SUBSTANCE ABUSE COUNSELOR HIRED FOR SCHOOLS

A counselor has been hired to coordinate drug-abuse prevention efforts in Cape Girardeau public schools.

William J. Askew Jr. will begin work as the district's new substance-abuse counselor Jan. 2. He is currently a counselor at St. Vincent's High School in Perryville.

Richard Bollwerk, director of elementary education for the district, said the position is funded entirely with money from a state Drug Free Schools and Communities grant.

Bollwerk also serves on the advisory council that determines how the money should be used.

"The money from the grant allowed us to hire someone," Bollwerk said. "At a time when the district is looking at making cuts, we couldn't even think about doing this on what we call local effort."

He said the position lasts only as long as the grant money.

"If for some reason that grant was not available to us, we would have to eliminate the position," he said.

The grant totals $57,177. In addition to paying the salary of the counselor, money from the state is used to fund community drug-abuse education programs, training for teachers and staff, peer helping programs and other specific projects including student surveys.

"When we do student surveys we are finding that students are still yielding to peer pressure, inquisitiveness or curiosity," Bollwerk said. He said most students surveyed in the past have indicated peer pressure is the prime cause of trying drugs.

"They could use someone at school to help," Bollwerk said.

Askew will spend time counseling students who may have questions about or trouble with drugs or alcohol. He will also serve as a resource person for the district.

Askew will have an office at Central High School but will serve kindergarten through high school.

Bollwerk said, "As we examined our district needs in terms of the counseling aspect, we felt more secondary students would be in need of a person they could go to and talk to on a one-to-one basis.

"As far as being a resource person, what we are looking at having this person do is make individual contacts with each building principal, elementary and secondary, to let them know he is available to serve and help staff," he said.

Askew will be available to do group counseling activities.

Bollwerk said teachers in elementary schools may also chose to ask the counselor to extend things started in the classroom through Project DARE or Project Charlie, or any of the other substance-abuse activities going on.

Eventually, Bollwerk said, the counselor will be involved in scheduling and coordinating the different activities that go in from kindergarten through high school.

"This person will be a very key person on the drug advisory council also," he said. "He will provide direct input from school level what things are working and what needs to be coordinated better," he said.

Bollwerk said a background in school counseling was the top priority for the new counselor.

"We also wanted someone with a background in drug- and substance-abuse prevention," he said.

Askew has been involved in Perryville with its Drug Free Schools advisory council.

"He has some background in working with students in that arena," Bollwerk said. "He will also be working with the other counselors to develop this program."

Bollwerk said a staff person to coordinate drug-abuse prevention activities has been a goal of the council for several years.

"I think we've needed this for a while, even before our programs got so diverse," Bollwerk said. "The area of substance abuse is so large and it's changing daily. We need someone who has the time to collect information."

Initially, the drug-free schools and communities grant guidelines said money was to be used for training and specific programs.

"Now the state is promoting the idea that schools ought to be designating a person to kind of coordinate activities," Bollwerk said. "This year we had adequate funding from the grant and permission from state."