanyl i guess then they're not going to keep them around so okay there's a chance but they also are giving an intense impact on their central nervous system and the dopamine and the if they don't die the high is amazing right so that's the good stuff they're going to go back for that they don't know it's fentanyl okay and so they think that it's something else they think it's a legit pill and they've never right they can't tell the difference right nobody can tell the difference go ahead yeah no i can i can answer that a little bit too is it

[00:48:31] they um when people have a opioid tolerance they they're more likely not to die so someone who's taken multiple pills before has taken them then they're probably yeah they're going to have a tolerance to someone who's taken a pill for the first time or has only taken a couple times more likely to to overdose and then you know plus your own factors in your in your body but they they they produce it in china like one molecule off from like real fentanyl so it's not actually the regular fentanyl it's like a molecule off fentanyl yeah and it's super cheap and they just ship it over here in bulk and what i try to encourage my team to tell kids is i it's the

[00:49:07] chocolate chip cookie theory so when you get a chocolate chip cookie and let's just that's the analogy for the pill you get either one chocolate chip cookie or you get a lot you have no idea right and if you get a lot you're going to die and i've had one student tell me they took a fourth up a pill and they overdosed. So it's really, really powerful and scary. So I want to show you the picture of what the amount is, just the tip of that pen pencil. Go ahead. The other thing to

[00:49:43] answer your question about why would the drug dealers do this? We have to keep in mind, these aren't actual pharmacists, right? So they're not measuring for accuracy. They're not like making sure that the whatever they're dissolving is evenly dispersed and all of that so it's kind of like what she said about the chocolate chip cookies they're just making up a batch and throwing it together they're not worried about consistency quality control all of those things it's just fast and getting them you know to make the money so ultimately they may end up with a batch that's

[00:50:19] got low dose pills that don't even get you high and then high dose pills that will kill you. So that's kind of what happened. Yes, there's no consistency in them and they're just making them as fast as they can to sell them. Go ahead. Do we know the statistics on how many ODs that we had in Loudoun County and in comparison to other school districts? I don't have that data. And what I will say is that when you say overdose, it's a suspected overdose, right? Because the only

[00:50:57] way to know for sure is what the medical provider does. Is that a blood test? Was it a urine test to detect it? And then sometimes we don't get that information back because of HIPAA. So we're defining an overdose as a student who might be unconscious, who needs life-saving measures, who is given the Loxone or just life-saving measures and needs emergency medical care.

[00:51:25] But I do know this, we're not alone. This is not just a Loudoun County issue. I've seen this pop up in Arlington, Prince William, and across the nation. But I do know Loudoun County Sheriff's Office has the data on 18 to 24-year-olds and the numbers.

[00:51:44] And I think they have that publicized on their website, as well as the DEA site. I would go there, too. So seven out of the 10 pills that the DEA has seized have fentanyl in them. So those are illicitly made drugs.

[00:52:00] And then you can see where we are with our pills being seized. We've beaten last year with the amount of pills we've found in Virginia. Go ahead. My guess is it's $10 a pill.

[00:52:22] Yeah, that's a guess. So I know you don't have a statistic on the number of overdoses, but do you know how many doses of Narcan have been dispersed in Loudoun County Public Schools this year? Trying to rack my brain to see if I know that.

[00:52:41] I can get that for you because I know we have that. So every time a nurse administers Narcan, we have a tracking device. We have a tracking system for that. I don't know if the CCO has shared that, but we can get that information. Okay, and just a follow-up question.

[00:52:58] Does every school nurse now have Narcan in the building? Yes. So are you ready for the list of people who have naloxone? Because I carry it as a t-shirt. Yes. Well, go ahead. And I'm just hoping that every school nurse has at least two, if not 12 doses.

[00:53:19] Yes. So every secondary school has four to five people trained and four to five doses at least. Every elementary school has at least one to two doses. But the folks that are trained are administrators, student assistance specialists, student health services staff, athletic directors, directors of school counseling.

[00:53:38] Some teachers have opted for this training. So we're going to keep doing this training to equip people in the event that something happens. We want to be prepared. So we've trained close to 900 LCPS employees to administer and respond. Yes.

[00:53:56] And just an aside, everybody, there is free training through Loudoun County Department of Public Services. So it's in my slide deck. You don't get there. It's okay. All right.

[00:54:12] So these are the signs that we're seeing. The pupils are pinpoint pupils. So kids or anyone who's having an overdose may look like they're falling asleep, nodding out, go unconscious. Their breathing is probably the key.

[00:54:28] It's like a gurgling sound that you'll hear when someone is struggling to breathe. Their body is limp. The skin can look bluish, purplish, grayish. Those are all telltale signs for our staff when they are administering naloxone.

[00:54:45] and doing CPR and calling 911 and, in some cases, using the AED. So if you see that scan, that QR code, that's where you can get the revived training.

[00:55:04] If you go to their website, they also have a six-minute video. So they're doing in-person trainings, which are about an hour, but they also have a six-minute video. You put your information in there, put your address in. They'll send it to your house so you'll have a kit. So I would encourage you all to do that and help share that information.

[00:55:20] wanted to make sure you had these resources so the DEA has a one pill can kill campaign the student assistance specialists are the substance abuse experts in our schools who work at the middle schools and the high schools and do the presentations work with families do groups do individual when kids do get in trouble or caught with a substance or their parents are concerned they do a class with the kids and then they'll follow them until they graduate Whether the kids like it or not, they're checking in with them to make sure that they're doing okay.

[00:55:53] Then there's the student mental health services page, which is everything under my office. And we also included this drug emoji decoder, which I think you have in your information. It changes on a regular, but Snapchat, text messaging, all of those things are how kids are selling to one another.

[00:56:15] The cash app is another hot thing for them to deal. Venmo as well. So if your kids do have those apps, do have Snapchat, you want to look out for those things and ask them where their money is going. This is where I need your help. I presented this information at the school board. These are things that we've already done. We have had six events that started last year, one on November 4th. I presented to the school board on May 9th as well.

[00:56:47] We've done the training, but we've only reached 450 parents in a year with this message. And I talked to you about our student assistance specialists and our expanded partnerships to help get treatment to the kids who do need treatment.

[00:57:06] So the Williams Center is the only treatment center in Loudoun County that accepts kids who have Medicaid and who have insurance and who don't have insurance at all. that is the only outpatient treatment center and what I said to the school board in my presentation was they've had to send people to treatment the closest treatment center for a student who has Medicaid is Kansas so we have a problem it's statewide it's not Loudoun County so we're trying

[00:57:41] to advocate for more treatment options there's no detox in Loudoun County for youth if you go to the hospital as an adolescent for fentanyl use you will get discharged with mild fentanyl abuse diagnosis which to me is completely unethical you should be sent immediately to a treatment center because you're gambling with your life every time you use the substance this is our plan with next steps we're going to get more folks trained to do revive including myself we're going to review our medication policy we're looking at the ways to remove the barriers to treatment

[00:58:17] and then there's some alternative programs that we're looking to establish in Loudoun County some short-term some long-term but I've really had a passion for creating a recovery school so when a kid goes away to treatment and they're not ready to go back to their 1800 student population where all the people places and things are they could go to a school that would be more therapeutic that would have drug testing that would have group until they're ready transition centers if a kid has a hospitalization for two weeks from a mental health diagnosis and they're not ready to go back because of safety concerns, suicidality, significant anxiety.

[00:58:54] Could we have a transition center that could be short-term to help foster their growth before they go back to school? So we're looking at middle schools and high schools for that. And then a 30-day program, which I'd love to also have for students who have repeat violations of the policy and aren't ready to get help.

[00:59:12] So can we remove them, get them more targeted psychoeducation, help them with their motivation to change, require parent involvement in the education piece and get them to a place that they're ready to accept help.

[00:59:28] So X number of years ago, when I believe his name was Dr. Williams, he was the principal of the Douglas School, I thought that they had programs at that school for kids with drugs and other things.

[00:59:49] But I've heard that it's like not part of North Star anymore. It went away. I know when the new principal came in, the Douglas Center, it just didn't, wasn't run as awesome as it was before. But, like, what happened with that?

[01:00:06] So that's kind of twofold, and I can answer some of it. So we used to have our insight class there. So anytime kids had violations, whether middle school or high school, they would be bused to the Douglas School where you'd have two student assistance specialists facilitate a class. The idea was for it to be early intervention, right?

[01:00:24] So a kid gets caught for the first time. They're going to go to these three days. they're going to self-reflect and they're going to be better and they're not going to have these challenges, right? But as kids got more and more sick, it wasn't appropriate to put those kids together in a group setting because you'd be exchanging phone numbers. You have a new dealer now. You're learning new tricks from people who are more advanced than you. Let's just be honest.

[01:00:47] So we ended up individualizing our insight class in the school. Plus, that's when we used to have a policy that if a kid got caught, they were suspended for 10 days and they were sent to Douglas for 30 days first offense so you're removed from your environment for 40 days it was very punitive it's hard to get the interventions to them when they're sitting at home maybe smoking more so we had to wait to get the intervention so now we've gone the other way where they're coming back they're going in ISR we're getting them the intervention but it's sometimes not appropriate

[01:01:22] to put them in a group the school did shift in kind of who they're serving so I'd like to bring back a 30-day that I could design to make it more intentional. Yes. Are teachers covered under the Good Samaritan law to administer Narcan? And I'm under the understanding that it is not harmful even if it's not an overdose, if a kid's just sleepy or whatever. Yes. Yes, you are correct.

[01:01:48] Because I know teachers are pretty afraid of any action against them. So, you know, doing that kind of thing, even without training or, you know, different things, I think could be put them in a tricky spot yes so you are covered under the good samaritan law if you do administer naloxone it is not harmful to you if you don't have an opioid in your system it's just an opioid anti anti i can't think of the word anti-ox not an antioxidant there's a word but i can't think of it a blocker

[01:02:22] yes so i was at the school board meeting uh last tuesday and there were several teachers who spoke out and who brought up similar points to what you just addressed with those last three items. And so there seems to definitely be some critical mass. So I was wondering, what is your timeline? What are your next steps? Is this something that's going to be going before our new school board in early 2024? How do you see this going in terms of timing and the urgency

[01:03:02] that I think so many people are feeling right now. Can I ask a clarifying question? The timeline for the naloxone training or for the whole plan? For specifically the Recovery High School Transition Centers and 30-day program plan.

[01:03:20] If it was only up to me, we would have them next year, but it's not up to me and there's a budget attached to it and funding that we have to determine. I do believe we will have one of those next school year. In the meantime, we're continuing to work with students, provide additional supports within their school setting, link them to treatment, try to figure out ways to get them connected.

[01:03:45] Yes. I'm sorry. I keep talking. Is there something that we can do to support that from the school board, but also what about the county supervisors? I mean, it seems like a bigger need, oddly, than outside, you know, more than just LCPS.

[01:04:01] It's our whole county, regardless if they're going to our school. Yeah, so I think it's just Northern Virginia in general. So yeah, if you want to advocate to the Board of Supervisors, they're well aware, at least at Loudoun County Government, that there's a gap in services. They do a lot of crisis intervention in our county, which is really appreciative, but I feel like we're doing a lot of prevention and early intervention.

[01:04:21] And then there's this middle where we used to have students court-ordered to treatment, which I know we don't want to put kids in the legal system because of the school-to-prison pipeline, but back in the day, it used to be you do treatment and your charges are dismissed, right? You get clean, your charges go away, and we communicate with probation. That's how I mostly worked with kids, and there was an accountability piece that I feel like we're missing. I know you

[01:04:53] talked about there being things in FLE and PE and, you know, fifth grade with DARE. Is it worth looking at even younger like i don't know third grade i mean i can imagine that there are kids who are going to see i mean a lot of that stuff looks like candy um you know is it is it um worth looking at um like even some of the sel lessons and talking about you know not um taking things that

[01:05:30] i don't know i that's a good question and i do know that with health mpe there's standards of learning that starts in fourth grade not specific to fentanyl but about what's a safe medication what's a not safe medication who do you take medication from only your parent only a doctor right and then if you find a medication that's not yours what do you do but I think that's a

[01:05:53] good point about the candies and what that looks like oh thank you okay okay well that's good to

[01:06:15] know yes right let's that is good to know okay yes this goes back to a question that was asked a second ago about what we can do. I thought the purpose of this group for the last 18 months was to develop positions and get them to the school board so that there's actually an active voice. And I'd actually like to see this group put some sort of position to the school board instead of sitting in here talking about stuff and asking what we can go home to do. I'd like to spend, it's not going to happen tonight, but again, I've railed on this in a number of other

[01:06:55] meetings. I'm getting off of your topic for a second. We need to change a little bit of the structure of what we're doing here so we can actually put positions forward as a group to the school board and great presentation thank you very much I know it's going to continue but we really need to get on the side of action versus the side of being presented to all the time all right this goes this is no indication of here tonight but if we want to do something then we need to do something to me it's pretty simple and so the question back to you is what actions are you looking for generally but I'm also asking what specifically do we need to tell

[01:07:34] a new school board about actions the parents might want to take. And also understanding in this group, we may have differing opinions on what that really means, but here we go. So anyway, I want to put that out. I don't know how we handle that in here, but I think we need to start taking action on things.

[01:07:51] Yeah, 100% agree. I had submitted a question online, and it looks like we're running out of time, so I'm going to ask it now. Especially with the online submission thing, I'm like, does it make sense if we're just asking questions here. With the school board plans, and not trying to turn this into any other topic, I know it's a touchy subject, but with the school board's plans to do the floor-to-ceiling bathroom stalls, and just knowing the time that it takes to administer Narcan to, you know, if

[01:08:31] someone overdoses, they stop breathing. So, I mean, you're dead in a matter of minutes. If someone overdoses in a floor-to-ceiling bathroom stall that you know they're advertising as completely private which they are you're probably not going to detect them in time to save their life if someone overdoses in a traditional stall you're going to see them lying on the floor and hopefully you know get there in time and be able to save the life is this school gonna I mean is the administration going to make any kind of recommendation to walk that suggestion back in light of just the safety element, taking all the other considerations along with it out of the picture?

[01:09:08] I don't have the answer to that. I know that they are pausing right now. I know they have the spring, and it's a pilot, and they're looking at the outcomes of that before they make any decisions about doing any more of those bathrooms. But my understanding, and this is technology, and I'm going to try to speak technology, and it's not necessarily going to come out right, but there's sensors that pick up on the number of people in the bathroom.

[01:09:33] They also can detect if someone goes unconscious, if there's activity, and then there's suddenly no activity. It also can indicate an alarm that goes to a dashboard if someone's been in there too long. So I don't know that that answers your question.

[01:09:50] That's just what I've heard as part of the safety measures that are in place. But it is a pilot, so I don't think there's any plans to do this widespread. Gotcha. Yeah, I'll just recommend that maybe, you know, evaluating the outcome when the outcome is like dead kids, maybe that's not, maybe we shouldn't, maybe we just shouldn't evaluate in the first place.

[01:10:09] Absolutely. So I want to ask you all, I know we've talked about a lot of these things already, we've answered a lot of questions, but I need your ideas on how do we reach more parents. so the next session we're looking at is gums well one is it dominion on 11 28 and that's just a spanish-speaking presentation i have gum springs library reserved for 12 21 to kind of target south writing aldi and even light bridge high school and then looking at even belmont country

[01:10:45] club river creek country club lansdowne want to do this but how do we get people there how do we get parents there and that's where I need to lean on you all to push it out to the masses go ahead have you talked about going to the PTA meetings because I was I was the PTA president at my school a couple years ago and we had an ACES training during a PTA meeting and the ACES training was great unfortunately was very long so I don't know how long your presentation is but if the online presentation is only six minutes and you're like okay we could hopefully do a 15 to 20 minute

[01:11:24] portion of the agenda and um i would suggest that as a start okay could you write that on the paper i did yes i recently went through the training um and i was talking to my son i have a high school junior i also have a daughter who's in college and i was talking to him about it and he actually wanted to have access to it so that way if his any of you know i feel like he actually is going to be in a situation more so than I would I mean our house is always an open door we have tons of kids who flow in and out of our house but I feel like it's my student who's actually seeing his

[01:12:03] friends and how they're reacting or not reacting so are we I feel like they almost are better ones to take the training to have access to know that there's an emergency with their friends than maybe you know as an adult who I'm not seeing them 100% of the time you know yes they drive away from me and I am not with them.

[01:12:25] So that's part of our medication policy review so that if students are trained, they can carry. So we're in the process of doing that as well. Okay, because I also wonder whether or not, you know, if we get buy-in from the students, if that actually can get a broader message than to the parents who, like I said, we're not with our kids when they're out socializing.

[01:12:46] Right, and we've been working through sources of strength and the peer program to get the message peer-to-peer About this and bring awareness to this But I'd like to see one of my next steps is to make more visual things available in the bathroom Like even if it's just on the stalls Can we have facts about fentanyl in the bathrooms at all of our schools just so they see that visual?

[01:13:07] Maybe we'll second-guess and second-guess their decisions. Yes, I don't know if this is on or not Um two two things one related to her ask I'm actually our PTA president for the elementary school and last week had our general membership meeting we had asked in light of the recent events for either our dare officer or sro to talk at the pta meeting and both of them declined um so that was disappointing so it's great i'll come yes yes the second thing is i think part of the you know getting more parents

[01:13:45] to these sessions could also be how do we talk to our students how do we talk to you know at age appropriate so elementary middle the various ages like what do i say to my you know to my fifth grader about it that maybe just expands on what they're learning in school but is a little bit more personal i'm not a counselor i'm not a therapist you know but maybe giving suggestions to parents on how to have these conversations absolutely so if you go to the student assistance website there are links on how to talk to your kids tips to talk to your kids but it's really just opening up the dialogue do you know what this is have you heard of this has anyone said

[01:14:21] anything and then give them a little bit of nuggets so that they understand what it is and the risks associated with it there's videos on song for charlie that talk about it really briefly there's youtube videos that i think are great to watch with your kids so you can foster that conversation go ahead as far as trying to reach parents i mean i don't have a high schooler but

[01:14:57] i know that a lot of the information sessions and stuff that we have are at night time And that's, you know, prime time for activities, homework, you know, just I it's an inconvenient time. So I don't know if you guys already have this available, but I was just thinking, like, if almost like a three or four minute commercial, if you will, that you can send to principals to email blast, you know, because sometimes parents will or me, me, maybe not everybody.

[01:15:28] I'll sit on my phone and I'll read it. Like once the kids have gone to bed, I'm sitting there like right before bedtime. I'm going through my emails and looking at everything. If there was like a three to four minute commercial that I almost like captured, kind of here are some brief facts. Did you know this? Did you know that? Hey, want more information?

[01:15:45] Here's this. So that those parents that are like, oh my gosh, this really is relevant. I should do this, you know, bring more awareness to them. And if nothing else, like give them that nugget that, you know, kind of persuades them. like you need this information you should come um so i don't know just something visual something easy sometimes when there's too much information or too much text it doesn't get read right you know so just something that's quick and i don't know mindless almost so if we could put it on our website but then have schools push that out and a link to that video yeah possibly or just like

[01:16:21] embedded into a newsletter okay i don't know thank you yes um i'm at the elementary level as well but we have a lot of high school students that are connected to our elementary kids in our school I was wondering if we connected it to school sponsored events that are already happening if that would be helpful like before after the school events because it's hard to make a separate trip sometimes but if parents and families are already planning to attend maybe they could since they're already going to be there do an event I think that's a great idea one of the most attended

[01:17:01] events that we've done where we've woven this in is the parents of student athletes because they have to go, right? So let's put it into something that's going, they're required to do or whether they're really interested in and we're going to just surprise them with some fentanyl information while we're there. So I like that. So any opportunities that you all have that you want to weave some sort of education in, you can always reach out to me directly. Yes. Yes. All right. So on your tables there's a little sheet for you to provide some feedback great ideas that you've

[01:17:38] shared about how to reach more folks pairing it with other topics doing a short video coming to the PT I'll be glad to do that but I'd like to see if there's any lingering questions I know the bathrooms that's a lingering question so you don't have to write that down again but any other takeaways from tonight things that you've learned that surprised you that scared you because when i started to find out all this i felt that um but i appreciate you all and you've got one more question okay hi um i'm not sure maybe it's already posted here but you just recently a couple minutes

[01:18:16] ago rattled off a couple dates and some locations where some of these events are going to be held is that is there a schedule posted somewhere i wish there was but i just got 12 21 at gum Springs library at an email. So that's confirmed. There's no flyers yet. So I'm going to develop that soon. Okay. Yeah. I have to make sure our community partners want to be there on 1221. If

[01:18:44] not, it'll just be me, but we'll be there. Yeah. I was hoping with a date like that, there's going to be a lot of people traveling. I know in fact, I'm traveling that day, so I won't be able to attend. And my wife's also a PTA president. So would love to like broadcast that out to the group but uh any time before or after the holidays would be fantastic

[01:19:18] maybe even pair up with some local libraries or whatever we got to do but yes so our next one will be there but then i'm looking to do one in ashburn and leesburg and out in percival okay and then back to sterling to wrap up the school year so we'll have some more in january and our mental health and wellness conference is january 27th there will be a substance abuse presentation from the SAS is there too. Thank you. I appreciate you all. Thank you so much. We appreciate you being

[01:19:53] here. So I have a few housekeeping items before we close up. First, superintendent community listening sessions. If you see in the packet that I showed you with the QR codes, the next one is December 6th at John Champ High School. Second, for those of you representing Title I schools, you should have received an email regarding the Office of School Improvement having an informational session, but there weren't a lot of responses to that.

[01:20:26] So if you're a representative of a Title I school and be interested in attending an information meeting from the Office of School Improvement, please note that on your meeting feedback or the QR code. Second, I mean, third, excuse me.

[01:20:43] As part of Dr. Spence's one LCPS Forward Together Entry Plan, Loudoun County Public Schools are working with the National School Public Relations Association to review our communication efforts and assist us in better meeting communication needs.

[01:21:00] LCPS is committed to strengthening communication with parents, staff, and the community as we work to provide the best possible education for our students. we're inviting parents and garden guardians to participate in a focus group on monday december 4th this will be in the recap that's tomorrow the time is from 6 to 7 p.m there'll actually be two focus groups one in person and one virtual as part of the group you could be asked open-ended questions about communication efforts of the school division and schools so if this is something that

[01:21:33] would like to participate in, please act on that. So it says to RSVP by entering your information in the feedback QRL. And the link will be sent in the recap. Space is limited, so please RSVP. Finally, as you probably know, we will not have a LEAF meeting in December or January. Our next meeting will be February 12th in this building. The reason we will not have meetings is because the school board holds organizational meetings, but will continue

[01:22:10] to receive policy information to respond. So we talked about feedback, and I know that there are some comments about that. I also wanted to send you, since I'm the chair of planning and just want to keep hearing about what works, you are welcome to email me directly.

[01:22:27] It's leafplanning at lcps.org. So are there any, so don't forget the feedback form. Let's see. That's it.

[01:22:45] Before we adjourn, I want to remind you. Okay, our next meeting is February 12th, 2024 here in this room. Thanks for participating tonight. Happy Thanksgiving. Our meeting is adjourned. Yes, ask a question even though you're.

[01:23:01] I'm sorry, I'm after the meeting. I would like to know what the policy is or the procedure if a child overdoses, breaks a leg, falls down the stairs, what happens? What's the communication that happens? Is it the child goes to the nurse?

[01:23:17] The nurse contacts the parents? Does the principal send something? Do you mean in terms of communicating with the community? The parents and the community of things that have happened. I will write that down. Especially when it comes to the overdose.

[01:23:33] Okay. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Thanks.

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