Seminar held to pave way for drug testing in schools

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Office for Substance Abuse Prevention has conducted a two-day seminar on “preventing and remediating drug addiction problems in the school setting” as preliminary step to pursue random drug tests in public high schools in the city.

Cosap Chief Alice Utlang said at least 36 guidance councilors from day and night public high schools have attended the seminar yesterday at the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc.-Eduardo Aboitiz Development Studies Center.

Last June, the City Council approved the resolution of City Councilor Noel Wenceslao asking COSAP to conduct the random drug testing on high school students.

“We found out during our consultative meeting with school administrators nga dili tanan guidance councilors have graduated a degree nga fit sa ilang profession karon. Naay uban nga gi-assign lang diha nga teacher,” Utlang said.

That is why, she said, there is a need to conduct a seminar to prepare the guidance councilors on how to handle students found positive for illegal drugs use.

Utlang, though, said she could not divulge yet as to when her office would conduct the random testing as doing so would defeat the purpose of a surprise drug screening.

She said her office is prioritizing five to 10 schools in the city to first undergo the testing.

“Priority nato nga schools ang diri gyud sa urban, pero gi-base nato sa mga duol nga barangays nga allegedly mga namaligya og drugas,” she said.

There would also be a seminar on how parents would handle their child found as illegal drug user after the guidance councilor’s seminar.

Utlang said the topics discussed yesterday include counseling techniques taught by Kirk Patrick Castro from Gestalt Wellness Institute and Genesis Dejan from Phil. Mental Health Association.  Ma. Rosita Ampoyas-Hermani from FACET Center Inc./Cebu Normal University also taught the participants counseling techniques.

The seminar would continue today with the following topics: physiology of addiction, types of drugs, and alternative anti-drug addiction prevention programs.

 “I’m happy that the speakers were all volunteers and the venue was also free,” Utlang said. (FREEMAN)